Cindy MacDougall
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 26/00) - A packed public meeting picked through Yellowknife's garbage problems last Wednesday night at City Hall.

The city may form a solid waste public committee after 38 people crammed into City Hall's small lower boardroom for a solid waste public forum.

It was the first time the meeting, which was supposed to be an annual event, was held in the past two years.

"I'm heartened to see so many familiar faces," said local recycler and long-time advocate for waste management Matthew Grogono. "What I think we are missing (in Yellowknife) is a strategic plan for solving these problems."

Coun. Robert Slaven, who chaired the forum, agreed the meeting should focus on developing policy rather than on specific issues.

"I think we should look at the why and how," Slaven said. "We perhaps should focus on how those policies and principles can be or should be changed."

Gary Craig of the city's public works department said Yellowknife's current landfill and recycling programs are in good shape, especially since garbage has been compressed into bales before recycling or burial in the landfill.

"It was estimated (in 1992) that eight years of life at the existing site could be achieved. In fact, we now expect to get another eight years," Craig said.

Craig said 26,000 cubic metres enter the landfill each year.

The city's voluntary recycling program is also going well, Craig said, with over 200,000 kilograms of solid waste and 50,000 litres of waste oil being trucked to Edmonton and sold each year.

However, Craig said there's much room for improvement, especially with aluminum pop cans and paper recycling.

Suggestions for improving the city's waste reduction were plentiful throughout the three and a half hour meeting.

Citizens suggested everything from shared composting, more thorough salvaging, public education and a curbside bag limit.

Former city councillor Mike Byrne's suggestion to form a committee of citizens and councillors found instant support.

Byrne said a committee of interested residents, environmental groups and councillors should meet and draft a long-range plan on handling waste.

"It's been my observation that we have these forums, and everyone comes up with these wonderful ideas and there's very little follow-through," Byrne said.

"To me, it seems the best way to deal with this is for the councillors present make a recommendation to form a committee very much like the heritage committee.

"It would behoove them to take advantage of energy in that room."

Walt Humphries, an expert on Yellowknife's landfill, said he was impressed with Wednesday's meeting.

"I'd been to these meetings in the past, and this is the biggest turnout so far," he said. "It used to be very adversarial. This time, there was more give and take of ideas."

Humphries said he's willing to join the proposed committee.

"The dump is one of our major operations," he said. "It should be better managed and run. We do a great job now, but we could become a leader in how to handle garbage."

Ben McDonald, one of six councillors who showed up at the meeting, said there is more political will to do something about the dump now than five years ago.

"At past forums, we discussed many of the same issues," he said. "But there are more people with the will to do something about it on this council than the last. That's indicative by the number that showed up tonight."

The city's public services committee will discuss the issue at its Feb. 8 meeting at City Hall.