A video showing recycled tires leaving Saskatchewan for Alberta contradicts previous claims by Saskatchewan's environment minister, renewing a controversy over a government contract.Shercom Industries used to turn old scrap tires into value-added products in Saskatoon. That changed when government agency Tire Stewardship Saskatchewan gave a contract to California-based CRM for southern tires last year. A recent RFP also awarded the company the northern tires.The move resulted in over 60 layoffs and doubts about whether tires are even being recycled and processed in Saskatchewan anymore.Reporters at allSaskatchewan recently obtained video and photos purportedly showing a truckload of tires being shipped from CRM’s Moose Jaw facility to a shredding plant north of Calgary, delivering no benefit for Saskatchewan’s economy or the environment.The videos are narrated by an unseen and unnamed person following a semi truck hauling tires through Rosetown, Sask.“Been following this truck with baled tires from Martensville, Saskatchewan. We are west bound, heading to Calgary,” said the man in the video.A second video shows the semi crossing the border into Alberta.When asked by reporters on April 25 if tires were being shipped out of province, Environment Minister Christine Tell said “no”.Tell doubled down on April 30 when reporters asked: “At any point, were or are the tires going out of the province for processing and coming back here?”“No, the tires are not leaving the province,” she said.Opposition Leader Carla Beck condemned the Sask Party government for the California contract and false information.“We should be putting local Saskatchewan businesses and workers first, not bankrolling American-based companies operating in Alberta. It’s common sense,” said Beck. “Premier Moe and his minister need to be straight with the people of Saskatchewan. It’s time for a change.”In a statement emailed to the Leader Post on Wednesday, TSS CEO Stevyn Arnt said CRM has “moved minimal quantities of whole tires to a processing facility out of province" since May 2023.“We have also had periods where we had to accommodate unplanned breakdowns and we have managed to accomplish this while setting record recycling volumes for the province,” wrote Arnt.The provincial government’s industry guidelines state that tire recycling should bring the most benefit possible to Saskatchewan people and businesses. In a press conference Wednesday, Beck said that's not happening.“Tire-processing fees paid by Saskatchewan people on their tires are now going towards creating jobs in Calgary. Not in Saskatchewan,” she said.The Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce has repeatedly criticized the California contracts. In a letter June 24, Chamber CEO Jason Aebig called on the province to cut the tire recycling fee in half until 100% of scrap tire processing is done in the province."As you know, our tire stewardship program was established to promote and support local processing and value-added manufacturing here, in our province. A mandatory tire recycling levy was introduced and justified on the basis that it would maximize economic returns and other benefits for people and businesses across Saskatchewan," Aebig wrote."Exporting tires for recycling — no matter the volume or frequency — exports the value and benefit of that levy to others outside our borders. Further, our businesses and consumers should not be required to pay a surcharge on any government-sponsored product or service for which they are receiving no benefit."
