EDITOR,
Squamish would undoubtedly be a different town today had not been for a small group of committed citizens. When word leaked that SNC Lavalin Inc. was planning to build a medical waste incinerator in eagle habitat, close to the shores of the Squamish River, we knew we had to do something — anything in our power — to stop this from happening.
One winter evening, in a basement in the Cheakamus Valley, a few of us gathered together to discuss how we could possibly get the best of a multi-national company. The odds were against us.
Diligently, we worked with all that we had, using our skills and knowledge to the best of our ability. We went door to door. We spoke out. We wrote. We went to council meetings.
And we won!
But we didn’t know it. They withdrew and they backed off, and we cheered, but we also expected them to come back. But they never did. Did we ever truly have a celebration party? I don’t think we did.
We can celebrate now, though, now that there isn’t a looming incinerator plant burning waste material into our precious, clean valley air. I think the eagles are celebrating, and the salmon, the herring and the orcas, too…
Never say a small group of committed citizens can’t change the world.
Melanie Cochrane
Squamish
P.S. — Whoever remembers the smell of Woodfibre in this valley of the winds… let us all think about that… and are there pipelines proposed to go through the estuary? I believe so. What about the huge amount of gas that has to go over this rock of a mountain to/from Vancouver Island? Isn’t that a bit of a security and safety concern? The tankers coming and going out of Howe Sound… SNC, LNG. They sound kind of the same, don’t they?
