Trash talk leads to saving garbage day in Ignace, Ontario
Town settles on plan to have homeowners pay based on number of garbage bags at curb
Homeowners in Ignace, Ont., will still need to mark garbage day on their calendars.
In March, the town council looked at discontinuing curbside pickup, as a way to save about $50,000 from the annual budget.
But all the trash talk in the community about 250 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, came to an end a few weeks ago when council agreed to implement a user pay, or bag tag system.
"Everybody was all stressed because they weren't going to have anymore garbage [pickup]. So, when they find out they're going to, of course, they're happy," said Mayor Lee Kennard.
Kennard said a public meeting, which most of the town attended, demonstrated people in the community are passionate about their curbside garbage pickup.
The concept of bag tags was introduced at that meeting, he said.
"I never heard no complaints, and when we had our public meeting and talked about it, that was the most popular opinion," said Kennard.
The cost of tossing trash in Ignace will be $1.50 per bag. Businesses with dumpsters will pay an annual flat fee of $1,200 while restaurants and apartments with manual loading of garbage will pay $2,400 per year.
Kennard said the goal is to have the user pay system in place by July, but some details, such as where the bag tags will be sold, still need to be sorted out.
"We're going to have them at the town office, but we haven't decided where. We tried to put them at a few businesses, but they wasn't too keen on selling them so. We're talking about maybe the library, but we'll see."