Van Dongen Puts Lake on Hot Seat Over Burner

Van Dongen puts Lake on hot seat over burner

BY CHRISTINA TOTH, THE TIMES WITH FILES FROM CHILLIWACK TIMES MARCH 21, 201:

Abbotsford South independent MLA John van Dongen waded into the proposed Metro Vancouver incinerator debate before the end of the sitting of the Legislature, questioning the B.C. Liberals' stand on the issue and their choice of a candidate who is a known supporter of the trash burning option.

On Feb. 27, van Dongen demanded Environment Minister Terry Lake enforce his directive to Metro Vancouver to ensure the Fraser Valley Regional District has a someone observe an expert panel set up to oversee the waste-to-energy option. The panel's role is to provide independent advice on the procurement process underway. Metro Vancouver denied the FVRD that opportunity.

Van Dongen challenged Lake, saying it "is abundantly clear that Metro Vancouver is thumbing their noses at everyone from the minister on down," and that Metro Vancouver "has absolutely no intention of living up to his conditions."

Since Metro Vancouver appeared to be refusing the minister's order, van Dongen asked Lake to deny the incinerator proposal.

Lake insisted that Metro Vancouver must undergo a "full B.C. environmental assessment process and full consultation" with FVRD if it goes with an incinerator option.

In July 2011, Lake approved Metro Vancouver's solid waste management plan that includes the incinerator proposal, despite fears from Fraser Valley politicians and residents that it could drive airborne toxins up the Valley and jeopardize people's health and agriculture production.

The ministry cautioned the approval was not "a licence to burn garbage" and that more public consultation was needed.

Metro Vancouver reviewed options to trucking the region's waste to a landfill site in Ashcroft. It gave strong support to a $400million waste-to-energy incinerator. It would burn 500,000 tonnes of the region's trash annually and generate electricity.

Among the strongest proponents of the WTE facility is Surrey Coun. and Metro

Vancouver director Marvin Hunt. He was also nominated as the B.C. Liberal candidate for Surrey-Panorama.

"Why would they nominate a candidate who is an advocate for a waste-to-energy incinerator, which would directly impact our airshed and which is so strongly opposed by the citizens of the Fraser Valley?" asked van Dongen.

The Liberals' own MLA in Chilliwack, John Les, has said the incinerator is "totally undesirable from a Fraser Valley point of view, and frankly, unnecessary from a Metro Vancouver point of view."

Les is angry that Metro waste committee chair Malcolm Brodie suggests the incinerator option has already been chosen. Brodie said allowing the FVRD to sit on the expert committee was a "terrible idea."

"Brodie conveniently forgets that the Ministry of Environment has explicitly demanded that any such plan by [Metro Vancouver] must be submitted to an environmental assessment process," said Les. "This cavalier attitude will not be tolerated by residents of the Fraser Valley."

Les suggested that if Metro Vancouver really wants to improve the environment, it should shut down the Vancouver landfill immediately, as "this has got to rank as the foremost environmental obscenity in the Lower Mainland."

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