It appears the Sunshine Coast Regional District's (SCRD) recycling bins in Gibsons will stay put at Park Plaza mall, at least until the board is ready to make some big picture decisions on the future of recycling.
The SCRD infrastructure services committee learned last Thursday (Nov. 4) that Wesbild, owner of Park Plaza mall, which is slated for a large-scale redevelopment, has agreed to extend the SCRD's stay at the mall until no later than mid-October 2011. Previously the board had been told the bins must be removed by the end of the year.
The board is greeting the news with a sigh of relief, as the SCRD was going to have to find a new location while trying to finish the solid waste management plan (SWMP) update - the planning document for all solid waste policy.
"It allows [the board] to stay focused on getting the plan update completed, making their final decisions about what they want to do with recycling [request for proposals] and get on with it, as opposed to spinning our wheels while we deal with temporary moves of a depot that may not even be there in a year's time," said Dion Whyte, manager of sustainable services for the SCRD.
Provincial laws mandate that every local government have an SWMP, and Whyte said getting provincial approval for the plan update would be impossible if the SCRD was making other drastic changes in recycling services at a time when the plan was still being formed.
SCRD board chair Donna Shugar said the dilemma was creating a panic and causing delays to the SWMP, which is already several months behind its initial schedule after additional pieces to the plan were added including the Pender Harbour resource recovery facility and recycling survey.
Some of the blame though, falls onto Aecom, the consulting firm contracted to help run the SWMP update process, Whyte said.
"The actual people on the project team have turned over twice and it's nothing that was within the firm's ability to control. It's just what happened," he said.
Whyte added Aecom's new staff are now up to speed with the project and have accepted some responsibility.
"We're not going to be billed for any of the additional time they are putting into it as a result of the turnovers on their end and getting back up to speed."
Whyte said the draft SWMP should be ready for review by the Coast's other local governments before Christmas and posted on the SCRD's website early in the new year, triggering the public consultation process where the plan can be amended before being finalized.
