Garbage removal on Savary Island is causing a problem.
At the August 27 qathet Regional District board meeting, chair Patrick Brabazon said he had attended by videoconferencing a meeting of the Savary Island marine advisory committee. He said it had been put off because of the pandemic. Several items were worthy of mention, according to Brabazon.
He said first he was going to deal with the matter that bothered him the most. He said he had received photographs, where one of the water taxi operators had decided to perform a public service and remove garbage from Savary Island.
“That’s the good news; now we get to the bad news,” said Brabazon. “The service they have set up requires you to register, take your bags down to the float, drop it and walk away. What is seen in the photographs [passed out to regional board members] are piles of garbage bags containing who knows what.”
Brabazon said the Savary committee is very distressed about this. He said he advised members that in his opinion, as director for Electoral Area A, the wharf is not a garbage transfer station.
Brabazon said staff had heard the message loud and clear and he thinks the regional district will be engaged in further discussions with the operator involved.
He said there was also a serious issue during this COVID-19 period on Savary. Brabazon said it has been a party island in the past, and the problem seems to be recurring.
“When I was first elected there was a serious issue with basically drunken parties on the south beach every long weekend,” said Brabazon. “We got that shut down with the cooperation of the RCMP and Savary islanders.
“Unfortunately, although it’s no longer organized as a party, people are congregating on the wharf. On the [August] long weekend there were 50 to 60 people, by one estimate, jammed together on the wharf. I gather that the stage of inebriation was high, and frankly, we have a situation that is difficult to control.”
Brabazon said staff would be coming back with some discussion on that issue.
“We are going to have to talk to the RCMP about further enforcement of that sort of activity in the summertime,” he added.
