Powell River Regional District is still waiting to hear from the province about its solid waste plan.
At the Thursday, May 21, regional district committee of the whole meeting, Mike Wall, manager of community services, said the plan has been submitted to the provincial ministry of environment but it has not been approved. He said he has called ministry officials two or three times in 2015 and has been told the provincial officials are working on it.
Colin Palmer, committee chair and Electoral Area C director, said he wanted to let the public know that what is being discussed regarding solid waste management is a concept, not necessarily what is going to happen.
“It all depends on a major grant,” he said.
At the committee of the whole meeting, regional directors were asked to endorse a public communications plan relating to the solid waste management plan. The first initiative is to link the resource recovery centre concept presentation that Wall provided to the recent joint meeting of the regional district, Tla’amin (Sliammon) Nation and City of Powell River onto the regional district website.
The motion directs Wall and the Let’s Talk Trash Team to hold a public forum on solid waste in fall 2015. Topics will include: an update on the Multi-Material BC recycling program; added extended producer responsibility (EPR) and local collection materials; an organics diversion update; plus the landfill closure planning update and resource recovery centre concept proposed for the former landfill site.
The motion carried unanimously and was adopted at the Thursday, May 28, regional board meeting.
Sandy McCormick, Electoral Area D director, requested that a meeting be held on Texada Island to outline the various components in the communications plan. Wall assured her there would be a meeting on the island.
According to a recent news release, the ministry of environment will be updating its guideline for the preparation of regional solid waste management plans to remove red tape for local governments and make the planning and approval process more efficient.
The guideline has not been updated since 1994 and outlines the process for regional districts to develop and consult on solid waste management plans while acting as a blueprint for reducing municipal solid waste disposal. A final guideline is expected to be implemented in 2016.
