It looks like town residents will be paying $1 a bag to have their garbage picked up starting later this spring after council agreed to include it as part of the 2004 budget during a special meeting Wednesday night.
While the bylaw to implement “bag tags” effective May 31 has not been finalized, and won’t come before council for a vote at least until the 2004 budget has been finalized, council took a “straw vote” to see if they agreed to implement “bag tags,” which are a key component of the budget.
Mayor Dan Onichuk and Couns. Roy Avis, Tannis Drysdale, Todd Hamilton, Neil Kabel, and Rick Wiedenhoeft voted in favour of implementing the “bag tag” system while Coun. Struchan Gilson stood alone against it.
“I think it’s the wrong move. It’s against what we do in Canada. Everybody chips into the financial pot, everybody benefits,” said Coun. Gilson. “Garbage pick-up is part of the core services. It should be provided.
“I’m philosophically opposed to it, and it will stay that way,” he added, admitting his household produces an average on one bag of refuse per week.
But even those who ultimately agreed to “bag tags” had their questions. “How are we going to police it?” asked Coun. Avis.
“And what are the costs associated with policing it?” added Mayor Onichuk.
“The more we communicate with the public, the smoother the implementation should be,” said Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown.
In the long run, he added, implementing “bag tags” is a direction the town must go to encourage recycling and address the ever-increasing landfill.
“If people ‘buy it,’ it’s easier to enforce. If they don’t, the fines will be high,” noted Brown.
“I know what my initial approach will be. We have to back the bylaw up with very strong punitive power,” said Rick Hallam, superintendent of Planning and Development.
“But I don’t want to say what that will be prior to knowing what the reaction [to ‘bag tags’] is going to be,” he added.
Coun. Hamilton stressed he had faith residents would get use to “bag tags” and wouldn’t abandon their garbage all over town in protest.
Brown stressed to council he was a proponent of “bag tags,” which he also had to implement in Marathon, where he worked before coming here last year.
“I’m pro ‘bag tag’ because I’ve seen it work,” he remarked. “It makes sense from a ‘green’ point-of-view, and is needed to fund this utility [landfill operation].”
Besides taking a vote to agree on “bag tags” in principle, council also had to choose whether residents would:
•get five introductory bag tags when the program is implemented, and then have to pay $1/bag thereafter;
•get 30 free tags when the program begins, and then 52 at the beginning of each year thereafter, and pay $1 per tag for any needed on top of those; or
•get 30 free tags, and then 52 a year thereafter, but pay $1.50 per tag for any above that.
Mayor Onichuk and Coun. Wiedenhoeft voted in favour of option three while the rest of council voted in favour of option one.
Option one is expected to bring in $120,000 in revenue in 2004 and $252,000 in subsequent years.
Without “bag tags” at all, taxpayers likely would see an increase of three-four percent.
At least one public meeting is expected to be held in May, prior to council voting on the bylaw to implement the new system May 31.
This meeting will not be to get the public’ input, however, but to inform them of how the “bag tag” system will work.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
