Residential Garbage and Food Waste Bylaw Amendment for Secondary and Garden Suites and Wildlife Attractant Mitigation

RESIDENTIAL GARBAGE AND FOOD WASTE BYLAW AMENDMENT FOR SECONDARY AND GARDEN SUITES AND WILDLIFE ATTRACTANT MITIGATION

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated June 12, 2026 from the Director of Engineering titled “Residential Garbage and Food Waste Bylaw Amendment for Secondary and Garden Suites and Wildlife Attractant Mitigation” be received for information.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to bring forward proposed amendments to the Residential Garbage and Food Waste Bylaw 745, 2009 (the “Bylaw”), to:

1. reflect Council direction to allow additional garbage and food waste bins to be provided for secondary suites and garden suites (resolution C-66-26, April 7, 2026 Regular Council Meeting);
2. mitigate exposure of wildlife attractants, as per the 2024 Bear Safe Bins pilot project; and
3. clarify participation of townhouse developments to ensure that participation into the collection program is conditional to reasonably provided access.

The proposed Collection and Disposal of Residential Garbage and Household Food Waste Bylaw No. 745, 2009, Amendment Bylaw No. 1179, 2026 is attached as Attachment 1. Through this report, staff are requesting that Council give the proposed amendment bylaw first, second and third readings.

BACKGROUND:

Secondary and Garden Suite Service

To allow additional carts for secondary and garden suites:

• the definition of a Garden Suite must be included into the Bylaw; and
• clauses in Section 3 must be added and amended indicating that Garden Suites and Secondary Suites may participate in the residential garbage and food waste collection program.

Additionally, some ‘housekeeping’ amendments to the definition of a “Dwelling Unit” and “Secondary Suite” is recommended to align with current Zoning Bylaw definitions.

It is not immediately known what the uptake will be for requests for additional carts for secondary suites and garden suites. However, the Town will be able to gauge interest throughout 2027 as advertising rolls out of the revised program. Council will recall that the additional service will be onboarded in 2028.

Wildlife Attractant Mitigation

Effectively reducing the exposure of wildlife attractants requires a lift in Town resources and staffing. Pursuant to Wildsafe BC’s Wildlife Attractant Bylaw Toolkit, one of the most important strategies to reduce the potential for human-wildlife interactions is to enforce bylaws that prohibit providing wildlife food sources due to careless storage and management of attractants, whether intentional or unintentional.

Therefore, an incremental approach to amending the Bylaw is recommended, in this case, starting with a Bylaw to limit the time a cart may be placed curbside:

• The Occupant shall place the garbage and household food waste containers for collection at the curbside:
  • No earlier than 5:00 a.m. on the day of collection (NEW)
  • No later than 7:00 a.m. on the day of collection (Existing)

The time restriction is consistent with the example bylaw stipulated in Wildsafe BC’s Wildlife Attractant Bylaw Toolkit.

Staff will monitor the effectiveness of the Bylaw with the resource requirements currently provided as it is anticipated that Bylaw Enforcement or the contracted Collection Service will not have the resources to effectively administer the additional time restriction. Should Council wish to improve level of service, staff can inform Council on strategies and corresponding funding requirements once staff have been provided reasonable time to monitor the program.

Clarity on Townhouse Development Participation into the Collection Program

Due to recent townhouse development proposals requesting variances to their drive lane width, garbage and food waste collection was required to be stored in communal bins and collected by a private waste remover company. This is because individual cart collection on these drive lanes would either be not possible or cause significant hardships to the service provider. Staff are proposing clarification clauses to Section 3 in the Bylaw to better inform staff, Council, and prospective development applicants that townhouse developments may require collection through a private waste remover company if there is inadequate access provided to all townhouse dwelling units.

ANALYSIS:

Impacts and implications can be summarized as follows:

ALIGNMENT:

The recommended option aligns with the Town’s following core guiding documents as follows:

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION GOAL:

The desired level of public participation for the recommended option is:

• Inform
• Consult
• Involve
• Collaborate
• Empower
• N/A

The majority of this staff report was created at the request of Council.

TIME CRITICAL:

The Bylaw amendments as suggested should not affect the Household Garbage and Food Waste competitive bid process (currently in progress).

CONCURRENCE:

REVIEWED BY:

ATTACHMENTS:

1. Collection and Disposal of Residential Garbage and Household Food Waste Bylaw No. 745, 2009, Amendment Bylaw No. 1179, 2026