Feeling its protestations have fallen on deaf ears, the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) have launched a media campaign in opposition to garbage incineration in Metro Vancouver. The district – as part of its Don’t Pollute Us campaign – has produced billboards, television commercials and social media materials asking their neighbors in Metro Vancouver to voice opposition to the region’s plans to bring in a new garbage incinerator by 2018. FVRD chair Sharon Gaetz, the Mayor of Chilliwack, has been outspoken about Metro Vancouver’s plan, saying the pollution caused by increased incineration will deteriorate Fraser Valley residents’ air quality and health. But to date, Gaetz says Metro Vancouver has only been willing to have political discussions with their fellow district “behind closed doors” “Metro Vancouver is not being a good neighbor,” said Gaetz. “We haven’t been successful consulting with them so we started a campaign.” The campaign features children playing sports with surgical masks on, and pleads with Metro Vancouver residents to voice their opposition to a garbage incinerator in the region. Gaetz said Fraser Valley residents are more knowledgeable and sensitive to the incinerator plans because of its fragile airshed. Metro Vancouver residents need to realize the plan would also affect them, in the form of taxpayer dollars and knock-on effects. “The Fraser Valley is the bread basket of B.C., everything grown here is what [Metro Vancouver residents] have to eat,” she said. FVRD wants Metro Vancouver to revisit its zero waste commitments and embrace an advance material recovery facility, like the one Belkorp Environmental Services plans to build in Coquitlam. “Burning garbage is not a 21st Century solution,” said Gaetz, echoing the Don’t Pollute Us campaign’s slogan.