Ashcroft Council is mulling over the future of solid waste in BC as part of a provincial initiative.
Environment Minister Mary Polak in October rejected a proposed ban on waste export from Metro Vancouver but tasked Surrey-Panorama MLA Marvin Hunt, the former chair of Metro’s waste committee, to conduct a three-month review and make further recommendations.
A committee made up of councillors from Ashcroft, Cache Creek, the Ashcroft Indian Band and MLA Jackie Tegart has met to hear presentations from Belkorp Environmental Services regarding their proposed Material Recycling and Recovery Facilities and to speak with MLA Hunt, who asked the committee to provide him with a rural perspective. The Bonaparte Indian Band was invited to be part of the committee but declined.
“We want to ensure that we maintain an industry here,” said Ashcroft Mayor Jack Jeyes, rather than the decline that MV proposes, he added.
Coun. Alf Trill said the committee meetings have been positive and informative. Recycling can make a lot of money. “We need to work with Belkorp, Cache Creek and TNRD to get a MRRF placed here,” he said.
Coun. Al Mertens agreed: “There’s money to be made in recovering material from the waste stream. We don’t generate a lot of garbage,” he said, adding that it seemed as though MV wanted to keep all others away from their garbage and the $108 tipping fee they charged.
“We could be selling ourselves as experts in the field of solid waste disposal,” he said. “I can’t see us getting a MRRF, but have to try. The issue is, what we can do?”
According to Jeyes, MLA Hunt told the committee that the Cache Creek Landfill was a provincial asset.
“Garbage is a commodity and governed by the Free Trade Agreement,” he said, explaining further that Belkorp representatives had suggested that it was possible that Cache Creek could receive waste from the northern regional districts, and that would put them in a good position for a Material Recycling and Recovery Facility. But the regional districts would have to be convinced. to send it.
Council will work with the committee to form a response for MLA Hunt.