Garbage tag expiry unfair, says Grey Highlands business owner

Grey Highlands council has agreed to extend the validity of its garbage bag tags indefinitely.

Council made the decision at its meeting on July 19 after a local business owner made a presentation pointing out the June 30, 2023 expiry date on the bag tags and suggesting it wasn’t fair to residents who bought months' worth of tags ahead of time.

Lesley Telfser, owner of the Rocklyn Inn Bed and Breakfast/Ice Cream and Snack Shop, spoke to council about the issue.

“It’s a service myself and others have paid for,” said Telfser. “I don’t believe it’s fair or right for them not to be able to use the tags they paid for with their hard-earned money.”

Earlier this year, Grey Highlands switched from traditional garbage bag pickup to a bin/cart system. At the time of the decision, council decided that bag tags would no longer be valid after June 30, 2023.

Although bag tags are no longer used for home garbage pick up, many residents still use the stickers to take garbage to local landfill sites.

Telfser told council she would buy six months to a year’s worth of stickers in advance and she used the stickers to take extra garbage generated by her business to the local landfill.

“They should, in my opinion, not expire,” she said.

Later in the meeting, council held a lengthy discussion about the matter that centred around the question of whether to extend the expiry date for the bag tags or provide residents with a refund for their purchase.

Council went through several procedural twists to get the item on the agenda, as a resolution to reconsider the earlier decision was necessary and then an amendment to the original resolution was necessary.

“I don’t see much of an issue with extending the timeline or removing it altogether,” said Coun. Joel Loughead, who noted that the Ontario government had eliminated expiration dates on gift cards purchased from retail stores. “I don’t see this as being a whole lot different.”

Loughead also noted that council had set the June 30 deadline for the expiration of the tags under the assumption that local residents would have used up their supply by that point.

Coun. Paul Allen wondered if the municipality should extend the deadline to use the tags with a firm end date down the road, but also offer the option of a refund as well. Allen said he was concerned the tags could continue in circulation for a long time.

“It could go on for years. At some point, we need to cut it off. We need to draw the line somewhere,” he said.

However, the refund/hard end date suggestion didn’t get much traction with the rest of council. Instead, council voted 5-2 in favour of an amendment from Mayor Paul McQueen to eliminate the expiry date from the original motion. Effectively, existing bag tags will be valid forever, unless council decides otherwise. Allen and Deputy Mayor Dane Nielsen were opposed.

“When these tags were purchased, there was no expiry date,” said McQueen, who expressed frustration at how complicated the discussion had become. “We’ve spent more time on this than a subdivision agreement. This way, it’s clean – let (local residents) use (the tags) up and they’re gone.”