"Contract upsets Regina firm"

The Leader-Post (Regina)
Friday, November 15, 2002


A Regina business is upset that a Saskatoon-area company landed a three-year contract to dispose of biomedical waste from Regina's Health Authority.

The health authority announced Thursday that Biomed Recovery and Disposal of Aberdeen will process and dispose of anatomical waste, blood and body fluids and "sharps" such as used needles and scalpels.

The waste disposal company will begin work immediately, said Donna Evans, the health authority's vice-president of operations support. She added that the waste disposal company already does business with the three Saskatoon hospitals and the health region that includes Moose Jaw.

"This company's proposal was financially attractive and their waste management practices were sound," Evans said.

But Peter Klapchuck at Sanitek Canada, a medical waste disposal company in Regina, expressed concern over the outcome of the tender process.

"I'm really disappointed," he said. "I'm really upset because we blew the whistle (a few) years ago and brought this medical waste going to the landfill to light."

The City of Regina used to allow the untreated sharps waste to be dumped at the landfill. Biomedical waste was covered with dirt in a segregated area of the landfill. However in 2000 Sanitek went public with pictures of uncapped needles, syringes and vials of blood scattered on the ground at the landfill.

The city said the incident was a catalyst for them to change their bylaws, and a new city bylaw came into effect this Nov. 1, prohibiting the dumping of untreated sharp medical waste at the city landfill.

Evans said she had no official comment on the disappointment expressed by Klapchuck, but explained they used an open tender process to award the contract and that a multi-disciplinary team made up of a variety of professionals did extensive research to assess the proposals made to the health authority.

"We invited parties to bid competitively for the contract."

The team went through the necessary criteria to make sure all standards were met and examined the proposals from a financial standpoint as well, she said.

Evans said they had "a few" companies respond to the call for tenders, but she could not provide a specific number.

Biomed will transport the waste on a regular basis from the local health region to its processing plant in Aberdeen, north of Saskatoon, where they will render the materials harmless so they can be dumped in a landfill, she said.

Since Nov. 1, hospitals have been storing their used needles, medical vials and other waste that could puncture human skin on site in bright yellow biohazard containers.