To the Editor,
Re: No final verdict from council on incinerator plan, Nov. 7
It is frustrating, even galling, that the good work of so many dedicated council and staff members during my mayoral terms of office are being ignored, abandoned and frittered away at great cost and loss to Nanaimo taxpayers.
The serious efforts to reconcile and work co-operatively with the Snuneymuxw First Nation, the Port of Nanaimo, the Regional District of Nanaimo, all our neighbours, and economic development entities, are but a few examples squandered in the last few years.
The most recent is the apparent abandonment of our multi-year, multi-million dollar efforts to end our city’s poor historic reputation as a ‘drive through and drive by’ and make it the destination visitors can enjoy and residents can be proud of. The many initiatives to repair and enhance Nanaimo’s image will all be for naught if the seeming dithering over the Duke Point garbage incineration proposal continues. It is my opinion that exceedingly few of our citizens want our paradise to be known as Nanaimo, garbage capital of B.C.
Before the deadline, a more thoughtful, assertive majority of council must intervene. Call a special open meeting. Debate and pass a resolution, nay a declaration, to Vancouver resolutely stating: “It is your social, moral, ecological, economic responsibility to look after your own garbage. Nanaimo says no to hosting a regional incinerator.”
Gary KorpanNanaimo