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Volume 57 No. 41
Sentinel
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Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
All cardboard to KUTE now Cameron Orr Think twice before sending your new television’s box to the dump Kitimat Council just passed a ban on residential cardboard at the landfill. That means now you’ll have to send your packaging and cereal boxes to the KUTE recycling depot on Third Avenue in the Service Centre. The motion, brought forward by councillor Mario Feldhoff, continues a trend of programs designed to increase the life of the landfill. While noting a lot of people already use KUTE for their recycling, Feldhoff added that “Sadly, not everyone does.” “It’s time to incrementally take things up when it comes to residentially-generated cardboard,” he said, noting it adds to other programs such as segregating metal, car batteries and tires at the landfill. Phil Germuth supported the motion, while asking if KUTE could handle the additional cardboard traffic from the community. Mayor Joanne Monaghan said they could, and Feldhoff said that any potential issues is something to work out with KUTE as they come up. “I’m sure we’ll hear about it if there are some challenges,” he said. Mary Murphy was also in favour of the motion but added that she’d like to look at plans in the future to make the depot more accessible and user friendly. “It’s not user friendly where it’s located and some people don’t have the ability to go down and drop off their cardboard,” said Murphy. KUTE President Barb Hall told the Sentinel she does believe the depot has enough capacity for an increase in cardboard drop offs, saying that right now they send a shipment whenever they get enough to fill a truck. “We just proabbly have to ship a little more often,” she said, noting that it’s hard to know how much extra cardboard this really means. She’s happy with council’s direction on cardboard, even as news of the motion came as a surprise to her. “If you walk around on garbage day for particular streets it’s amazing how much cardboard is in the garbage,” said Hall. She said she hopes they ease the cardboard ban onto people and make it voluntary at first, just as the town did for businesses when they banned cardboard to the landfill from them. As for their location, she said they have no plans to move and their location is keeping with the town plan. Challenges with centralized dropoff locations also means that’s unlikely. Last year KUTE shipped 206.12 tonnes of cardboard.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
1.34 INCLUDES TAX
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It was the 30th, and final, Toy Run organized by the Road Runners motorcycle club last week as riders took off from the Dairy Queen parking lot towards Terrace where gifts would be given to the Salvation Army. The club aims to hand the Toy Run to a new group for next year. More on the Toy Run on page 12.
A good year for Kitimat tourism Cameron Orr It’s good news for Kitimat’s tourism sector, according to Kitimat Chamber of Commerce executive director Trish Parsons. Part of what’s fueling this year’s growth is new interest in town thanks to industrial proposals. “Our numbers are definitely up this year,” said Parsons. “A good part of it is just the interest in the area because of the Enbridge pipeline.” A number of people have come visiting Kitimat either because they have chosen to travel the route of the pipeline to its terminus, or people who are aware of Kitimat now through increased media exposure and decide to stop in if they’re already nearby, such as in Terrace.
Kitimat’s rise in tourist interest jives with Northern B.C. as a whole, although the numbers aren’t yet in to back up the observed growth in visitors this season. Jillian Fisher, with Northern BC Tourism’s Prince Rupert office, was in Kitimat last week and said that just based on what people such as hotel operators are saying, it sounds like one of the region’s busiest summers. The Northern BC Tourism region encompasses Haida Gwaii to east of Prince George, and Stewart and Cassiar. It is one of six tourism regions in B.C. and encompasses over half of the province geographically. Fisher said that Northern B.C. is a “long haul” destination and that the tourists from out of area, notably people from
European countries such as Germany, are from areas with relatively less economic unease. As well the nature of long haul vacations means that people will typically follow through with going on their trips. However it’s not just out of country tourists that Northern BC Tourism is after. “The biggest market for B.C. is B.C.,” she said. That’s why they have joined with many tourism operators and communities to put together joint marketing campaigns. So all in all, “It’s been a pretty good year for tourism,” said Fisher. And, added Parsons, the fishing was good in Kitimat, which is a definite bonus to get people to town. Continued on page 3
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