Yellowknife (Dec 22/04) - Mayor Gord Van Tighem says if recycling is going to work in Yellowknife, the community will have to do its part to ensure that it does.

The mayor's comments come after city council opted to axe the city's environmental waste co-ordinator position last week, in an effort to trim $70,000 in salary and benefits from the 2005 budget.

"From my perspective, recycling is a community thing and it is extremely difficult for one person buried in the basement of City Hall to motivate a community to do something," said Van Tighem.

Efforts at city schools

"It's just like cleaning up litter downtown. We can hire more people to pick up litter, or we can encourage people to pick up their own."

Van Tighem suggested that efforts at city schools and by environmental groups like Ecology North need to be stepped up to educate the public about the benefits of recycling.

About 20 residents filed into City Hall Monday night, in a last-ditch attempt to convince council not to cut the environmental co-ordinator position.

Tasha Stephenson pondered aloud whether council deliberately pushed the 2005 budget vote to the week before Christmas in hope that residents would be too distracted to put up much of a fuss. "Don't feel so threatened by the public," said Stephenson.

"We can make progress if we work together (but) you have to include us in meaningful ways."

Mike Gannon reminded council that 88 per cent of residents surveyed in 2002 supported a city recycling plan.

"And now you're telling them that the person who was educating them is not important," said Gannon.

Ecology North's Doug Ritchie, who attended both council budget sessions last week, said the message he heard was that trimming costs were more important than protecting the environment.

Besides cutting the recycling co-ordinator, council voted to lower the proposed solid waste levy increase to 10 per cent from 15 per cent.

They also voted to add 50 cents to the $2 fare for the city transit system, which Ritchie said will only encourage more people to drive their own cars than take the bus.

"When full, they basically take 40 vehicles off the road," said Ritchie.

"We should be thinking about ways to increase ridership, and not necessarily increasing the fare."

Steve Meister, president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, also attended the Monday budget debate. Unlike most other people in the audience, however, he liked council's decision to cut the waste co-ordinator.

"We applaud this initiative," said Meister.

"In business, if something isn't working, then there needs to be some changes."