Oct 11, 2014

Written by Rob Shaw And Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun Posted by Peak Disposal B.C.’s environment minister says she could decide within weeks whether to approve Metro Vancouver’s garbage hauling bylaw. “I don’t have a firm date, but it would be soon,” Mary Polak told The Sun. “I’m expecting in the next couple of weeks to have the analysis and briefing from staff, so I wouldn’t expect much longer than that.” Metro Vancouver has been waiting a year for the B.C. government to reject or approve its controversial Bylaw 280, which would require that garbage generated in Metro Vancouver be processed at regional facilities. Metro Vancouver argues the bylaw is needed to curtail commercial haulers from taking local garbage to the Fraser Valley and the U.S. to avoid high tipping fees and surcharge fines designed to encourage recycling. Critics have argued that Metro Vancouver wants a monopoly to ensure enough waste stays in the region to feed a planned $470-million waste-to-energy project. Directors on the committee heard Thursday that without Bylaw 280, Metro would have to go to a Plan B, which could involve raising property taxes to subsidize the region’s ambitious solid waste management plan. The plan aims to divert 70 per cent of the region’s trash from landfills by 2015 and 80 per cent by 2020. “There is a Plan B but the Plan B is so unpleasant and it reverses everything we’ve been doing,” said Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan. “I’ve never been happy raising the price of our garbage (tipping fees) but I’ve justified it as being part of the plan to move as much of our recycling out of the waste stream as we can. It is just so draconian, a terrible step back.” However, Lori Bryan, executive director of the Waste Management Association of B.C., said in an email the bylaw is “a simple tax grab” that will see fees for local garbage disposal rise to $157 per tonne by 2018 from $108 this year — a 45-per-cent hike that will be passed on to homeowners and small businesses. Polak said her staff have had to put the bylaw into the context of a provincially-required industry recycling program, as well as look at its impact on diversion targets and the movement of waste in the region, the impact on surrounding communities and any impact on any waste-to-energy proposals. “There’s a significant amount of impacts for staff to analyze and they’ve been doing that,” she said. “It is a pretty substantial move. It’s one we have discussed many times with Metro, we’ve explored some of the consequences that will result. I want to be certain that any decision we make is not going to have any unintended consequences.” Polak said she expects a decision on the bylaw by the end of the legislature’s fall session next month, but would not promise to stick to that timeline.

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