Recently the UCP Alberta Government (Alberta Infrastructure) has reduced the Swan Hills Treatment Centre’s manpower and the waste we are allowed to process. This has resulted in: 

 Layoffs: These lay-offs have deeply affected the Town of Swan Hills, as SHTC is one of its biggest employers. The layoffs have also affected former employees and contractors from the communities of Edmonton, Whitecourt, Fort Assiniboine, Slave Lake and Barrhead. 

 Waste generators: having to find alternate means of disposing of their waste such as landfilling waste or having to send it to the USA. From the environmental side the landfilling of hazardous waste is not environmentally sound and sending it to the USA simply takes away jobs from Albertans and gives them to our neighbors to the south. This will also result in increased costs to Alberta’s taxpayers as the increased cost of disposing waste will be passed on to them.

 Services such as ‘Household Toxic Round-ups’ and 'Eco Station drop offs' were a free service provided by local Municipalities with the waste collected being sent to SHTC for free disposal. Now this household waste is NOT being sent to SHTC. Again fees for disposal of this will have to be passed down from Municipalities to taxpayers because it will be taken to for-profit waste disposal companies. In the Wednesday evening November 24th 2021 sitting of the Alberta Legislature; NDP MLA and Environment Critic Marlin Schmidt brought up toxic round-up and the future of SHTC to UCP Minister of Environment and Parks Jason Nixon. His response was simply “Reduce and reuse”. No matter how much a family can reduce and reuse there will always be absolute waste generation that will need to be safely disposed of.

This petition is a means to tell the UCP we would like to bring the Swan Hills Treatment Centre back to full operating capacity. This will create jobs for Albertans at SHTC and will provide waste generators with a safe and environmentally sound way of disposing a variety of hazardous wastes. Please sign the petition and help the SHTC and its employees remain a vital part of Alberta’s environmental solution to hazardous waste.

When collected these petitions will be sent to the UCP; and please contact your local MLA in support of SHTC.

To learn more about SHTC please visit www.shtc.ca

and please watch the YouTube video about our facility. Type: 

'Hazardous Waste Treatment Plant - SUEZ North America' in the YouTube search bar.  

Chris Lockhart    Contact the author of the petition