Editor:
My wife and I have extensively volunteered and helped build this community over decades, and I find the current conduct in this election unacceptable and an embarrassment to our community.
I am writing as someone who has conducted their own business in Delta without ever receiving anything monetarily from any of the parties discussed in this opinion piece. I am friends and colleagues with folks who are running in various campaigns in this election and also with those supporting different candidates across the board.
My intention in writing is to give to give voters a spectrum of information, instead of just the opinions of those with the loudest voices.
Watching the bizarre Enviro-Smart situation has made me wonder how it ballooned into an unwarranted election issue whereby many facts have been waved in an attempted smear campaign. City-wide composting was required by Metro Vancouver and Delta needed to comply. Compost facilities are welcomed under Metro on ALR land - and while there may be differing local opinions on what this land could be used for - it is within ALR rules to operate a composting facility on ALR land.
Elected representatives at Delta council have unanimously passed their expansion three times in order for it to reach the size it is today. This partnership has saved taxpayers $350,000 a year that the city would have had to otherwise pay to transport its compost to a non-Delta composting facility.
Enviro-Smart also offers residents of Delta free organic dumping at no cost. The owner of Enviro-Smart agrees with concerned affected residents that the smell needs to be mitigated and they are investing in a $25-million enclosure with state-of-the-art bio-filters and other technology to reduce greenhouse gas emission and help fight against climate change, while eliminating the smell.
I also know from my own volunteer activities on various charitable boards, that this company has given tens of thousands of dollars back to the community through major donations to the Delta Hospital Foundation, providing the free grass/dirt and transport for the whole Diefenbaker water park, KidSport and South Delta Dry Grad to name a few.
Council and the community come up with many ideas for Delta, but it’s the CAO that is responsible for the implementation of them, and they must do so in a way that puts Delta on good financial and operational footing. In a meeting with Metro Vancouver in 2013, our city manager lobbied for Delta against blanket-style air permits for agriculture.
These ‘broad’ air permits would have affected the operations and requirements for all farmers in Delta and caused them to have to implement severe changes to their operations, costing them potentially huge amounts of money. Farmers in Delta are already struggling with climate change, so I’m glad that he stood up for farmers in Delta, indiscriminately. Farmers are the backbone of Delta and need real advocacy at the table to help keep food local (instead of forcing them out of business due to pricey and unnecessary investments from Metro blanket policies).
Sylvia Bishop has been on the record calling Harvie a “bully” and then turned around recently and says he’s “too sensitive” while at the same time stating that her team has an ethical code of conduct which they have now completely broken. Jim Cessford’s team from the beginning was all about the smear campaign. It seems they cast Harvie in whatever role befitting their current cause.
These election tactics are sad and they selfishly take away from topics and other suffering demographics that need more coverage in this election like youth/adult working-poor rates in North Delta, needed upgrades to Delta Hospital, the dike on River Road, our Delta addictions problem, affordable housing and services for seniors and young people, building the bridge with light rail transit, and ensuring businesses stay in Delta.
So while the teams of Cessford and Bishop choose to run negative smear campaigns, the only person who has run a positive and smear free campaign in this election is George Harvie and his Achieving for Delta slate. I commend them for being a good example of positive politics, and I will be voting for them in this election.
Don Sangster
