Abbotsford city council got to put the boots to Metro Vancouver last week over Metro’s hard-headed, expensive plan to build a half-billion dollar waste incinerator that will send air pollution into the Fraser Valley airshed.
But Coun. Patricia Ross said this plan is leading closer to the concept of a second waste-to-energy incinerator being built, in addition to the one already in place in Burnaby.
Metro directors have said they need 370,000 tones of garbage per year to support a new waste-to-energy (WTE) plant.
Controlling where Metro haulers can take their garbage ensures the incineration quota is met, opponents argue.
The Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) — of which Abbotsford is a part – have expressed concern about the impact that pollution from a Lower Mainland-based incinerator could have on the sensitive Fraser Valley air shed.
FVRD does not have a seat on the expert panel overseeing WTE plans.
Ross, who is vice-chair of the FVRD, and Banman referenced this issue during Metro’s council presentation on Monday, saying FVRD has been ignored in the matter.
“We’re deemed as being the fly in the ointment,” Banman said. “I think we have a lot to teach you, but I don’t think you want to hear us because it doesn’t fit in (with Metro Vancouver’s plans).”
Ross said incineration is not the right route to go.
“It’s just frustrating to me that you’re kind of missing the point ... You couldn’t have possibly chosen a worse place in the world to locate this,” she told Moore.
Ross and Banman are right. Metro has tunnel vision on this project, and are more than willing to ignore the impact on Abbotsford, and the burden on Metro taxpayers, to make it happen. As we have previously detailed, the plan will double the cost of waste tipping rates for Metro residents – which will amount to a massive tax increase.
From a news release we sent out last month:
Metro tipping fees have already shot up 60 per cent since 2006. If rates jumped to $200/tonne, as Metro staff reports suggest it will to fund an incinerator, that’s an extra $100 million in taxes paid by Metro Vancouver residents.
Metro residents can’t afford the cost, and Abbotsford residents can’t afford the pollution.
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