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Recycling should be a government service

I was extremely dismayed to read that the provincial government is planning on selling off all of the community-based recycling.

I was extremely dismayed to read in The NEWS that the provincial government is planning on selling off all of the community-based recycling organizations to a group of international corporations.

The Regional District of Nanaimo has one of the most progressive and successful recycling programs in the country.

Why would we even dream of privatizing something like that, and especially to companies based elsewhere, whose primary motivation will be their profits rather than our environment and jobs?

Why are we not demanding that the provincial government provide the services that we had an implicit contract with them to provide when we elected them and when we contributed our tax dollars?

Our agreement was that we would pay taxes and they would maintain our schools, hospitals, forests, parks, power, roads, ferries, recycling, and on and on. They have no right to sub-contract these services without our agreement.

And why would we agree to sub-contract to companies which will provide minimal wages and, presumably, no benefits, and thereby an ever-decreasing amount of spending power and taxable income to our province? This will inevitably lead to faster and faster decline of our communities to third world status with entirely foreign-based employers who have no concern for, nor investment in, the communities which are being exploited.

Lesley McVey

Qualicum Beach