The following letter was sent to Sunshine Coast Regional District board chair Donna Shugar and copied to Coast Reporter.
I write to you as one of the 830 Area A residents who signed the petition asking the SCRD to keep the Pender Harbour landfill operating.
I've discussed this with many community members and know we are capable of making responsible decisions regarding our landfill. I reject the suggestion that the input of the overwhelming majority of my community is irrelevant to your decision to close our landfill. This landfill was built by local people, employs local people and is an important part of a local population's aspirations for a self-sufficient community.
Could we do a better job of reducing our waste? Absolutely, but transferring our garbage to a landfill with a historical leachate problem makes no sense and removes immediate and potential incentive for improved ecological practice.
As to cost, we have always made clear it is a service we are willing to pay for as long as it is persuasively demonstrated that we are not already contributing sufficient funds to the SCRD budget to cover it.
I consider it an extraordinary abuse of the SCRD's responsibility to Area A that a petition signed by more people than voted in the last municipal election here has been ignored, and requests by our director for a credible survey of our community's position have been rejected.
I urge you to revisit this decision. Please give our input the respect it deserves by conducting a well-organized objective opinion poll. If results are indecisive, then the board could make its decision with a clear conscience. If decisive, then at least the board could make its decision properly informed about our wishes. To choose not to proceed in this way is indefensible.
Theresa Kishkan
Madeira Park
