(Sask Environment)

By Nigel Maxwell

District of Lakeland rolls out new plan to address garbage friendly bears

Jun 17, 2021 | 2:00 PM

The District of Lakeland is taking some big steps to keep a lid on the number of bears coming onto properties looking for food.

By the end of July, roughly 1,800 individual garbage bins will be phased out and replaced with 66 bear resistant ones. Administrator Tammy Knuttila also explained that a recycling bin will be placed next to it.

“We know it’ll be an adjustment,” she said.

Council’s decision to make the change was brought about because a three year contract with Greenland Waste expired at the end of May. Knuttila also explained that despite the District’s best efforts to educate ratepayers about proper use and storage of the bins to deter hungry bears, correspondence from Sask Environment indicated it wasn’t working.

“They feel that the [individual] bins are a major contributor. The bears are all coming because they’ve been conditioned to get their food out of those bins,” she said.

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Included with last Monday’s agenda package were four letters from ratepayers. Two of the letters expressed support for the change and the other two were opposed. Two of the biggest concerns were with respect to cost and what this would mean for elderly residents who may not be able to lift the “heavy awkward bin lids.”

Knuttila explained the cost of adding roughly 50 bear resistant bins had yet to be seen, but said she expected it to decrease. And with respect to the other concern, Knuttila said the new bins they’ve ordered are actually smaller and lower to the ground than the older ones they have used in the past.

“We have located a couple of the newer ones out there now and I did have one person tell me their mother, who couldn’t use the older bins was able to use this one,” she said.

Knuttila assured ratepayers that council did a vast amount of research and explored all options, adding they did consider different days of collection, as well as different types of carts.

The district’s issue with bears has been growing in recent years. Earlier this year, representatives from Sask Environment came to speak to council about the problem and explained how they thought to be as many as 10 habituated bears in the area finding food in garbage.

“And garbage bears also have a higher instance of multiple births, so we are seeing more mama bears running around with two or three cubs with them,” Knuttila said.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell