One can learn a lot from history, and it's a pity that our governments seem to want to destroy history and rewrite it, rather than save it and learn from it.
When I first settled in Yellowknife back in the mid-1970s, I had a trailer in beautiful Northlands trailer park, which was billed as a temporary fix to the citySA国际影视传媒檚 housing shortage. It was like a village well outside of YellowknifeSA国际影视传媒檚 core. There was garbage pickup, but I preferred taking my own garbage to the dump to avoid the birds or dogs getting into it. It was free access to the dump, and anyone could take their garbage there. It also gave you a chance to see if there was anything good to salvage. The dump provided a lot of building material and furnishings back then.
Salvaging from the dump was an important and wonderful part of YellowknifeSA国际影视传媒檚 history, heritage and culture. However, it was something the city and newly-arrived GNWT seemed to want to ignore or destroy. They just never understood it. Salvaging should be encouraged because it reduces the perfectly good and valuable stuff from going into the dump. It is ecologically-friendly and it reduces the cost of living in the North.
The city was growing and with all the new government activity, the amount of garbage ballooned. At the time, the dump was run by one person. He would plow the garbage and run over it to compact it and cover it over with dirt. Human geology in action.
The city decided to create what they called the solid waste facility, and they put up a building to house a compactor. This reduced the volume of garbage a little but not the mass of garbage. To pay for it, they added a temporary surcharge on everyoneSA国际影视传媒檚 water bill. After a few years, people began to grumble that surely it had been paid for by now.
The city then announced the temporary fee was now permanent because they had to hire several people to run the compactor and to run the new gate and weigh scale. This meant the dump's costs were skyrocketing. Also, they wanted a dump area for the compacted bales of garbage to go and create a salvage area for people bringing in their own stuff. They even hired an expensive firm from Vancouver to come up with a plan for the salvage area.
The firm and the city held several meetings with the public. They completely ignored what people said and went for a three cell system. It was supposed to cost $40,000, I believe, but ended up costing more like $400,000, and it was a complete failure. Meanwhile, the city was trying to kill salvaging by what I like to call a thousand cuts SA国际影视传媒� one being to charge people for taking their own garbage to the dump.
To drown out the public outrage, they said, Oh, but we will have two amnesty weeks SA国际影视传媒� one just after Xmas and one in the spring. Those 14 days when residents can drop off residential waste free of charge have shrunk to a few hours on a single day, and now they want to get rid of the six-hour amnesty day.
The city can go one of two ways. One turns our dump into an expensive waste of money and material, which will eventually be declared a hazardous and ecological liability that will have to be remediated or removed at great expense. Or our already famous dump can become even more famous. It would become a tourist attraction and an example to the rest of the country of how to deal with garbage. It would be an ecological beacon.
Perfectly good stuff should not be buried in the landfill. Every dump should start letting salvagers in. It would employ people and create an income for them. Also, it helps build the social fabric of a place and a sense of community. All too often, governments do things that isolate and divide people rather than bringing them together.
The dump used to be a place that people were proud of and enjoyed going to. Also, being able to visit the dump was a great lesson in ecology and our wasteful ways. So, the city should rethink what it is doing with the dump and with garbage because, sooner or later, they will have to deal with the mess they are creating today.
To me, eliminating all amnesty days is a step backwards and goes against our Northern culture and history. My vote is to keep the amnesty going in Yellowknife and increase it back to amnesty week.
