Council will consider installing dog waste bins throughout the city’s trail systems during its next budget cycle, following an inquiry motion brought forward by Coun. Mason Ainsworth at a council committee meeting Monday evening.
City staff have been directed to bring a report outlining the feasibility of installing dog waste bins to the next budget, which will also identify any potential funding sources for the bins — such as sponsorships, private partnerships, or community fundraising efforts.
“People take the time to go out and enjoy these wonderful trails that we have, and they bring their dogs with them, and then the dogs have a poo, and then they clean that up or they leave it there, and the worst thing is when they clean it up but then they leave the bags there,” Ainsworth said.
“It's just unfortunate that people are so disrespectful to our community. This is something that, hopefully, will encourage those people … to get rid of their pet waste.”
Ainsworth’s original motion proposed to look at the feasibility of dog waste bins in west Orillia exclusively, but on Coun. Ted Emond’s suggestion, he broadened the initiative to include all of Orillia’s trail systems.
“If you go to the Lightfoot trail, there are areas where you can get dog bags and there's garbage (pails) along the trail system to put them in,” Ainsworth said. “In west Orillia, specifically in the trail system, there are no garbage (pails) in a lot of those areas, so the issue is that there's no bags and there's no garbages.”
“I’m happy (to change the motion), as that will look at putting them in west Orillia, which is the whole point of it,” Ainsworth said.
Ainsworth mentioned that managing the waste bins could prove to be an issue for the city, and that a full discussion will need to take place at the next budget cycle.
“Even if we got all the money looked after, we would still have to look at things from an operating standpoint, which would include, who's going to replace the bags and how much is that going to cost? Does staff have enough time right now to actually get rid of the waste from those bins?” he asked. “I would argue, right now, we probably don’t.
“If nobody's cleaning them out, then it's going to create another issue as well,” he said. “I think this is the right way: send it to the next budget, and then the full discussion can happen there, with some potential options.”
