Some big B.C. cities like Maple Ridge’s ideas, especially when it comes to keeping the compost waste stream clean.
This year, all four of Maple Ridge’s resolutions brought to the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention last week in Vancouver were approved.
One was to get government to ban plastic-coated, round sticky labels that are stuck on pieces of fruit at grocery stores.
Coun. Craig Speirs said the stickers pose a problem for backyard composters because the plastic labels contaminate the finished soil product.
“So they end up as a problem for people who do residential composting.”
That resolution passed, but even in stronger form, asking the government to impose a complete ban on any kind of labels on fruit.
There are other technologies that can replace stickers, such as cold laser tatooing, while many fruits don’t even need labels, he added.
“They’re putting stickers on things that don’t need stickers,” said Speirs.
Why does a banana need a label saying it’s a banana, he asked.
Speirs said compost processors are rejecting loads of compost or green waste from grocery stores because of the contamination by plastic stickers.
“It’s the biggest frustration in commercial composting.”
The resolution will be forwarded to the province and also to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities next year, which could forward it to Ottawa.
Foremost for Coun. Kiersten Duncan was her idea to remove discrimination by insurance companies for people with mental health issues.
That resolution was also endorsed.
The resolution was to require companies to provide equal insurance coverage to those with mental health issues, just as insurance is provided those with physical ailments.
The Canadian Psychiatric Association takes a similar position.
The city also asked that fellow mayors and councillors tighten up regulations against those who harass people who have guide dogs. It says in its resolution that people with guide or service dogs are repeatedly asked for ID, subjected to government red tape and denied access to public space.
Another resolution that also passed was to require and enable schools to provide training for Naloxone administration for overdoses in schools.
A previous resolution by Duncan calling for criminal record checks for candidates running in municipal elections didn’t get one vote at the preceding Lower Mainland Local Government Association convention and, thus, didn’t make it to UBCM.
Duncan had tried last year to bring forward the same resolution.
She said her colleagues treated the resolution as a joke.
“I feel obligated to bring it back.”