Page 2 - The Reporter, Wednesday, June 6, 2007

WAYCOBAH– A groupof local high school stu-dents wants the province toselect an official name forits soil.

We’koqma’q high schoolstudents involved in theprovincial Envirothonmade a case for selectingQueensoil as the officialname for Nova Scotia soilto Premier RodneyMacDonald last week.

Student Victoria Googoosaid soil is one of the cate-gories dealt with in theEnvirothon, which is howthe lack of a provincial soilwas noticed.

“We wanted to get theprovincial soil named. PEIhas their own soil, NewBrunswick, Quebec,Manitoba and Alberta,”Listed Googoo. “We justwant to be on the list as

well.”Looking in to possible

names, the students discov-ered Queensoil is prevalentin 14 of 18 Nova Scotiancounties.

MacDonald said NovaScotia Forestry Associationexecutive director DebbieWaycott approached hisoffice about the Envirothonand how much studentsbenefitted from the pro-gram.

“She talked about theirinterest in wanting aprovincial soil named,”said MacDonald. “I indicat-ed to her that if we had theappropriate research, I’d bewilling to take a look at itand if it makes sense, I willintroduce the bill.”

It isn’t often students getinvolved in such a topic,much less pursue it to sucha degree said MacDonald,who said he is going to do

some research on his own. “My intention is to go

and have a bill drafted withrespect to provincial soil,”he said. “But I will have toask and seek more advice

because you want to makesure that it is unique toNova Scotia and that it

touches as many parts ofNova Scotia as possible.”

Students lobby for Nova Scotia soilBy Matt Draper

The Reporter

Photo by Matt Draper

Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald stopped in at the Waycobah Elementary school to hear a presentation onthe official naming of Nova Scotia’s soil. In the front are (from the left): Tera Julian, Premier Rodney MacDonald,Andrew Smith, Victoria Googoo and Daniella Bernard. In the back row are (from the left): principal John Bernard,Whitney Googoo, Evan Toney and Earl Gould.

Waste rateincreases inMulgrave

M U L G R AV E – To w nwaste collection is up in thepast few months but councilhopes it will drop.

During the regular meet-ing of Mulgrave TownCouncil on Monday, council-lor Art Carter announced thetown unloaded about 39tonnes of waste at theGuysborough landfill inApril.

“We’re now doing thecontract ourselves,” saidMayor Leonard MacDonaldof the town’s waste collec-tion. “We have been tellingpeople to put out what theywould normally put out. Wemay have to look at doingthat once a month becausethere’s been so much comingforward.

When asked how muchthe recent tonnage is up,MacDonald said at least 20tonnes.

“This is just regulargarbage,” MacDonald said.“Whatever it is I’m not surebut there seems to be a lot ofit going out. I’m hoping thatit’s going to level off. If notit’s going to be a concernbecause our costs for tippingfees is going to skyrocket.”

MacDonald said he hasno reason to believe resi-dents aren’t properly sortingtheir waste. He said heassumes people are justcleaning up.

“Our community looksgreat in the spring. Peopleput a lot of effort into theirproperties and it’s certainlyincumbent upon us to takewhat we have to take to thelandfill.”

By Matt DraperThe Reporter

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