Residents of Georgian Bluffs will not have a free garbage pass as of June 1st.
In an effort to expand the life span of the Georgian Bluffs land-fill, council will charge two dollars for every bag of garbage.
At last nights council meeting the motion was carried unanimously to eliminate the one free garbage bag.
Another motion was then presented which proposed a fee of two dollars per bag tag for all garbage bags.
It was carried by a vote of 4-3.
Mayor Alan Barfoot says he voted against the second motion because he wanted to phase it in with a one dollar fee to start with.
Councillor Judy Gay says the fee needs to be two dollars because they are facing closure of the landfill site and people are not taking the issue seriously.
Gay says 33 percent of residents are not recycling and she doesn’t think the fee is out of place for anybody.
Council is working on receiving approval from the Ministry of the Environment to recontour the landfill – which would provide another 15,000 cubic meters of space or roughly three more years.
Barfoot says without recontouring, the site only has about a year left.
He says they have been assured by the MOE that council will get approval as long as they complete a waste management master plan, which is underway.
The plan will detail how the township will deal with municipal garbage once the dump is closed and options to increase the landfill diversion rate.
A public meeting will be held on April 1st in council chambers to discuss the fees.