With council’s approval of the 2026 municipal fees and charges during their Monday meeting, one of the items will be of particular interest to many: a change to the municipal bag tag program.
The municipal fees and charges, outlined in a 47-page report included in council’s agenda package on Monday, cover a wide range of services, from rentals of space at Meaford Hall, to the cost of ice time at the arena, to planning and building department fees, along with dog tag fees, various permit fees, and dozens of other services. Also included in the fees and services report are those bright orange tags that we purchase for $4 each to affix to our trash bags before we drag them to the curb on collection day.
For more than 15 years one of the more common gripes that I have heard from residents is about having to shell out four bucks for a bag tag. I heard it in 2009, when bag tags were implemented at a cost of $2 each, and I heard it when the price increased to $3, and I have certainly heard it in recent years with the cost now being $4.
“You have to hand it to bag tags – for a simple sticker, they can sure get people worked up. In 2009, when the $2 pay-as-you-throw bag tag program was implemented, there were many that were convinced that the move would result in our ditches and parking lots being used for waste disposal rather than pay the dreaded $2 fee to place a bag of trash at the curb,” I wrote in a 2015 editorial. “I recall one meeting in particular, held at the Meaford & St. Vincent Community Centre. A heavily attended budget meeting was simmering with discontent, and much of the frustration was aimed squarely at the proposal to do away with the free bag each week and instead force Meaford residents to pay $2 for every bag of trash they dragged to the curb for collection. Some residents were angry enough to raise their voices when addressing members of council and staff on the issue of having to pay $2 for every bag set to the curb. Some insisted that the implementation of the fee would force people to dump their trash in ditches, or burn it in their backyards.”
That didn’t happen of course, though every now and then someone sadly finds trash that has been dumped in a ditch. But that was something that happened from time to time long before bag tags were part of our lives.
The long-term goal when the $2 bag tags were implemented in 2009 was to eventually see the full cost of trash collection paid by users through the bag tag system, or in other words, ultimately removing the cost of trash collection from general taxation, and instead to those who dispose of trash. The more you dispose of, the more you pay. The revised bag tag program won’t help to achieve the goal of fully removing the cost of trash collection from the general taxation, but it will provide relief for those who dispose of little, while still ensuring that those who dispose of more than others pay out of pocket to lessen the overall burden on the rest.
So the approval of the 2026 municipal fees and charges will be good news for those who loathe the bag tags, as, beginning July 1, residents will no longer need to purchase a bag tag for their first bag disposed of on collection day. The second and third bags would require a bag tag that will be charged at full cost recovery, currently estimated by municipal staff to be $5.50.
As staff noted in a December 9, 2025 report to council, “Staff are proposing a new model for garbage bag tags wherein each household is allowed one bag of garbage per collection free of charge, with no garbage bag tag required. Any additional bags would require a garbage bag tag, and the cost to purchase a garbage bag tag will be on a cost recovery basis for the Municipality. Staff proposed to change the Garbage Bag Tags to a cost recovery model for the second and third allowed bag to help affordability as well as a result of the changes that are being made to the recycling program.”
When the proposed change was first discussed at council back in November, I heard and read many complaints, which is perhaps not surprising as the ‘full cost recovery’ cost for the second and third bags disposed of on collection day was initially estimated to be $7 to $8, however that estimate was quickly revised to be around $5.50 (a final price has yet to be confirmed).
With a free first bag, and $5.50 for the second and third bags, as I wrote in our January 15 print newspaper (The 3Rs…Rants, Raves & Rumours, January 15, 2026), virtually everyone will save a bit of money.
“While $5.50 for a bag tag might seem excessive, if you put out two bags on collection day, with the first bag being free, you still save money as it would have cost you $8 to dispose of two bags under the current $4 per bag tag system, so you would save $2.50. Even if you regularly dispose of three bags at a time, you will still be spending a dollar less than you have been while paying $4 per tag, as to dispose of three bags would cost you $11 (first bag free, $5.50 for each bag after), instead of the $12 it would cost you under the current system,” I wrote in our January 15 newspaper.
As Deputy Mayor Shirley Keaveney has noted at council previously, this revision to the bag tag program will provide a bit of relief to residents, though admittedly, it is a minor bit of relief for most. For folks like me, who typically dispose of one bag of trash per month, this change will save me about $50 per year, however if you have a large family and routinely dispose of three bags of trash on collection day at a cost of $12 for three bag tags, the new first bag free system will still save you about $25 per year.
So, on the whole, I think the change to the bag tag system is positive, and it will save most of us a bit of money, though admittedly it is a minor savings. It’s not much, but it’s something, an old friend of mine used to say about such things.
