The qathet Regional District’s Manager of Environmental Services hopes a cleanup program gets re-established.
In a report, Jason Kouwenhoven is asking the district board to re-establish a Coastal Clean-Up program, a program that would financially support local groups that clean up the shoreline.
The program was first approved back in 2016 as the Coastal Clean-Up initiative, where it would pay the cost of moving debris from large cleanup sites to local waste and recycling facilities from 2017 to 2021.
Kouwenhoven says clean-up groups continue to ask for help with transport costs, so he’s looking to re-activate the porgram.
“As the Coastal Cleanup Initiative program ended in 2021, the 2024 Waste Management service budget does not include any amount to support these requests,” said Kouwenhoven. “At the time of this report, two requests for support have been received by Environmental Services staff for the 2024 year: one from a Savary Island group, and another from a School District 47 class.”
He says with these requests, the board has three options to choose from.
The first would be re-establishing the program within the District’s waste management service by reallocating $2,500 to the program, with an extra $10,000 of annual funding.
The second is to re-direct these requests to the Grants-In-Aid service, while the third is for the Board to change direction for staff.
The report will be presented to the board as part of their upcoming Regional Board meeting, set for Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
For the full report, click here.
