Opposition calls for release of market study at the heart of tire recycling controversy
REGINA - Today, Official Opposition Ethics Critic Meara Conway and Environment Critic Jared Clarke put the Sask. Party government on blast for running a local Saskatchewan business out of the tire recycling market and giving a monopoly to a California-based company.
“We’ve gone from one Saskatchewan company doing the work to one California company doing the work,” said Conway. “The Moe government’s failed decision to split the recycling market in two is nothing short of a tire fire.”
On May 27, Tire Stewardship of Saskatchewan, a government agency overseen by Moe’s Environment Minister, quietly awarded Newport Beach, California-based CRM the contract for tire recycling in the northern half of the province.
The Moe government previously awarded the California company the tire recycling contract for southern Saskatchewan, excluding Saskatoon-based Shercom Industries from bidding on the request for proposals. Shercom was forced to lay off approximately 60 workers and now imports crumb rubber from neighbouring provinces to keep its manufacturing arm alive.
The Opposition called on the Moe government to release the market feasibility study used to justify splitting the tire recycling market previously managed by Shercom Industries. Shercom personnel requested the study via freedom of information request, but the Environment Ministry redacted every single page.
“Moe’s Environment Minister needs to be straight with the people of Saskatchewan and release this report,” said Clarke. “Business leaders have serious concerns that our scrap tires may be being shipped out of province in violation of the Ministry of Environment's own guidelines.”
On the Evan Bray Show today, Shercom President Shane Olson questioned the truthfulness of the Moe government’s latest slogan, “Build and Protect”, in light of the government’s treatment of the local company. Shercom CEO Marlin Stangeland previously likened the situation to being “stabbed in the back in our own backyard”.
Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck has committed to a Hire Saskatchewan Plan if elected, meaning that Saskatchewan workers and Saskatchewan companies would come first when it comes to public contracts and projects.
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