It might not sound like an obvious bit of sightseeing, but Humboldt Mayor Rob Muench recently toured the new solid waste system at the harbour in Halifax.

“They have a very different way of doing it than we’re doing it, but that’s the type of stuff as a city having to look at. Because we’re at the point of re-doing our lagoon system, so there are other options out there.

“The technology we’re using was developed in the 40s and 50s so if you can see something different and a better way to do things, we’ll use some of that knowledge to help make decisions.”

The tour was organized as part of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual conference last week.

The conference allowed Muench to connect with civic leaders facing the same infrastructure challenges and avoid having to “reinvent the wheel,” he said.

“If they’re doing something very similar ... and it’s working very well with them, it’s good to maybe try to adopt some of those ideas.”