Dear editor,
The Regional District again is using an undemocratic process to push its own agenda. It is using the alternate approval process (AAP) to push through its garbage collection tax grab. A few years ago the RD asked us if we wanted RD garbage collection. The proposal was soundly defeated with a negative response of over 70 per cent. Now again, the RD is trying to push its idea through the back door via the AAP, which means the residents have to write in their disagreement against this idea.
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Having residents go through this troublesome process at this time of year is a calculated strategy to push its plan of garbage collection through. Such possible changes should be done by ballot at the time when municipal elections are held, not when people are the busiest.
The RD used the same method to push through the building of its very expensive ivory tower in the centre of Courtenay. There, we had to hand deliver negative responses directly to the RD office! This resulted in a building being placed in the most inconvenient location for the very citizens that the RD is supposed to serve. This office should have been built in the regional district where RD office officials could be readily accessed by their constituents, not in the middle of Courtenay where no RD citizen lives.
The bureaucrats should not decide these issues, and especially not in such a sneaky way. The residents should do so by ballot. A vote against garbage collection, even though it is hard to do, will also be a vote against this tainted undemocratic process.
Further to the garbage collection issue itself, at present we now have choices on how we wish to handle our garbage: we have at least two garbage collecting companies and the choice of handling our own. The RD proposal will put all other garbage collectors out of work and as such, is against the free enterprise system.
Moreover, people should at least have the choice to opt out of the RD’s proposed system, otherwise, it is simply another tax.
Det Kunz,
Comox
