It could take another two years for Muskoka to have a policy on how waste is collected on privately owned roads.
A report by Renee Recoskie, director of waste management and environmental services, was discussed during the Feb. 21 Engineering and Public Works Committee meeting detailing district staff’s recommendation to wait until 2026 to figure out a waste collection policy for privately owned roads, which could include adding more common collection points.
If it gets put into action, she said it would give the district a consistent policy to deal with the 232 private roads in Muskoka.
Recoskie said there are some formal and informal waste collection agreements on top of a handful of common collection points. However, there isn’t an overarching policy for how to deal with collecting from private roads.
She explained in her report that a common collection point is an established point where multiple properties can drop off their waste.
“Staff have received several requests from property owners seeking to extend curbside collection or [common collection points] services along privately owned roads,” she wrote.
Until the new policy is in place, Recoskie said all requests will be delayed.
Recoskie explained the reason for the delay was to give staff time to finish its bin site transition project. The process will see all unlicensed waste bin sites removed by 2026.
According to a Jan. 2024 report by Mark Misko, who was the interim director of waste management and environmental services at the time, there are 88 unlicensed sites in Muskoka.
Multiple people around the district council table, including District Chair Jeff Lehman, wondered what will be done over the next couple of years until a policy is in place.
“2026 is a fair ways out and I can imagine that residents are not going to understand immediately why two years are needed to develop a policy,” he said.
Recoskie and James Steele, commissioner of engineering and public works, said they don’t have the staff resources to do this project right away.
“There are just a number of things all happening in parallel, so we do have limited staff,” explained Steele. He added the projects include transitioning to a new blue box program this fall and the overarching waste diversion goal.
“There is no intent to reduce the level of service,” continued Steele.
He pointed out that what is being discussed is not currently offered by the district anyway, so if council proceeded with this, it would increase the district’s service levels.