Landfill, planning fees to increase 

 

By Chad Ingram

 

A number of fees in Minden Hills are set to increase, and some new ones introduced, with a public meeting on those fee changes taking place in council chambers on May 9. 

 

At landfills, Minden Hills will start charging for the deposit of brush, something the township has not done before, but which most surrounding municipalities do. That fee will be $30 per cubic yard, or a minimum fee of $15. 

 

There will be an increase in the per-bag fee for bags of waste in excess of the three-bag limit. That fee is scheduled to increase from $1 to $2. As roads superintendent and acting environmental and property operations manager Travis Wilson told councillors, in the case of the township’s transfer stations, “that still doesn’t cover the full cost of having to truck it to Scotch Line [where the main landfill is located] and bury it.” 

 

The per-bag fee for un-recycled and unsorted waste will go from $2 to $3, and the number of car and truck tires that can be deposited at no charge will decrease from five to four. The fee to dispose of a mattress or box spring will increase from $10 to $15 per unit. As Wilson told council, mattresses from the landfills are taking to a facility in the GTA where they are split open, with usable material from within salvaged. 

 

“We pay $10 a mattress for them to do that, and we have to ship them down to Mississauga to have that performed,” he said. 

 

The fee for disposing of boats will now be $8 per foot, and the fee for disposal of boat shrink wrap will increase from $5 to $26. 

 

New fees for those on Minden’s water and sewer system include a $75 fee charged to property owners requesting a final read due to a property sale or transfer of title, and a $75 charge to set up a new account following a property sale or transfer of title. Also new will be a fee charged for statements of account. Anyone requesting a statement of account for property taxes or water/sewer services will be charged $10, or $20 if both are being requested. 

 

A number of administrative fees within the township’s planning department will increase. The fee for a minor variance application will increase from $700 to $750; official plan amendments from $1,000 to $1,300; zoning amendment from $750 to $800; and combined official plan and zoning amendments from $1,500 to $1,800. The administrative fee for applications to purchase shoreline road allowances will increase from $500 to $750. 

A full list of the proposed fee changes can be found by searching the May 9 Minden Hills committee-of-the-whole meeting agenda on the County of Haliburton website.