Recognize Your Leaders

Submitted by: Yvonne Tindall, Works Training Officer, Region of Durham, Whitby, Ontario, and member, APWA Certified Stormwater Manager Council; Nominee: Clifford R. Curtis, Commissioner of Works, The Regional Municipality of Durham

Clifford R. Curtis, Commissioner of Works for the Regional Municipality of Durham Works Department, has championed numerous initiatives to improve infrastructure systems across the Region. His ongoing support of staff productivity through best practices and continuous improvement initiatives such as the current Works Organizational Renewal Project inspires a positive workplace for the more than 850 employees in the Works Department.

As a great team builder, Commissioner Curtis developed a senior management group that accomplishes projects using the best examples of emerging technologies in the public works sector, including the first energy-from-waste (EFW) facility to be built in Ontario in over twenty years. As a decision maker, Commissioner Curtis and his team carefully examined a wide variety of waste disposal options, completing a five-year EA before the EFW process was ultimately chosen for Durham.

The EFW facility will be capable of processing post-diversion residual waste, recovering materials and energy, and will be sized to meet the Region’s residual waste processing needs.

The Durham York Energy Centre will use a thermal mass burn technology. This EFW facility will produce highpressure steam, which is fed through a turbine generator that produces electricity and/or hot water energy that can be used for district heating in the future. The facility is currently under construction with a design capacity to treat 140,000 tonnes per year of municipal solid waste.

The EFW facility will be located in the Municipality of Clarington on a 12-hectare parcel, north of the Courtice Water Pollution Control Plant, in The Regional Municipality of Durham.

Commissioner Curtis has overseen 20-plus years of rapid growth and intensification in Durham Region. His vision and leadership has helped see the Region through this period of intense development. Under his leadership, the Region has implemented an awardwinning waste reduction strategy that currently has the Region at an enviable diversion rate of 53 percent, with a goal to reach 70 percent diversion. The Ontario Electronic Stewardship recently identified Durham Region as a top 10 collector in Ontario (per tonne and per capita basis) for electronic waste (e-waste)—The Region of Durham was rated 5th overall in this category.

Mr. Curtis is a registered professional engineer in Ontario. He holds a Masters of Science Engineering (Water Resources and Hydraulics) and a Masters of Business Administration.

Clifford R. Curtis

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