Yellowknife power engineer Stewart Pallard has announced that he will make a bid for a city council seat.
Pallard seeks to address issues such illegal dumping, dumping fees, local business assistance and homelessness, he stated in a news release on Tuesday.
He wants to “make it easier for Yellowknife residents to properly dispose of their trash” and “feels that the city’s current rules make it too difficult for people to follow the rules,” he stated.
Instead, Pallard feels that the municipality should give households more wiggle room in the size of garbage bin that they can use.
“Better waste disposal practices will reduce illegal dumping,” he contended. “Illegal dumping is not only an eyesore on Yellowknife’s natural beauty, but it can also threaten our environment. It’s irresponsible to ignore the issue and pretend it doesn’t exist because it is happening.”
“It doesn’t make sense that a family of five or six has to use the same size of garbage bin that a household of one or two people use,” he continued. “Municipalities across Canada allow flexibility on this issue, but for some reason we don’t allow it in Yellowknife.”
With regards to dumping fees, Pallard wants to look at lowering the overall cost.
“If you make it expensive for someone to dispose of waste, whether it be a car, or stove or refrigerator, they will dump it somewhere on the Ingraham Trail or at the Sand Pits,” said Pallard. “It’s important that the city tries to cover its costs with fees, but we also need to remember that the point of a dump is so that there’s a place where people can dispose of waste safely and legally.”
He did not provide comments on what actions he would take to address the current climate for local businesses and to tackle homelessness.
Pallard holds a bachelor of arts and majored in political science at the University of Calgary; he also attained a public relations career diploma from MacEwan University in Edmonton; and he holds a third-class Power Engineering Certificate of Competency.