By GARY HOLMAN
SSI CRD DIRECTOR
I’m writing to clarify recent Driftwood articles regarding recycling at School District 64 (SD64), the Burgoyne composting facility, and the CRD Regional Trail.
The CRD strongly incentivizes residential recycling. Recycling BC, the non-profit corporation responsible for residential recycling throughout the province, provides some funding for rural depots, but CRD funding comprises the lion’s share. My priority has been to ensure continuation of this funding, and the CRD Board has recently approved a five-year contract for the Rainbow Road depot with funding of over $400,000 annually, as they have done for years.
Garbage disposal for all sectors is served by private haulers on a user-pay basis. Neither Recycling BC nor the CRD have any mandate from the province to fund recycling for commercial or taxpayer-supported institutional sectors. However, CRD does enforce bans on recyclables and other materials at the Hartland landfill, ranging from food waste to construction lumber, and also encourages recycling of these materials with its tipping fee structure.
The CRD is addressing waste management at the regional scale in other ways, including by investing millions of dollars in the recapture of methane generated within the landfill, and selling renewable gas to Fortis BC. This is resulting in one of the single largest reductions in regional greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to material bans, the CRD is also investigating alternatives such as gasification in order to extend the life of the Hartland landfill and avoid the huge cost we would all bear of establishing a new landfill in the region.
The CRD Board does recognize the gaps in our waste management system. In September 2025, CRD staff contacted all school districts in the region, including SD64, to invite discussion of ways to facilitate recycling. Staff will soon be bringing a report to the Environmental Services Committee, to present some of these options, and I look forward to future discussions with SD64.
With respect to food and other organic waste, which is rightly banned from the Hartland landfill, the CRD has provided several hundred thousand dollars in funding to establish and take ownership of a commercial-scale composting facility at the Burgoyne Valley Community Farm, in collaboration with the Farmland Trust (land owner) and the Abattoir Society (compost operator). At its May 13 meeting, the CRD Board will approve an exemption, subject to a 30-day public consultation period, to its composting bylaw that is redundant to provincial regulations. This will enable the composter to receive a broader range of feedstock from offsite sources, including the school district. The Trust is also considering a Farmland Trust rezoning application, allowing for offsite sales, that will enhance viability and broader community benefits.
These issues demonstrate that while I’ve raised concerns regarding equitable treatment of electoral areas, there are also important CRD services and partnerships from which Salt Spring benefits. The new regional transportation service is not one of those examples. But the good news is that for the first time, several million dollars in design and construction funding for the Salt Spring segment of the CRD Regional Trail is still retained in the CRD Parks capital plan. While trail design won’t be accelerated, CRD Parks will oversee design work in 2027 with no delays as a regional transportation plan is developed.