There has been noise of late with respect to following the lead of Leaf Rapids, Thompson and The Pas and banning single-use plastic bags within Snow Lake.
A proposal has progressed to the point where a by-law banning bags was given first reading at the May 3 meeting of council.
Two council members are supporting what they have christened the Plastic Bag Initiative.
Councillor Richard Jones said the idea was brought forward by a ratepayer and that he and Deputy Mayor Jodi Wilson picked up on it.
“Of course most everybody thinks we should get rid of plastic just because of the mess it leaves… so that is where it took off,” said Jones of council’s involvement.
“We both feel really strongly about this and are lovers of animals, so to go [to that area of the dump] and look at the mess, you just want to cry,” Wilson concurred. “That’s a disgrace for our community.”
Wilson said she has spoken to downtown businesses and home-based businesses – 98 per cent reacted positively to the initiative.
She said the one concern she received was about home-based businesses that use plastic bags for their branding. “They didn’t want to lose that,” she said.
At the meeting, council members were asked if they had studied what impact banning single-use plastic bags would have on garbage bag use, as many people reuse their bags from stores. Council was asked: Wouldn’t people just go and buy plastic bags to use for their garbage?
Jones said that he uses plastic bags for garbage himself. “It doesn’t make sense for garbage bags to be eliminated; that was not even on the radar,” he said.
Jones says he hopes the initiative, with its inherent by-law and information, will help change people’s way of thinking, although he knows there will be resistance. However, he also thinks doing away with single-use bags is inevitable and something that will be forced on people by way of taxes.
Councillors were also asked if they had discussed the effect a similar ban has had in Thompson, and whether it has cut down on mess in the city and at their dump. Council replied that they hadn’t. However, Wilson said she has spoken to representatives from The Pas who said the city’s ban has been quite effective.
Council was also asked if they had people bring up other areas requiring attention in relation to garbage, such as the controversial twice-weekly pickup and having garbage contracted, rather than operated in-house.
Both council members said that neither issue had come up, nor were they areas of concern with regard to this particular initiative.
Jones noted these issues are real and being addressed; however, he said he and fellow council members are capable of multi-tasking in order to deal with all issues.
As noted, the Town of Snow Lake has given first reading to the by-law eliminating bags, but they still want to hear back from people on the issue.
They tried doing this via a vote on their website, but due to the inability to limit the number of times people could vote from the same computer, the vote was hijacked, rendered inaccurate and it is therefore useless.
It does appear that the majority of Snow Lake’s residents are in favour of the tack the two councillors are taking.
However, to allow everyone an opportunity to be heard, to adjust to becoming a (plastic) bagless community, and for store owners to get their current inventory of bags through the system, Jones says council is shooting for an early 2017 effective date.
Council members are interested in ratepayer feedback and will have Plastic Bag Incentive Forms available at the town office for people to make their opinions known. As well, a dedicated email address for comments or further information has been set up. It is: [email protected].
My Take on Snow Lake is published on Fridays.
