Editor:
I had to chuckle at Carole Rubin getting her knickers in a knot at the mere idea the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) might consider giving the people of Area A a democratic voice on the Pender landfill question (Coast Reporter letters, March 12). She needn't have worried.
I don't mind being accused of sticking up for local businesses that depended upon the landfill to create local jobs, because I happen to know their interests are aligned with the vast majority of residents, who hate seeing key community infrastructure stolen away by South Coast centralizers. Carole's clique was small, shrill and wrong about expert opinion, but played a big role in killing the landfill by allowing the manipulators at the SCRD to say opinion in Area A was divided. Opinion was divided all right, but five to one against closing the landfill, according to last week's poll, which was consistent with the SCRD's own 83 per cent survey, with a petition signed by 830 residents and with Area A's well-known historical position on this issue.
Denying such a strong community consensus is hard to justify, so the SCRD came up with a truly cunning ploy: they offered a referendum, but on terms Area A could not possibly accept. Besides an outrageous $57,000 price tag for the referendum itself, the SCRD proposed to grab the $440,000 we currently pay for waste, divert most of it to their own programs, and slam us with a new $200,000 tax to keep the landfill going. When our director objected, the board said, you had your chance, now we'll do it our way. Whereupon the board voted to do what it always wanted to do.
I fought to preserve regional government in Area A 10 years ago, but given the conduct of the present SCRD regime, I now believe it is a menace to our community.
Howard White
Pender Harbour
