Waste not, Jasperites. The municipality’s Environmental Services department is in the process of creating a more equitable fee structure for the municipality’s solid waste services. As part of the plan, a meeting has been set for Friday (March 31) at 1 p.m. in the upstairs meeting room of the Emergency Services Building, to begin discussions with the public on the changes.

“We wanted to have public participation,” said Ken Quackenbush, director of environmental services. “We need people to understand that our costs are going up and our mandate from council is to run our utilities as self-funding operations.”

It’s likely that any reconfiguration of the fee structure will mean a rate increase, but this first meeting is an opportunity for interested parties to have their say on those alterations.

“We want to develop a new rate structure that’s fair,” said Nicole Ward, the environmental stewardship coordinator for the town. “The meeting is going to be a brainstorming event with time for open discussion.”

While the meeting is open to any and all who want to attend, invitiations have been extended to representatives from the private home accommodation association, local hoteliers, the Rotary Club and Jasper Tourism and Commerce, Ward said.

When council set the rate restructuring task in February, they called for a multi-stakeholder committee to be set up and while this week’s meeting is being presented in those terms, Ward said that the format these discussions will take depends on attendance.

“We have to come back to council at the end of April with recommendations from these discussions; so whether there’s one or more meetings I can’t say. It’s not rigid.”

The elimination of the municipal subsidy for solid waste removal is set to take effect on July 1, so there is a degree of flexibility in the interim, she added.

“It does leave us a window. If it looks like we need to have more discussion, I’m sure we’ll have the time.”

The municipality also approved the terms of reference for another committee at their meeting last Tuesday (March 21). The environmental stewardship committee will be constituted of one representative from Parks Canada, five members of the public and councillor Joe Couture, with Mike Day acting as the alternate.

“In our vision statement we have said that we are going to be environmentally responsible and the environment is all around us, both inside the community and out,” said Couture who volunteered rather eagerly to take the council representative’s spot on the committee. He hopes that the public at large is as enthusiastic.

“That’s the question that has to be answered,” he said. “There are definitely people who are interested in the environment but I also don’t think that it’s something that’s on their mind every day.”

For Ward, the creation of the committee is a major step forward in promoting her work and the goals of her position as environmental stewardship coordinator.

“The concept has been around for awhile,” she said. “I’ve really worked on raising community awareness and there are those things that everyone already knows about like composting and recycling. I’m really excited to have a committee because I think the generation of ideas is going to be phenomenal.”

Ward believes that there will be plenty of interest in the committee.

“I can tell you that the buzz is out there,” she said. “People call me all the time with great ideas and I can’t go out socially without having one of those conversations.”

Anyone chomping at the bit to get involved will have to wait for a few weeks yet. Ward anticipates an organizational meeting for the committee could be held at the beginning of May.

“It would be nice to have some conversation in advance of Environment Week (June 4-10) and then maybe we can have some sort of public event around that time that the committee can be part of it,” Ward said.