Whereas provincial legislation governing solid waste management in British Columbia has increasingly tightened over the past several years to address important environmental concerns and thereby downloaded new costs onto local governments who must operate or retire their landfills in compliance with new provincial priorities; And whereas the Province of British Columbia has not developed an equitable or effective fiscal strategy to resource local governments to meet these new landfill operation and closure costs, thereby forcing some local governments to operate, and consider retiring their landfills, under grandfathered, outdated, and environmentally unsound legislative criteria in order to cope with the substantial and unforeseen costs of compliance: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM call upon the Province of British Columbia to provide the necessary resources to local governments for landfill compliance related projects so that landfills may be operated and retired in an environmentally sound manner and obligations to First Nations may be better met in acknowledgment of Indigenous rights and title to impacted lands and water.
Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy The Province acknowledges the difficulties that remote communities may encounter when managing solid waste with a limited population base and long travel distances. Remote communities have demonstrated progress in implementing effective waste diversion and waste management programs including the development of recycling depots, transfer stations and organics diversion programs to reduce the quantity of waste going to landfills. These are important waste reduction steps, to minimize the quantity of waste being disposed in landfills and the associated impacts that landfilled waste can have on the environment. The Landfill Criteria for Municipal Solid Waste was updated in 2016 to provide clear guidance for how to achieve environmental protection during the siting or expansion of new landfills, as well as the safe operation and closure of existing landfills. The criteria recognize and enable the site-specific nature and variability of circumstances or conditions across the province. The prioritizing, scheduling, and budgeting for upgrade plans to bring landfills into compliance with provincial requirements is within the purview of local governments to consider and plan for. When assessing what is required at a landfill site, a director will consider the site-specific and regional conditions before making final decision. Local governments who own and operate landfills can work with the Provincial director to understand the site-specific considerations to determine the necessary next steps to address environmental concerns and determine a reasonable approach forward and timeframe for implementation that will protect the environment. Local governments are encouraged to review the Landfill Criteria for Municipal Solid Waste and to work with Provincial staff to understand the financial liabilities under consideration and the options available in the development and approval of the plan, noting that required upgrades are contingent on the securing and raising of adequate funding.