Listen In Folks - Raven Speaks Out about their Petition and Continued Calls to Action for Government Transparency
Raven ReCentre recently tabled a petition that gathered 620 signatures by supportive Yukoners calling the Yukon Government to answer for their lack of transparency about their decision to exclude Raven from processing community recycling materials. Listen in as Executive Director, Shannon Powell speaks on Yukon Morning about:
What the Petition’s calls to action are
How you can continue to support the initiative
What’s happening next in the ombudsman process
Here are the highlights:
Why has Raven presented this petition?
“Raven has always traditionally serviced the community depots. They [the depots] collect their items and we service them in Whitehorse. There are two processors in Whitehorse and the depots always got to decide which processor they would send their materials to.” says, Shannon Powell, Executive Director of Raven Recentre. And now that is no longer the case. Community depots no longer have the choice in who to send their material to and Raven was silently removed from their contract that they were midway through without any notice. Despite their good relations and longstanding work processing that recyclable material. Essentially, Richard Mostyn, the government’s Minister of Community Services and Minister responsible for the Workers' Safety and Compensation Board, took action against Raven, without giving any notice and has failed to provide any answers as to why this decision was made, choosing instead to continue spreading misinformation.
“If no action was taken [by the government], we would still be servicing the communities. We were mid contract, working with communities daily,” explains Shannon. “We’ve had longstanding relationships with communities. We’ve always provided a great service. We don’t understand why a monopoly is good for the territory. And we just want to have equal access”, she says. There is a case before the Ombudsman, who examines fair practices in a process. “Taking us off [the contract] without our knowledge and these actions are just not following the fair process, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what [the Ombudsman finds'] in their documents because we would like answers and we’re certainly not getting them from Richard Mostyn,” says Shannon.
620 people came out just to sign the petition. “We are so grateful for the outpouring of love and support we have experienced from the community.”
What the petition asks is 3 things:
Want ‘community material’ added back on our transfer payment agreement
Reinstate Raven as an eligible recycling processor on the contract
Let community depots choose who they would like to send their material to
What you can do:
While the petition is now closed, if you would you like to support Raven’s campaign, we invite you to write to Richard Mostyn’s office and ask the questions that we are seeking answers to and echoing these 3 demands. Tell him that you will not stand for this, and neither will the Yukon.
You can reach him here: Richard.Mostyn@yukon.ca.