The government’s decision to close waste transfer facilities in four rural communities continues to face substantial opposition from those communities.

A petition by 32 residents of Silver City and other communities along the northern stretch of the Alaska Highway implore Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn to reverse his decision to close the transfer station at Silver City.

Mostyn and his predecessor, John Streicker, have been accused of not carrying out any consultation on the initiative to close transfer stations in Silver City, Keno City, Johnson’s Crossing and Braeburn.

The 32 residents met with Mostyn last Monday in Destruction Bay to discuss the matter.

In a subsequent letter to Premier Sandy Silver, one resident said residents were hoping to have a meaningful exchange of views.

“Instead, what we met with was a rather shocking display of arrogance and condescension on the part of the minister, who obstinately refused to engage with us in a rational manner, and actually seemed unable to even hear the concerns of our community at all,” says the letter.

The letter described the meeting as an appalling train wreck.

The petition calls on the minister to conduct meaningful engagement and consultation with residents in the Kluane region, and to work with locals to keep the Silver City transfer station open.

If the minister cannot comply, the petition asks him “to resign so that someone who is interested in fairly representing and working with rural Yukoners be given the chance to do so.”

In a column written by Mostyn that was published in Friday’s Star, the minister defended the decision to close the transfer stations. He suggested it is the right thing to do to protect the environment and manage the waste stream more closely.

He said the government knows if it keeps small sites open, unsupervised and free, people would drive to them and “dump nasty waste” in them for convenience and to avoid paying tipping fees.

“So we are closing the smallest four transfer stations to prevent free, unsupervised dump,” Mostyn wrote.

“The few people currently living near those stations are all reasonably close to now-supervised landfills that are collecting tipping fees.”

The minister said in his column he would not resign, as he said was demanded by Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon.

He wrote the Yukon Party wants to continue tossing garbage, waste oil, paints, batteries, old couches and waste metals freely into the environment without supervision or cost.

In a follow-up interview this morning, Mostyn emphasized it was the municipalities that asked the government back in 2017 for rules, control and consistency around garbage disposal to limit pollution and their liability.

Having the waste stream go to one of the eight landfills that are staffed and outfitted with control gates ensures proper disposal and management of the waste, he said.

Mostyn said the tipping fees collected will also cover about 20 per cent of the cost of disposal and management of the waste.

Yukon Party spokesman Tim Kucharuk said Friday in an email Dixon did not ask for Mostyn’s resignation.

“However, due to the minister’s arrogance and mishandling of the file, several residents have suggested that if he is not willing to properly listen or consult then he should resign.

“We encourage the minister to start listening and actually consult with rural Yukoners,” says the email.

Silver City resident Suzanne Tremblay said in an interview last week the government is using a calculation of only 10 residents living in the community to support its decision.

But there’s also the waste stream from other sources such as the culture camp, tourist traffic, contractors, the research centre and seasonal miners, she pointed out.

Tremblay said the closure will force community members and the others to drive the 30 kilometres to the landfills in Haines Junction or Burwash to dump their waste.

As it is, she said, the compaction garbage truck drives up to Destruction Bay regularly to empty its bins, then stops at Silver City to empty their bins before returning to Whitehorse to dump the garbage at the Whitehorse landfill.

Tremblay said she doesn’t know exactly when the government is going to close the transfer station because the government is not sharing that information, just as Mostyn didn’t share it last Monday night.

But the minister did indicate it would be anytime soon, she said.

Amber Smith of Keno City has the same concerns with the decision to close their transfer station, resulting in locals having to drive the 120-kilometre round trip to Mayo to dispose of their waste.

Forcing seniors to make the drive on a mostly gravel road does not support the government’s aging in place strategy, says a letter written by Smith.

Mostyn said residents of Keno City regularly drive to Mayo to get gas or groceries.

The Watson Lake landfill is up and running with a control gate and tipping fees, and is doing well, he noted.

Smith said the government has “grossly underestimated” the number of facility users, failing to take into account the tourists, campers, placer miners, hunters and users along the Silver Trail.

“We learned three years ago that the transfer station was slated for future closure, despite our best efforts efforts to dialogue and the present data/ information contrary to that of YG,” Smith writes.

“We believe that YG staff have cherry-picked the statistics to justify the decision. We believe our data makes the case for keeping our transfer station.”

The general concerns raised in submissions to the government include the risk that forcing residents to store their garbage at home for longer periods could lead to more bear encounters.