‘This is nuts:’ Scrap tires being sent from Saskatchewan to Alberta

Sep 20, 2023

(Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment)

Many people in Saskatchewan are wondering where their scrap tires are ending up.

Jason Aebig, the CEO of the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce, told Gormley on Monday that a trucker loading their truck with scrap tires said they were destined for a location just north of Calgary, where there's a plant that processes them.

"And of course it's one tire retailer and (one would) think ‘OK, maybe someone misunderstood this.’ That can't be the case, in light of everything that's going on here," Aebig said with a laugh. "But sure enough, it was a second one, and a third one, and then a fourth one."

At that point, he contacted the Ministry of Environment, telling it the situation requires some sort of intervention by the ministry and its officials.

"Saskatchewan people (are) paying fees to then pay the higher shipping costs of transporting their scrap tires to Calgary to the U.S. processor that was at the centre of the questions that had been asked 30 days earlier," Aebig said. "This is nuts."

The U.S. processor in question is California-based Crumb Rubber Manufacturers (CRM), which is set to open a new processing plant in Moose Jaw.

Tire Stewardship of Saskatchewan (TSS) awarded the contract previously held by Shercom Industries to that company, forcing Shercom to shut down its processing plant on May 1.

As a result, Shercom is no longer able to accept tires from around the province.

Premier Scott Moe has previously said an ongoing review of TSS is being done.

According to Aebig, that review is being undertaken by Cam Swan, a former deputy environment minister.

However, he said the scope of this review should go beyond the original questions around procurement.

"Maybe Cam is in a position to expand the review a bit and really dig into the role and function of this agency," he added.

Since jobs would be moved from Shercom to the new plant in Moose Jaw when it opens, Aebig said there's no net economic benefit to the province.

"This whole thing is like watching my 12-year-old push his peas around the plate," he said. "(TSS is) sort of (pushing) 60 jobs over to Moose Jaw and (is counting) that as a win."

Aebig added pushing jobs and redistributing wealth doesn't align with the government's pro-growth agenda.

— With files from 650 CKOM's Lara Fominoff