Wednesday March 6, 2013 www.saobserver.net $1.25 GST Included
Residents protest plastic bag policy Recycling program: City says using clear bags a safer, more efficient collection method.
By Martha Wickett OBSeRVeR STAFF
Why are residents being forced to buy garbage in an effort to reduce garbage? This is a question leona Fillion and some other Salmon Arm residents are asking, but city hall says there are good reasons for it. Fillion is referring to the recycling program in Salmon Arm being carried out by BFI canada/ Progressive Waste Solutions, which requires all recyclables to be placed in clear or clear-blue bags. Fillion has been putting out her recyclables in a bin since the inception of curbside recycling in Salmon Arm two years ago. She recently received a letter saying recyclables must be put in a bag and, last week, the recyclables in her bin were not picked up but left behind. “I’m furious. I don’t think it’s economical and I don’t think it’s ecological…,” Fillion says. “If they were going to change the contract or the program, I think there should have been a big announcement to get citizen input.” People should have the option of using either bins or bags, she says. “There are a few people around here who quite happily put their
stuff in the bags, but there are some of us who would like the option of putting it in bins like it was set out when the program was introduced.” Resident Rod charlebois feels just as strongly, having sent copies of a letter he wrote to city hall to 25 of his neighbours. “What irks me the most is we are being forced to buy the bags…,” he says. “We all got little tickets on our bins saying, ‘tut, tut, you can’t do that.’” With 4,000 or 5,000 families in Salmon Arm, he says, if everyone puts out one bag per week, “we’re looking at 100,000 bags per year. do we really want to add 100,000 bags to the garbage load, when we’ve taken the trouble to eliminate plastic grocery bags…? It makes no sense to me.” He has seen bins used in other cities and doesn’t know why they can’t be used in Salmon Arm. “I would be happy to get whatever bin they want. Just some kind of reusable vessel… There are various solutions without buying bags and throwing them away… This is just silly.” Rob niewenhuizen, the city’s director of engineering and public works, says the requirement to See Recycling on page A2
JaMes MuRRay/OBSeRVeR
Recyclables left behind: Leona Fillion with the plastic bin she can no longer use for her recycling. Fillion objects to being asked to use plastic bags to hold her recyclables, which is less environmentally friendly than using bins.
MLA says literacy funds to be restored By Barb Brouwer OBSeRVeR STAFF
The literacy Alliance of the Shuswap is hoping a large dollop of provincial optimism will translate into restoration of $30,000 in co-ordinator funding. “I’m advised by the minister that there will be funding restored to decoda and decoda, in due course, will restore funding across the province,” said Shuswap MlA
George Abbott yesterday, noting education Minister don McRae had advised him the issue had been satisfactorily resolved. “But it’s not up to me to relay the happy news.” However, definitive “happy news” was not forthcoming from the Ministry of edu-
George Abbot ShuSwap MLa
This week A judge sentences Salmon Arm’s Green Man for his role in the Vancouver riots. See A3. After two weekend wins, the ’Backs only need one point to make the playoffs. See A18.
cation either. Instead, the ministry provided a partial transcript of an interview McRae gave Monday, in which he indicated most of the ministry’s $5.3 billion budget goes directly to school districts. “But I said we would do our very best internally to find some
savings and efficiencies and see if we could find another $1 million for decoda,” McRae said. McRae said that wouldn’t happen until year-end (at the end of March), when the minister of finance will know how many yearend dollars remain in the contingency budget. “... I’ve been working diligently, and I’m very confident that I’ll find the $1 million to make sure we do that, and I actually [expressed] that
to decoda last Friday when I talked to them in person.” Asked when he would be able to make an announcement with certainty, McRae again referred to year-end dollars. “I certainly don’t want to make decisions that are going to impact on our core services, which is obviously providing the K-to-12 public education system,” he said. “You See Hope on page A2
Index Opinion ....................... A6 View Point .................. A7 Life & Times ............... A8 Sports............... A15-A19 Arts & Events ... A20-A22 Time Out................... A23 Vol. 106, No. 10, 40 pages