During an April committee of the whole meeting, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) heard an update on its solid waste and resource management plan (SWRMP), which showed the district produced its lowest amount of disposal waste to landfill since 2015.
The SLRD’s waste in 2022 and 2023 is lower than the provincial average. Staff credited increased diversion programs and community education for the decrease.
“So this is good news," said SLRD resource recovery coordinator Marie-Lou Leblanc. "Last year, when we were looking at the 2022 rate we thought it was quite unusual, but in 2023 the trend is consistent.”
There’s a catch; the report only accounts for waste disposed of at the SLRD’s two closed landfills, three transfer stations and single landfill. It doesn’t account for the private sector potentially moving waste outside the region.
“We’re still unclear about that," Leblanc said. "We think it’s happening, but we don’t know to which extent, so that waste wouldn’t be accounted for.”
Staff are looking to gain a better understanding of the situation as part of an SWRMP update, which will run from 2025 to 2028.
Other priorities for the review include addressing construction and demolition waste, a study into industrial commercial institutional (ICI) and multi-unit waste, and exploring additional organics diversion options.
The province has set a goal of 350 kg/person by 2024, while the SLRD has a goal of 347 kg/person by the same year. acknowledges how close the SLRD is to meeting both goals, but said it “does not lessen the need to continue reducing waste to landfill.”
First-in-the-province film permitting
During a board meeting in the same week, the SLRD picked up on a thread from a 2017 session, which recommended that staff develop a district-wide film permit policy that clarifies or streamlines the permitting process, minimizes the impact of filming on locals, ensures appropriate liability insurance and indemnification are in place, and encourages filming as an economic benefit to the area.
The board put off the film permit question at the chief administrative officer’s (CAO) suggestion, but voted to put it back on the docket in November 2024.
“Our goal is that we would model ourselves after those very successful film permit processes that are around here and in the Lower Mainland which have a very quick turnaround time and is very reliable on the indemnification and hold no harm that film permits bring,” said SLRD CAO Heather Paul. “So our goal is that it would alleviate the burden on staff to make decisions and the film permitting process would be addressing that in a timely manner.”
Electoral Area B director Vivian-Birch Jones suggested looking to 麻豆社国产and Whistler’s already established film permitting process.
麻豆社国产Mayor Armand Hurford cited the environmental impact of filming as needing regulation. The unique landscapes under the SLRD’s purview—which directors repeatedly cited as bringing film and TV projects to the area in the first place—are home to a number of sensitive environmental areas and at-risk species.
Paul said the permitting process would address relevant aspects of the SLRD’s strategic priorities; namely, impacts to wildlife and the environment.
Whistler Mayor Jack Crompton motioned that staff focus the development of the filming policy on holding no harm on the SLRD related to the construction of film sets and a process that provides a timely turnaround of permits.
He also suggested the board exercise some restraint when it comes to the permitting process, not wanting to see the policy “grow beyond the planter box it’s in,” and adding that the province already has regulations around filming.
“We wouldn’t be inserting ourselves into the already-established film permitting process that the province has on public lands and parks,” Paul later clarified. “That would be outside of our jurisdiction. This is mainly focused on private lands and where the SLRD has jurisdiction.”
The new policy would make the SLRD the first regional district in B.C. to have a film-permitting process.
