The future of the Jasper Recycle Depot is up in the air after its owner confirmed he is selling his provincial permit to operate the business. The problem is he doesn’t own the permit and therefore can’t sell it.
“He’s never owned that permit,” said Jeff Linton, president of the Beverage Container Management Board (BCMB), which issues permits for the collection and recycling of beverage containers throughout Alberta.
“Our rules indicate that permits are not transferable,” said Linton. “He has never owned that permit, they apply for and are given permission to operate their business.”
Ryan Hefflick is the depot’s owner. Although there is nothing to suggest that what he is doing is illegal, it has raised some questions about how bottle depots are bought and sold in the province.
In a text message sent on March 28, Hefflick confirmed he is selling his BCMB permit and the accompanying assets.
Following that exchange, the Fitzhugh reached out to him on several more occasions over a two-week period to clarify his comments, but he failed to explain how he intends to sell a nontransferable permit.
“The details of how a permit moves from one operator to another is somewhat complicated, but I can assure you the depot is not at risk of closing,” wrote Hefflick, who lives in Vancouver.
“Any sale will be secondary to the continued operation.”
Complicating matters, the building where the bottle depot is currently located—56 Stan Wright Industrial Park—is available for lease as of June 1, throwing into question where Hefflick intends to move the business.
Linton said BCMB hasn’t officially heard from Hefflick about what his intentions are, but it is aware of the situation.
“If [Hefflick] can’t find a new location then he forfeits access to a permit,” said Linton.
It’s unlikely Hefflick would let that happen—by doing so he would give up his monopoly on the recycling business in Jasper and he could potentially lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Eric Dietiker, the owner of the building where the bottle depot is currently located, tried to buy the business from Hefflick in 2008 for $450,000, but it didn’t work out.
“I didn’t know that he couldn’t sell the permit until two days ago,” said Dietiker on March 29.
“There can only be one permit in Jasper, so call it what you will, he was selling me the permit,” said Dietiker, who intends to submit a formal application for a permit with BCMB in the near future.
According to Deitiker, Hefflick is now trying to sell the business to a father and son who live in Edmonton and someone is currently in negotiations to lease the old Home Hardware building located down the street from the current bottle depot.
In the meantime, another party from Calgary has expressed interest in leasing Deitiker’s building and running a bottle depot, however, according to Linton, BCMB would not issue a permit if another permit already exists in Jasper.
“There is no application for a new permit at this time so if anybody put in an application at this time we have an existing permit in place,” said Linton.
Part of the reason this is the case, is because BCMB’s bylaws state a new permit will not be issued in a rural area if another bottle depot is located within 24 km of an existing depot. That effectively gives Hefflick a monopoly in Jasper.
The only caveat is that in “exceptional” situations, BCMB has the sole discretion to issue a new permit that does not meet the proximity requirements, leaving the slight possibility that the agency could issue another permit, although Linton seemed cool to the idea.
When pressed on his motives, Dietiker rejected suggestions that he did not renew Hefflick’s lease because of his own self-interest, but he did describe his relationship with Hefflick as “strained.”
He also questioned why the BCMB doesn’t put the permit out for public tender.
“There’s no harm or foul in being transparent,” said Dietiker.
Linton was noncommittal on the issue and reiterated that there is already an existing permit holder in Jasper.
“That’s an interesting point, because it does indicate in the bylaw that applications for permits in rural areas may be submitted at any time and that is something that is different from urban and metro areas,” said Linton, explaining the bylaw is intended to attract applications from rural areas that don’t currently have a bottle depot.
In urban and metro areas, a request for applications (RFA) is mandatory for new permits, however this bylaw does not apply to new permits for existing depots.
While the rules around purchasing bottle depots are convoluted and leave more questions than answers, Linton emphasized that whatever the outcome is, in the next six weeks the most important thing is that there is a functioning bottle depot in Jasper.
“Our first commitment always has to be to ensure—to the greatest extent possible—service remains in place for the community.”
Paul Clarke [email protected]
