But he said Multi Material has taken steps to even the playing field for rural communities by assuming transportation costs, including ferry charges. "While we have a standard formula, we've tried to make it consistent and make sure that rural areas weren't at a disadvantage," he said. "We feel that's a way to equalize the approach for both rural and urban [areas]." Tom Watkins, CRD solid waste and recycling operations manager, said the CRD was able to offset the shortfall for island depots this year using excess funding from Multi Material blue-box collection payments from other municipalities, as well as revenue from landfill tipping fees. Whether or not the CRD continues its relationship with the Southern Gulf Islands after April 30 will be decided by the CRD board. "CRD staff are working with island depots to better understand their potential cost reduction strategies to fully inform the CRD board on decisions it will make regarding future funding commitments," Watkins said.