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The Lindsay Post is running a weekly series of questions, with answers by both the "Yes" and "No" sides of the issues.
Question #21:
How will your system of local government reduce the amount of garbage going to landfill?
The Victoria County "Yes" Campaign, which has staked out its turf on this side of the page for how many weeks now, believes passionately in the restoration of the two-tier system of local government for a number of reasons. Not the least of which are fairer taxes, greater flexibility, and more accountable local councillors.
We do not believe, however, that de-amalgamation will bring peace to the Middle East, cure gum disease, help the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup, or convince Justin Timberlake to give up singing.
Nor do we believe that a return to our roots as a County and sixteen municipalities system of local government will reduce the amount of garbage going to the dump. That doesn't mean that it will increase the amount of trash being produced either. It isn't the system of local government that produces trash. People produce trash.
We will go out on a limb and guess that the "No" side has raised the issue of the two bag limit that came into effect since we became the City of Kawartha Lakes. The two bag limit was the result of political will and had nothing to do with the system of local government.
After de-amalgamation, the two tier system has the flexibility of assigning waste management to the County level if that makes sense. It can raise or lower the bag limit, depending on political will. The City of Kawartha Lakes could also raise or lower the bag limit, again, depending on political will. Bag limits alone will not solve the solid waste problem.
A whole range of factors determines the amount of garbage which humans produce. Here are some of them. An informed citizenry willing to practise the three "Rs": reduce, recycle, reuse. The availability of information on how to compost organic waste. The availability of markets for recyclables. The bag limit itself: set the limit too high and our landfills will reach capacity before their time; set the limit too low and trash has a tendency to end up in the ditches of quiet country roads.
The availability of technology, and the willingness of governments to try alternative technologies plays a role too. For all its size, money and the supposed advantages of the single-tier system, the City of Toronto can come up with no better solution to its landfill problems than trucking the stuff down the 401 to Michigan.
In the first year of its existence the City of Kawartha Lakes heard from an entrepreneur who had developed a trash disposal system using a diesel-fired incinerator. Probably not wanting to be the guinea pig, and waiting to see if any other municipality would stick its toe in the water first, the City did not pursue the proposal. This was a political decision having everything to do with an unwillingness to experiment with new technologies, and nothing to do with a one-tier versus two-tier system of government.
The era of the local dump located over in the crummy section of the town or village is over. We will have to deal with the very real problem of waste disposal on an area-wide or regional basis. Provincial laws will see to that.
The two-tier system will give us the flexibility of solid waste management at the County level. If lower-tier municipalities can demonstrate that garbage pick-up can be handled more efficiently at the local level we will have the flexibility of that option.
Again, the amount of garbage going into the dump depends on a lot of factors. The system of local government isn't one of them. Oh, and Justin Timberlake? No offence intended.