Mayor in Victoria to discuss recycling program in Kamloops

KAMLOOPS – Mayor Peter Milobar was in Victoria earlier this week to meet with provincial officials about Kamloops inclusion in the Multi Material B.C. recycling program.

“There was a group of mayors that had coordinated a meeting,” Milobar says. “We would like to be included in the program.”

The mayor says he was a part of a group of five mayors, including Mission, Abbotsford, Chilliwack and the Township of Langley.

“We were all in the same boat,” Milobar says. “We thought we had responded in the extended timeline but were told after the fact we weren’t included.”

He says the meeting included the provincial minister of environment and senior staff from multiple ministries and the premier’s office.

“Now that they’ve had a couple years under their belt… it’s time to look at how to bring us in,” he says.

Milobar says the city has been working to be included for sometime, and this weeks meeting went well.

No decisions were made and the province wasn’t able to give a time table of when things may move forward, but Milobar feels they took the meeting seriously and expects the issue to progress.

The Multi Material B.C. program, run by the province, works with businesses to keep packaging out of landfills. It was started a couple years ago.

Many cities joined at the program’s start, but Kamloops didn’t as councillors were looking for more information on the program. When they received it, the city was unable to join as the deadline had passed.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Brendan Kergin at bkergin@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.