There has been noise of late in respect to following the lead of Leaf Rapids, Thompson and The Pas and banning single-use plastic bags within Snow Lake. The proposal began several months back and has progressed to the point where a bylaw banning bags was given first reading at the May 3 meeting of council. Sitting down with the two people on council who are pushing what they have christened the “Plastic Bag Initiative,” they explained how it came about and what they hope to accomplish.
Coun. Richard Jones says that the idea was brought forward by a ratepayer and that he and Deputy Mayor Jodi Wilson picked up on it and looked into the initiative further. “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 out there (area of the dump) and look at the mess, you just want to cry,” Wilson concurred. “That’s a disgrace for our community.”
Wilson advises that she has spoken to downtown businesses and home-based businesses – 98 per cent reacted positively to the initiative. She says the one concern she did receive was for the home-based businesses that use the plastic bags for their branding. “They didn’t want to lose that,” she said. “However, to shop, they didn’t want to use plastic bags, they would take their own.”
The council members were asked if they had studied whether the problem would actually subside when most plastic bags that are received from the store are in turn used to bag garbage … wouldn’t people just go and buy plastic bags to use for their garbage, they were asked? Jones admitted that he uses plastic bags for garbage himself and that he wasn’t even thinking about this. “It doesn’t make sense for garbage bags to be eliminated; that was not even on the radar,” said Jones. But both councillors feel doing away with single-use plastic bags, the town can’t help but notice a positive impact on the local environment.
Jones says he hopes the initiative, with its inherent bylaw and information, will help change people’s way of thinking, but he knows that there will be resistance. However, he also thinks doing away with them is inevitable and something that will be forced on people by way of taxes. Wilson adds that they want to make some sort of a difference and that transformation is seen as fewer of these bags out in the area, blowing around, stuck in the trees, and in a worst case scenario, causing problems to area wildlife.
The councillors were asked if they had discussed the effect that a ban on bags has had in Thompson cutting down on their mess in the city and at their dump. The council replied that they hadn’t. However, Ms. Wilson advised that she had spoken to representatives from The Pas and they state that their ban has been quite positive and effective.
They were also asked if they had people bring up other areas requiring attention in respect to garbage, such as the controversial twice-weekly pickup and having garbage contracted, rather than operated in-house. Both council members stated that neither issue came up, nor are they areas of concern within this particular initiative. Jones noted that these issues are real and being addressed; however, he says that he and fellow council members are capable of multi-tasking in order to deal with all issues.
As noted, the town has given first reading to the bylaw eliminating bags, but they also 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 votes coming from the same computer to one, 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 these 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 that people can use to make their opinions known. As well, a dedicated email address, that people can comment through or ask for further information, has been set up. It is: plasticbagbegone@mts.net
