The Sunshine Coast Regional District's (SCRD) draft solid waste management plan is one step closer to going out to the public for review.
Dion Whyte, SCRD manager of sustainable services, made presentations at Gibsons council Tuesday, Feb. 1, to the Sechelt Indian Band Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 2, and to Sechelt council Wednesday night to update all three governments on the status of the plan and to answer questions.
The SCRD's goal is to have all local governments in general agreement with the direction of the plan before the board endorses it to go out for broad public consultation. The SCRD has asked that comments from all three governments be completed by Feb. 15.
"I've been working on this since 2007 to develop plans to allow the SCRD to move forward," Whyte told Gibsons council. "Until the regional district has that plan to confidently move forward, it will be very difficult for the SCRD to move forward. It is also very difficult to make it perfect for everyone involved, but we're getting very close to the point of where we can strike a balance between getting it perfect and starting to move forward on this."
The scope of the plan provides a review of current systems and strategic direction (goals), an action plan for the next five years, estimated costs, staffing impacts, diversion and GHG reductions (five year forecast), in-depth working group participation and a broad consultation process.
Once the SCRD board receives all comments and feedback from the other governments, the board will then incorporate those comments into a second draft plan to send out for public review/feedback in early March.
The community engagement and consultation is slated to run into late April with the hopes of a second board/council meeting to review all the public comments in mid-May. More meetings will continue throughout May and June, with the final draft hopefully ready to submit to the Ministry of Environment for its approval by mid-June.
