Environment committee  I believe a couple of things need to be done. I think one of the things is that the national carbon credit registry would go a long way in exciting people on that. There are some investment opportunities around North America for greenhouse gas credits. The other thing is that we just need a solid, concerted effort to remind people of the environment more often.

Environment committee  We aren't there because I don't believe we're going to get there. It's a struggle. You'll always have something that you can't divert from waste. Asbestos waste, for instance; you deal with asbestos waste in kitchen tiles and whatnot. I think we need to set realistic and obtainable goals.

Environment committee  Well, I would say it's a good idea. I would say that if we look at how we can fund some of the crowdfunding stuff that we've done—the anaerobic digester that's built in Toronto is one of those crowdfunding things—the cap and trade is an important system that can be put in place to help raise funds for viable projects and make waste projects look at other things besides energy as electrical energy.

Environment committee  We use almost exclusively electrical energy in our facilities to do all of our powering. Most facilities around do that. Not too many are self-sustaining, although I have this dream that one day we can co-digest anaerobic sludge from the waste water treatment plant, and sludge from our SSO facility at our waste water treatment plant in either Clarkson or Lakeview, and produce enough power so that you have an off-loop plant treating waste.

Environment committee  The new facility costs right now are in and around $500 million.

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  The output of our plant is yet to be determined. We went away from the energy-from-waste plant that was in Brampton for many years and we're developing another one. It's going to be about 300,000 tonnes a year and it's going to be probably, I think, but I'm not one hundred per cent sure, around 25 megawatts of power.

Environment committee  It started out that we had an agreement with the Peel Resource Recovery Plant, and through the years it was sold. It ended up being the Algonquin Power plant. We had a 20-year contract, which was extended to about 25 years, I believe. At the end of that contract, we couldn't come to a successful extension from a number of sides.

Environment committee  Unfortunately, there's a gap now. About a year and a half ago we stopped going there. We're going to the landfill and we're using the money saved from the tipping fees that were going to that plant to help offset the costs of building the new facility in Peel.

Environment committee  One was for the compost and getting that compost marketing into agricultural applications. The other one was a little bit earlier and we were looking at an energy-from-waste scenario, mixing sorted and dried municipal waste with sewage sludge. We got a grant there, but unfortunately, the economics at the time wasn't quite right for that.

Environment committee  Yes, of course we do.

Environment committee  I know we're talking about it and I know we're going to make the applications for it, but we're still at the point where we don't even know yet what our plant is going to cost us. We've gone through the request for expressions of interest and in March of 2015 we'll actually go out with some requests for proposals.

Environment committee  We have a facility in Peel. It's a marvellous facility. It's three football fields long, split down the middle. Half of it's a MRF, a materials recovery facility, and half of it is a waste transfer station and our composting facility. The concept is that we will relocate the MRF and the energy-from-waste plant will be built there.

Environment committee  Sure, an anaerobic digestion plant, whether it's a dry plant or a wet plant—meaning with water or just in an enclosed space—will produce other gases but the majority will be methane gas, the same as you get off the grid now if you have heat by gas. It will be methane gas from the pit, which is exactly identical.