Cranbrook council has directed staff to bring forward a report to support a grant application by the municipality for organics collection.
On Dec. 3, the Ministry of Environment opened up a grant program that could cover two-thirds of a curbside organics collection project.
Funding will be available in 2025/26 and 2026/27.
Councillor Lynnette Wray says this would be a good grant for the city to capitalize on.
“This is a positive action step that we can do as the City of Cranbrook regarding climate change,” she said.
“I think it’s very timely and very important. I’m hopeful that our motion will be supported.”
Mayor Wayne Price likes the idea but is concerned about the remaining cost that would be on the city.
“I certainly like the idea but looking at our situation right now with our budget, we’ve got some real serious decisions to make over the next couple of years,” he said.
He says they need to learn how to say no to some of these things.
“This is the difficult part for every council across Canada. There are some really good ideas and I really appreciate the amount of work that’s gone into this It’s a tremendous amount of work, but we’re not very good at saying no,” he said.
“This is a great idea but can we afford it right now?”
Councillors Wayne Stetski, Wray and Norma Blissett voted in favour of council bringing forward a report to support an application.
Mayor Price and councillor Wes Graham voted against it. Councillors Mike Peabody and Ron Popoff were not in attendance.
The report will be before council in the Jan. 27 council meeting.
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