The premier of B.C. agrees the developmentally disabled people working at the recycling depot in Maple Ridge are doing real work.

Christy Clark visited the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society's depot on Monday where the 29 developmentally disabled people who work there almost lost their jobs after Community Living BC said they needed to be doing "real work for real pay."

"It's not like this is busy work out there," Clark said. "The folks who are working out there are making a big contribution to their community."

In September, CLBC said it was cancel-ling $270,000 in funding for a program that had been in place at the Ridge Meadows Recycling depot for about 20 years, which would have meant most of the developmentally disabled people working there would lose their jobs.

Community Living BC "lost sight" of its core focus when it cancelled the program at the recycling depot, Clark said.

"It is my hope that mistakes like that won't happen again," Clark said.

"Thankfully, we caught the mistake... it illustrated, I think, for a lot of us the things that really needed badly to be fixed at CLBC," Clark said.

CLBC is undergoing restructuring its systems, with more focus on client needs, she added. It is also building new information systems to help it be more client focused. In addition, the province topped up CLBC's budget by $40 million.

That will mean "programs like this won't find themselves in danger in some kind of a cost-cutting exercise," Clark said.

The focus of her government is job creation, Clark said, but this isn't just for university-educated and trades people, but also for people who have developmental disabilities.

Not only do jobs put food on the table, she said, but work is also "meaningful."

"We all want to work, because working is part of what fulfills us," Clark said.

Kim Day, executive director of the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society, said the premier also wanted to see how the recycling depot works, and celebrated its 40 years of existence.

Day called the recycling depot "one-stop shopping" where all types of recyclables can be dropped off.

"We're really kind of different from other municipalities [in that] we keep it all on site," Day said.

Clark called the recycling depot a "very holistic community service."

"I'm impressed that Maple Ridge had the foresight to get into this 40 years ago," Clark said.

"I'm sure they had to struggle to convince the community that recycling was a good idea in the day when everyone just threw everything in the garbage - they deserve a lot of credit for the foresight they showed."

Clark reflected to the time 40 years ago when the society was set up, saying she didn't recall hearing about recycling in those days.

In addition, the society has expanded the number of items it can recycle, which impressed Clark.

"The toilets they collect are used to pave our roads," she exclaimed.

mrantanen@mrtimes.com