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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
With one month to go before the two-bag curbside garbage bag limit grace period expires, Mayor Gord Van Tighem says people are still using the wrong containers.

Canadian Tire owner Warren Pariseau demonstrates the animal-security features now available on steel garbage pails. According to Mayor Gord Van Tighem, the 75-liter steel pails are the correct size to meet with the city's new solid waste restrictions. - Jesse Winter/NNSL photo

Van Tighem said the response from the community has been "quiet" since the two 77-litre bag limit was imposed in January, but "actually the problem hasn't been with the two bags, the problem is with the size of pail."

"The old metal garbage pail that Oscar the Grouch used to live in, that's the right size. What most people have are larger than that," Van Tighem said.

He said people can put un-bagged garbage directly into the smaller 75-liter metal cans. The larger plastic cans of 100 litres or more can still be used, but garbage must first be placed in 77-litre bags that meet the new restricted limits.

Aside from the can issue, Van Tighem said he doesn't foresee any challenges come April 1.

"We had very few problems on Jan. 1, before we even reminded people there was a grace system," Van Tighem said.

"We've been working towards this for the past eight or nine years. When I took over, I was told that the solid waste plant would last for seven more years. That was 13 years ago, and we've gotten there through reduced waste and more recycling," Van Tighem said.

But city councillor Dave Wind is still frustrated by the new limits.

"I think the whole thing is kind of like an abdication of the city's responsibility, which is to deal with the garbage people create and find an environmentally acceptable way to manage that garbage. That's one of a municipality's primary responsibilities," Wind said.

"My expectation is that people are wanting to deal with their garbage so they're coping in whatever way is available to them. One of the ways is to use bigger garbage cans or to put more into the cans without bagging them up first," Wind said.

The metal cans hold 75 liters, but the more popular plastic pails hold up to 133 liters, according to Warren Pariseau, the owner of Canadian Tire. He said the metal cans have been out-selling plastic ones recently.

Households that can't meet the two-bag limit must purchase $1 tags and attach them to additional bags in order for them to be collected. The tags are available at city hall and several stores around Yellowknife.

"Some of the larger families had to avail themselves of the $1 tokens in order to deal with their garbage when we imposed limits in the first place. It's regressive and penalizes larger families when they've already got larger bills and they are struggling.

"I expect that there will be a new flurry of anger on the part of residents who will wind up in a position where their garbage is not taken away because it wasn't packaged properly or they didn't have the tokens," Wind said.

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