Foothills Landfill not changing to summer hours

You won’t be able to use the Foothills Landfill past 5:00 pm this summer.

The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George made a decision in late 2017 following a review of the operating hours for the landfill.

“The review was prompted by the direction of the Regional District Board to find efficiencies within solid waste operations and the increasing challenges to find operating staff during the current hours,” said Petra Wildaeur, General Manager for Environmental Services for the RDFFG.

According to her, the review also included a comparison of the operating hours of other landfills in the province.

“It also examined commercial and residential usage patterns at Foothills. It determined that there were times of the day that saw a smaller volume of traffic.”

“We considered a number of options that would create more operational efficiencies and ease staffing challenges,” said Wildaeur.   

Prince George City Councillor Brian Skakun voiced concerns about the decision in a Facebook post this week, saying he found it “unacceptable.”

“A number of concerns come to mind including more illegal dumping, to many folks who cannot get to the landfill by 5 pm and more.”

Wildaeur did not think the public had taken issue with the hours.

“First of all, this is the second call (from MyPGNow) the District has received about the hours, so I wouldn’t say the majority of people are unhappy about them from that statistic.”

“Second of all, illegal dumping was an issue when there were 24/7 operations at our transfer stations and it’s an issue no matter what we do. Illegal dumping is an attitude, every other regional district has the same problem no matter what their hours are. Our hours in the District still exceed the majority of every other solid waste facility in the province.”

Though the hours are changing, Wildauer said the budget impact is “absolutely zero.”

Transfer stations and hours can be found via this link.