“Well, this is one village with no shortage of idiots!”
That remark was heard as another exasperated RVer tried to stuff his trash into one of Qualicum Beach’s newly-padlocked garbage bins. He was struggling to hand-feed his family’s picnic leavings through the opening about the size of a baseball. Finally, he gave up, dumped the lot beside the bin and drove off. And it’s only May!
It seems that all governments have one thing in common: they are masters at creating unintended consequences known as blowback. They seem to excel at turning a minor irritant into a full blown disaster.
Supposedly, the reason the town ordered the removal of most of the garbage bins along the waterfront and padlocked the remaining few was that too many people were using them for garbage. Not public garbage, paid for by the taxpayers, but household garbage, paid for by …the taxpayers.
The question, then, for the reasonable mind would be Why? Was it always thus, or did the public bins begin to fill up with household garbage at a specific time? We’ll kindly assume that council deduced for themselves that the timing might have coincided with household garbage pickup being reduced to every second week. And so, government-think to the rescue!
Hold your noses, Q.B., because it looks like we’re in for a long, smelly summer.
Fern and Laurence Wayman
Qualicum Beach
