VANCOUVER, B.C.: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today applauded Environment Minister Mary Polak’s decision to kill Metro Vancouver Bylaw 280, a set of waste management rules that would have created a regional government monopoly on garbage and recycling collection in the Lower Mainland. (Photo Vancouver garbage bin: Flickr | Venture Vancouver)

“Government monopolies never turn out well for taxpayers – they are expensive, inefficient, bloated and all-too-prone to raising rates,” said Jordan Bateman, the B.C. Director of the CTF. “Bylaw 280 would have stripped small and medium sized businesses of their ability to compete for contracts and drive prices down for Metro residents. We need more competition in this sector – not less.”

The CTF was one of several taxpayer, small business, industry, and advocacy groups fighting this bylaw. The neighboring Fraser Valley Regional District had also expressed environmental concerns over Bylaw 280, which would pave the way for a waste incinerator in the Lower Mainland.

More than 60 recycling companies already operate in B.C., employing 3,000 people. The private sector wants to build more recycling facilities – at no cost to taxpayers.

“Why should Metro Vancouver get into a business that is already working fine?” said Bateman. “All that would do is raise our fees, put small business employees out of work, and inflict another needless government monopoly on taxpayers. This was all about subsidizing a new Metro incinerator with a hopelessly-flawed business plan that relied on BC Hydro overpaying for energy to keep it afloat.”

Bateman said the CTF looks forward to sharing its supporters’ concerns with Polak’s MLA colleague, Marvin Hunt, who has been appointed to give recommendations on multi-family and industrial-commercial-institutional waste management to her within 90 days.