qathet Regional District's (qRD) board has approved the acceptance of cash at the new resource-recovery centre.
Currently, following the recent opening of the solid waste disposal facility, only debit and credit cards are acceptable methods of paying for disposal of garbage and other waste.
At the October 23 regional board meeting, directors carried a motion that the board direct staff to implement accepting cash transactions at the centre, and that this be implemented in eight weeks or sooner, barring any supply chain issues.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne made the motion and said it had been passed through the committee of the whole meeting earlier in the day.
“I would love it if we could take cash tomorrow at the resource-recovery centre, but we did hear from our staff that it is going to take some time for them to source the materials and conduct the training,” said Gisborne. “Our chief administrative officer provided this as a possible amendment so that we could clarify to the public that [accepting cash] is not going to happen tomorrow. I would like to lean on the part of the motion that says, ‘or sooner,’ so that as soon as we are able, we can accept cash. Hopefully, the motion passes.”
Electoral Area director Andrew Fall said the motion notifies the public that the centre will not be accepting cash immediately and that it will take some time to institute. He said it sets some pressure for staff, which he doesn’t want to add, when they are trying to get the centre up and running.
“Maybe, cash might be a priority for us, but maybe, getting some other services up and running is a priority for other people, so I think we have to be a little careful,” said Fall.
Fall asked if the timeline specified in the motion was doable.
Chief administrative officer Al Radke said he didn’t believe the timeline would put additional pressure on the waste management staff. He added that manager of environmental services Jason Kouwenhoven has said it would be six to eight weeks to get acceptance of cash payment up and running.
“We want to explain to the public that it is not going to happen tomorrow,” said Radke.
Fall said the timeline would put the acceptance of cash just before Christmas.
The regional board carried the motion unanimously.
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