We’re already halfway through the year and it’s been a busy one! As you know, there are developments in the works now that will affect recycling in general and the Blue Box program in particular. Closest to home, on June 6, 2014, MIPC agreed to extend the current CIF Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) until December 31, 2015. You might recall that MIPC agreed to extend operations of the CIF to the end of 2016 and intended to review the current MOA this year, but did not have the opportunity, due to the arbitration of the 2014 Steward Obligation. As we receive more information, we will share it with you.
Right now, we’re continuing to review and work with applicants on their funding submissions to this year’s Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI). This year’s 36 applications represent a total funding request of $3.3 million, with Cost Savings/Infrastructure and Centre of Excellence projects being most prominent. CIF staff anticipate announcing project awards this coming October. And, if you haven’t already seen it, we have reviewed and updated the REOI evaluation protocol and it is posted for your information (see 2014 Evaluation Protocol). The new form is intended to help clarify project benefits (e.g., cost savings vs program expansion) and will enable CIF to more accurately assess the impact of its investments.
We are very grateful to the speakers and participants at the Spring ORW. It was an excellent conference with top-notch presentations and important conversations throughout the day. We’re also already putting plans in place for the Fall ORW which will be held on November 26. Based on your feedback from the Spring event, CIF staff are also planning a new training course on Promotion and Education which will be offered the following day (November 27). Both events will be held at the Vaughan Novotel so bring your Christmas shopping list! Space at the Novotel is limited so we encourage you to sign up early to ensure you get a seat and mark your calendars – we’ll look forward to seeing you there!
The CIF Centre of Excellence is also continuing to expand with toolkits and resources to help instill better practices and provide support for your Datacall efforts. You know about the training courses that we’ve hosted to date – Contracts Management, Benchmarking and Assessing and more. There are new courses in development, including an online training for delivery next year. We also plan to post results as soon as they’re available from the Hamilton Container Line Audit and the Northeast Ontario Optimization analysis. There are many great resources in the works.
This month we’ll begin development of the 2015 CIF budget. If you have plans for 2015 that you think might be fundable by CIF or ideas for projects under the Centre of Excellence, please let us know now so we can build around them. To the more than 100 municipal staff members that joined us in the AMO/CIF consultation sessions in the spring – thank you! We value the suggestions and feedback you offered and will be taking it into consideration as we plan for the months ahead. If you haven’t yet shared your thoughts, make sure you drop me a line or give me a call.
On behalf of Alec, Carrie, Gary and the CIF support staff, we hope you enjoy the remainder of your summer and look forward to meeting with up with you in the Fall, if not sooner.
Mike
Mike Birett, CIF Director
mbirett@wdo.ca or 905-936-5661