Vancouver’s squeaky-clean image may be sullied

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, has topped the lists of the most desirable places to live for the past few years, with its natural beauty, high standard of living and booming economy. The darling of North America may have an image struggle coming up now a municipal garbage strike has begun.

Dave parker, of the Vancouver Board of Trade commented, “If we go on a month or two and there’s bulging garbage containers and stuff on the streets and so on, one could expect to see that that would have a deleterious effect.”

He was also candid that the city’s image as a tourist destination could be hurt because of this. More than the tourism sector though, the construction industry could suffer since inspectors and permits are part of the same department.

A staff member of the Vancouver Regional Construction Association, Keith Sashaw said, “So on some of the larger projects, the non-residential projects, it’ll be some time before the impact will be felt. On the residential side of things it’ll be a bit more immediate because it usually is the municipal building inspector that does those inspections.”

The intense construction also has something to do with the city needing to prepare for the 2010 winter Olympics, and delay could spell trouble if the strike is not resolved quickly.