Something might be getting lost in the never-ceasing debate our citizens are having over how garbage is collected from the businesses and residences in Estevan and subsequently deposited in a landfill.
Local citizens have the right to debate ad nauseum the merits of retrieving refuse from a backyard or a front yard. After all, it's been a ridiculously hot topic for three years or more, so why quit now?
But what we are missing perhaps is the fact that collection of the garbage is a first line of defence when it comes to the healthy well-being of our citizens.
Try leaving garbage uncollected for three weeks and see what happens.
You think a stray rat here and there is unsightly and unacceptable. Try three or four weeks of no pick up.
Besides unwanted pests, we would have to deal with the stench. Even with weekly pick up, a couple of extra-warm days delivers that message to our nostrils quite clearly.
Add to those, the actual traffic movement problems we would encounter if our garbage had to be heaped into unsightly mounds.
The conga line of vehicles making their way to the local landfill would create another traffic jam. And while we don't hesitate to help our neighbours with a quick boost or a push out of a snowbank in the winter would we be just as thoughtful, helpful and understanding with his 400 pounds of stinking garbage?
So we believe we've painted a clear enough picture of alternatives.
We, along with every other community, require a systematic solid waste management and disposal plan, which we have.
Let us be thankful for that.
Without the service by whomever, wherever and by whatever means, regular and efficient garbage pick up allows our consumption machines to keep operating. We can throw out the old, open the packages of the new, discard what's left over and keep moving on without giving the discard topic another thought, unless you're obsessed with the front or back issue.
We have a solid waste collection system in play. We pay a healthy price for it, as does everyone else in North America.
The system of collection currently being used in Estevan is cleaner and quicker than any hand-picked system devised by man so far and there have been no threats of garbage collection strikes or refusals to comply with reasonable requests.
Estevan is now entering into a new system of recycling materials, which will allow us to move forward in an environmentally responsible manner. Yes, it will cost us something. It always has and always will, whether it be through increased property taxes or increased fees for service.
We can hardly wait for the public debate on this subject.
In the meantime, perhaps it's time for us to stand back and contemplate the state of our city if we didn't have an efficient garbage collection system in play.
Suddenly a pocketbook and geographic discussion would turn to one of health scares, odours and vermin control that would dwarf any made-up complaints we have now.
