Council should revisit garbage pickup decision

With great fanfare recently it was announced that we would be constructing a second cruise ship berth for Sydney Harbour at a cost of $20 million, split evenly between the three levels of government.

That’s great news for Cape Breton. Tourism has a major economic impact here. Cruise ships brought over 80,000 visitors and $23 million in spin-offs in 2016. The numbers in 2017 are expected to be even higher.

Cancellation of our heavy garbage collection, however, is a major mistake.

Cape Breton is often named among the most beautiful islands in the world by many magazines. There would be a negative impact on tourism to have visitors experience garbage piled up as they travelled to our island attractions. We want them to leave with a positive experience so they will give us great reviews and tell their friends.

As former chair of the Glace Bay Association for Safer Communities we often dealt with illegal dump sites and this decision will not only increase this practice but people’s yards will become unsightly when they can’t afford to have it hauled away.

Unsightly and cluttered yards will also lead to an increase in rodents, the number of which has already grown since the flood.

The amount of garbage created by the Thanksgiving Day flood was astronomical but these were not items that would normally be placed on curb side. This was the entire contents of the many homes affected by the flood.

If we can spend a third of the $20 million cost to build a new cruise ship berth, we need to spend the funds necessary to keep our communities clean so these tourists have an amazing visit to Cape Breton.

Council needs to revisit this decision. David MacKeigan Glace Bay