Manitoba considers equipping garbage trucks and landfills with GPS tracking and other monitoring systems

The Manitoba government says it plans to issue a tender for measures such as equipping the province's garbage trucks with GPS tracking devices.

The update implements recommendations from a report that examined the feasibility of searching a Winnipeg-area landfill for the remains of two Indigenous women murdered by a serial killer, which is scheduled to begin next month.

The request for proposals, which the province says will be posted online on MERX, aims to find a “qualified service provider with extensive knowledge of the waste management industry and technological solutions” who can review the recommendations of a feasibility study to search for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran at the Prairie Green landfill.

Those recommendations included installing video surveillance at the entrances and exits to landfills and equipping garbage trucks with GPS technology for location tracking and rear-facing cameras so drivers can see what is being unloaded, the province said in a news release Wednesday.

The process will involve working with the Assembly of Chiefs of Manitoba and the Manitoba Association of Municipalities, and then the consultant appointed to the task will “identify appropriate, effective technological and operational options that the government can consider to improve monitoring of materials sent to landfills,” the release said.

The process is expected to be completed by summer 2025, the press release states.

The search for the remains of 39-year-old Harris and 26-year-old Myran is set to begin in October, Prime Minister Wab Kinew said last week. The women's remains are believed to have been taken to the landfill north of Winnipeg after the women were murdered by Jeremy Skibicki in the spring of 2022.

Skibicki, 37, was found guilty on July 11 of four counts of first-degree murder in the killings of three First Nations women – Harris, 39, Myran, 26, and Rebecca Contois, 24 – and an unidentified woman named Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe (buffalo woman) by community leaders.

Contois' partial remains were found in garbage bins near Skibicki's home and at the Brady Road landfill in south Winnipeg. The whereabouts of Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe's remains are unknown.

During his trial, which lasted several weeks and was held before a single judge, Skibicki's lawyers argued that he was not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder. Court of King's Bench Chief Judge Glenn Joyal disagreed, saying the comments Skibicki made during his confession showed that the murders were premeditated and planned.

Kinew said in the government's press release that putting GPS monitoring systems on trucks could help police investigate crimes in the future, “while ensuring that Indigenous lives are given the value and dignity they deserve.” He called the women's deaths “the most disturbing crimes ever committed in our province” – and crimes that “shocked” Manitoba residents.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine, who is also responsible for women and gender justice, said in the press release that families affected by the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people have been calling for this type of monitoring for years and that the update could help “protect some of our most vulnerable citizens.”

Two relatives of the women whose remains are believed to be at the Prairie Green landfill said in the press release that their families were “incredibly grateful that our calls have been heard because we have worked tirelessly to do this work.”

Cambria Harris, Morgan Harris' daughter, and Marcedes Myran's sister Jorden Myran – who also co-chairs Manitoba's landfill search oversight committee – said their families “look forward to continuing this work as there are still many unanswered demands from MMIWG2S+ families that deserve to be heard as we work toward a better future for all.”

Cambria Harris told CBC News later Wednesday that while the request for proposals may seem like a small step forward, it is “a huge, monumental step” for the families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people who “will finally be heard.”

“This is something families have been asking for for years, even before the landfill was found. These calls have been heard time and time again since Tanya Jane Nepinak in 2011,” she said.

“I don't want to be standing here in four or five years fighting to find another landfill, fighting to recover someone's remains from the landfill. I don't want another family standing there in four or five years.

“That's why it's important that we take these steps … so that we can better track people when it happens.”

A spokesperson for the City of Winnipeg said Wednesday that all municipal garbage collection contracts for the past seven years have included a requirement to install cameras and GPS systems on the vehicles. This applies to residential and commercial customers (including multi-family dwellings) who have used the city's garbage collection services, spokeswoman Lisa Marquardson said in an email.

There are also cameras at the entrance gates/scales and other locations around the Brady Road landfill, and all three 4R depots in Winnipeg have cameras near their entrances, Marquardson said.

However, facilities such as the privately operated Prairie Green landfill outside Winnipeg are separate from this.