Plastic people urge ban
Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors voted to consider the potential for a ban on single-use plastic items after Evan Guiton, the leading proponent of the Strawless Coast campaign, spoke at a July 19 infrastructure committee.
During her presentation, Guiton said the majority of food and beverage businesses on the Coast have abandoned using plastic straws and that the Coast’s three IGAs have also committed to dropping plastic bags. A petition with more than 2,000 local signatures supporting the ban of single-use plastics is also being circulated, she said.
Citing Vancouver’s ban on single-use plastics and Styrofoam, set to take effect next summer, Guiton urged SCRD to do the same. “Even though I started the Strawless Coast campaign, I would actually like you to not look specifically at straws,” she said. Instead, she urged the regional district to focus on single-use items like plastic bags, cutlery, lids and food and beverage containers. She also asked the SCRD to consider “providing the necessary infrastructure to deal with compostable plastics.”
Gibsons director Silas White called Guiton’s campaign “one of the most successful and exciting environmental community campaigns I’ve seen on the Coast in recent years.” He said the Town of Gibsons will be studying the Vancouver and Victoria bans to see if they are applicable. Chair Bruce Milne said Sechelt is also considering similar actions.
Time for a brush
It’s time for Highway 101 to get its shoulders trimmed because things are getting hairy for bikers, according to Allun Wooliams of Transportation Choices, an advocacy group for alternatives to single-occupancy vehicle use on the Sunshine Coast.
During a July 19 transportation committee meeting, he said brushing, which is overseen by Capilano Highway Services, is scheduled to begin shortly, “which coincides with hot weather usually and often it results in the brushing being cancelled” because of fire hazards. He said the bike lane in Roberts Creek is completely covered “in things you just do not want to be walking or biking through.”
Wooliams has requested that Capilano Services address the issue, adding that brushing seems to be “scheduled incorrectly for our climate.”
The committee decided to write a letter to the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure regarding safety concerns around the current brushing schedule, and the letter will appear before a future SCRD committee to be finalized.
Once the motion was passed, Pender Harbour/Egmont director Frank Mauro said there was a “really significant brushing effort” along various parts of the highway this spring, which was needed because of blind corners, but that residents complained they went too far. “There’s a balance somewhere here, folks,” he said.
Traffic tickers installed
At the July 19 policing committee meeting, Sunshine Coast RCMP Sgt. Michael Hacker said the District of Sechelt has bought a traffic counter and is installing it in areas that receive complaints from the public about speeding and other traffic infractions.
“They just did a deployment on Inlet Avenue and the numbers were pretty shocking,” Hacker said. He said most people drive between 60 and 80 km/h in the area, which has a speed limit is 50 km/h, and that the highest speed they clocked was 160 km/h.
Hacker said the traffic counter would inform him about problem areas, so he can send RCMP to those areas for enforcement. Witnesses who provide a date, time and licence plate can also help officers collect information.
