Re: “North Surrey the ideal spot to burn garbage: Councillors,” The Leader, Feb. 9.

Marvin Hunt is suggesting that North Surrey would be a good place for a waste incinerator. He better be ready a fight, because nobody wants to live next to these garbage monsters.

This is an environmental justice issue. Hunt wants to burn trash where folks have less ability to fight back. First a new highway through your backyard, and now this? Hunt’s touting of incinerators in France is way off base, given the massive protest these nasty trash burners have met in that country.

Hunt is all by himself out on a limb. Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts clearly doesn’t have his back, given that she has voted against regional waste incineration. Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore, the current chair of the Metro Vancouver Waste Management Committee, is also opposing incineration in the region. The Fraser Valley Regional District is unanimously opposing incineration and most Metro directors are respecting that.

It’s no wonder Hunt was dropped as chair of the regional waste management committee. He is still using the sound bites introduced by the discredited spin doctor, Jim Bridges, who testified before congress claiming second-hand smoke wasn’t harmful. Hunt brought this guy to BC to pitch incineration while he still had the job making those calls.

Hunt’s shameful incinerator scheme will go up in smoke, despite all of his hot air.

Ben West

Healthy Communities Campaigner

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Photo: Young protester at an anti-incineration rally in Detroit City, USA 2010