District of Muskoka staff presented council at its August 21 meeting with two options for addressing concerns regarding solid waste disposal service inequities.
The issue was prompted by a resolution from the Township of Muskoka Lakes in March, which asked the District to improve equity for ratepayers who do not use their property and the service year-round. The resolution requests that the District modify its waste disposal service to provide free garbage bag tags for seasonal residents, particularly those who do not receive curbside pickup.
District Council has discussed the issue for months but has been unable to reach a consensus, with some councillors pointing out that a Solid Waste Masterplan is in the works.
The first and recommended option presented to council would maintain a two-bag drop-off limit at waste disposal facilities instead of implementing a one clear bag limit, as planned for January 1, 2026.
“As part of the Solid Waste Master Plan project currently underway, it has been recognized that waste disposal in the District presents challenges from multiple perspectives. While acknowledging the difficulties faced by some system users, including second home residents, staff recommend restoring the drop-off limit of two garbage bags per week (set to drop to one garbage bag per week on January 1, 2026) until the feasibility of a “pay-as -you-throw” model can be fully explored through the Master Plan process,” states the report from staff.
While the second option recommended a scaled pilot that would see a set number of garbage bag tags for residential drop off only properties in both the Township of Muskoka Lakes and the Township of
Georgian Bay.
Councillor Brenda Rhodes was not prepared to approve either. “I’m not saying that this doesn’t need to be looked at but it needs to be looked at in the totality of the Master Plan. By making one-off decisions, it doesn’t make sense because we need to know ramifications of cost a little further… and see the full plan in its totality,” she said, adding that option two is going backwards and adding more garbage to the landfill.
Councillor Heidi Lorenz questioned what problem the District was trying to solve. She said she would not be supporting either recommendation, while Councillor Peter Kelly concurred, although for different reasons. “I don’t think that this actually solves the problem that we were trying to solve,” he said, adding that it’s a critical issue for at least half of the residents who feel they’re deriving very little value from the service, and many of them are on curbside pickup.
Councillor Peter Koetsier said option two was far too complicated. “One thing we have to recognize [is] that this is, should I say, symbolic or indicative of the fact that a significant portion of our residents simply are not getting service. Full stop.”
In the end, council agreed to postpone further discussions on the issue until the joint meeting of the Engineering and Public Works and Finance and Corporate Services committees in October.
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