Metro Vancouver’s Waste Management Committee voted yesterday by only a slim majority to support building a new waste incinerator in Metro Vancouver.

"The outcome of yesterday’s meeting was no surprise since Waste Management Committee members are hand-picked by the board chair, Lois Jackson who is openly supportive of waste incineration in-region,” said Ben West, the Wilderness Committee’s Healthy Communities campaigner.
 
Jackson changed the composition of the committee a couple months before the committee decided to send the waste incineration plan out for consultation in April. Her new board chair, Greg Moore, was first to speak to the issue and informed board members that he would not support incineration in-region.

"Lois Jackson made a particularly interesting Freudian slip a couple of months ago while chairing a Metro Vancouver meeting. She called the ‘Waste Management Committee’ the ‘Waste Incineration Committee’ as if facilitating her plan to burn more garbage in the region was the sole purpose of the group she appointed. At the time everyone laughed, but yesterday Jackson didn't look very amused while a number of prominent committee members opposed her plan. It was as if she’d almost lost control of her newly appointed committee and I think this may be a sign of things to come," said West.

Vancouver Councilor Heather Deal, Surrey Councilor Linda Hepner Richmond Councilor Harold Steeves, Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini and Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore voted against the proposal to build a new incinerator ‘in-region’.

The full Metro Vancouver board will have a chance to vote on the waste management plan including waste incineration at their July 30th meeting.
"It’s going to be tough for directors to support in-region incineration at next week’s meeting. More than 60% of the correspondence they received during the consultation was aggressively anti-incineration and the Fraser Valley Regional District voted unanimously against incineration," said West.

"Nobody wants a new incinerator to be built in Metro Vancouver. Even the Vancouver Board of Trade and the Vancouver and District Labour Council agree that this shouldn't go forward. Many of Metro Vancouver’s directors have openly admitted that they wouldn't propose one of these beasts in their own cities because of public opposition, and they really shouldn’t vote in favour of incineration if they wouldn’t build one in their own community," said West.

Metro Vancouver Directors will have the opportunity to vote on the full proposed waste management plan or make amendments to the plan before it is sent to BC’s Environment Minister Barry Penner who also can support, amend or reject the proposed plan. At yesterday’s meeting, Port Moody’s Mayor Joe Trasolini said, “I’m very doubtful if an in-region waste facility would pass scrutiny by the provincial government. I want to go to Victoria with something that has a reasonable chance.”

The Wilderness Committee and the Zero Waste BC network have called for a moratorium on waste incineration anywhere in BC. Incineration proposals have already been defeated in Kamloops, Christina Lake and Port Moody.

“The Wilderness Committee is concerned about burning garbage because of concerns about the release of dioxins and other toxins into our air, and because of the potential for waste incineration to become one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the region,” said West.
"This campaign against waste incineration will really heat up when they actually propose a location. It might not get that far because people are already really concerned and they haven't even heard where it will be. Just wait until there’s actually a proposal in somebody’s backyard," said West.

For more information please contact:
Ben West, Wilderness Committee Healthy Communities Campaigner, 604-710-5340