P.A.N. Disposal is looking for compensation from the Cowichan Valley Regional District for continuing to provide waste-collection service in the district’s south end while the CVRD prepares to take over the service next year.
P.A.N. owner Andrea Davis told the CVRD’s board at its meeting on Oct. 9 that the company is losing significant amounts of money while waiting for the district to take over the collection of waste in electoral areas A, B, and C, which is expected in 2025.
“We are asking for a fair and just amount for having our business extinguished, and in knowing that we are continuing to provide a service which makes the transition for the CVRD the easiest it can be,” she said.
“We feel we are hemorrhaging money just to get to a place where you are ready [to take over waste collection].”
The CVRD decided last year to extend three-stream waste collection into its nine electoral areas as a fully public service run by the district in 2025.
The new service will see garbage, recycling and organics collection in all corners of the regional district for the first time.
The creation of a single-service provider is seen by the district as an essential component to providing efficient service, as one split-body truck can pick up two waste streams at each household, reducing the number of trucks travelling to each neighbourhood.
But P.A.N. Disposal, a family owned and operated waste-disposal company, has been in business since 1980 collecting garbage and organic waste from its customers in Shawnigan Lake, Cobble Hill and Mill Bay, and it’s expected that the company will be forced out of business when all streams of waste collection in their areas are run exclusively by the CVRD, much to the chagrin of many of P.A.N.’s long-time customers.
Davis said that the CVRD had suggested to P.A.N. to pivot to something different in preparation for when the district takes over all the waste collection in the company’s area, but that would have left their thousands of customers high and dry before the CVRD is prepared to take over collection.
“As well, there was nothing for us to pivot to,” she said. “There seems to be some confusion that we are in the same category as GFL Environmental or BFL Waste Management, but we are not. We are and have always been only a small residential-refuse collection business. We are both owners and operators and this is our livelihood. The decisions you make will directly and quickly have an effect on our humble living.”
Davis said that in the early stages of the preparation for the CVRD to take over waste collection, it was suggested to P.A.N. that the company could possibly take over the collection of glass and/or yard waste, but the CVRD eventually decided to take over those services as well.
“We’re looking at more and more closed doors,” she said. “We are not asking you to put a price on our stress or feelings, we are asking you to look at the black and white facts that the CVRD is extinguishing our company and has made it impossible for us to recover to a sustainable place like the business is in now. We’re committed to our communities while all the while knowing that we’re done. We feel that is worth something.”
Davis said P.A.N. has had to pay a lot of money the company doesn’t have advocating for itself while continuing to work in a situation that feels much like a big favour to the CVRD.
She said the company had considered shutting down before the CVRD takes over waste collection, but decided it could lead to a bio-health threat in the communities it serves, as well as a danger to animals, and the company’s customers would not easily forgive P.A.N and the CVRD if that happened.
“However, it is not without concerns as P.A.N. tries to retain staff when they know that they will soon be out of a job,” Davis said. “Also, how are we going to recover from the wasted capital on repairs to our equipment? Our costs are high and getting higher and it doesn’t make much sense to spend that kind of money on a business that’s coming to an end in less than a year.”
Kate Segal, the CVRD’s director for Mill Bay/Malahat and acting board chair, told Davis that the board has given direction for the district to engage in good-faith negotiations with P.A.N.
“We really look forward to continuing that conversation and finding a mutual resolution,” she said.
