Higher fines for illegal dumping, new tipping fees and the closure of smaller, expensive transfer stations will be phased in by the Yukon government as changes to its waste management system take place over the coming months.

After recommendations came to it in April 2018 from a ministerial committee on solid waste, YG announced the changes earlier this month.

“We know tipping fees are not going to be popular with everyone,” Community Services Minister John Streicker told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

“But we also know if we don’t change our waste habits now, our children’s generation will be left with harmful financial and environmental consequences.”

Tipping fees will be phased in starting with landfills in the Whitehorse area by the end of March 2020, with fees being based on those at the nearest municipality.

These funds will help offset the costs of running the transfer station or landfill as well as staffing the site, a release added.

The changes are to also help combat illegal dumping with fines rising up to $10,000 from the existing up to $200.

“You can expect the range of fines to be coinciding with the amount of waste,” explained Dave Albisser, a director with the Department of Community Services.

Details of that will look like will be developed over the coming months.

“The intent is really to try to get people to dispose of waste in the closest facility that they can,” he added, likening the practice to “dump shopping.”

“So with the same fees being at all the sites, that hopefully will accomplish that.”

As for whether that means there will be more waste coming into the city, for instance, the government noted it was about a balance.

“There are some Whitehorse residents who were dump-shopping and using the economic advantage of having free tipping fees outside of the city of Whitehorse to be able to go take their waste,” said Bryna Cable with Environment Yukon.

“But then there’s also the fact that a lot of that waste was coming right back into the city of Whitehorse – it’s really just a balance of re-shifting of how waste will be handled and trying to make sure that it’s going to the appropriate place.”

Bev Buckway agreed it was also a focus in the communities.

Buckway is the executive director of the Association of Yukon Communities, which has eight incorporated members: Carmacks, Dawson, Faro, Haines Junction, Mayo, Teslin, Watson Lake and Whitehorse.

“Some of the recommendations in this report are not going to be particularly popular with some of our residents,” Buckway said.

“However, our municipalities know that the cost of waste and handling that waste is rising and it’s become very problematic.”

She added putting in fees across the board just made sense.

“Our members just felt that if we were to proceed and put in tipping fees, it didn’t make much sense if the YG facilities didn’t have tipping fees,” she said.

“So if we’re going to have a Yukon-wide system; it has to be Yukon-wide.”

Cam Lockwood, the chief administrative officer for Watson Lake, provided the example of the another nearby site closing after the town went to a regional landfill agreement years ago.

“Albert Creek was still a free service and everybody was driving to Albert Creek instead of coming to our facility,” Lockwood said.

Once the site around Albert Creek closed, patterns began to settle after some time, he added.

“We did have those cycles of people doing illegal dumping, but everything’s come back into check now and our facility is well-used.”

Cable expected the pattern to be similar this time around too.

“When you change fees, there is sort of a natural reaction for people to kind of try to adjust and some people don’t adjust by always doing the right thing,” Cable said.

“But it doesn’t become a long-term problem – things settle back and people realize that the easier thing to do is the right thing to do.”

Ultimately, it was about ensuring that the users are paying for the waste they produce, Cable added.

Meanwhile, Buckway noted there have also been occasions where “mystery items” show up in landfills.

“You might just find a barrel dropped off and it’ll just show up overnight and you don’t know what’s in it, you don’t know where it came from – so it’s very hard to determine what you’re going to do with it.”

A release noted that landfill sites that will be closing are in Braeburn, Silver City, Johnson’s Crossing and Keno City once regional agreements are finalized with closest municipalities.

“Regional landfills are commonly used in other jurisdictions and prevent municipal taxpayers from being overburdened with the cost of managing waste from unincorporated areas,” it added.

As for those financial consequences Streicker mentioned, solid waste management already costs YG and other municipal governments about $11 million annually.

It’s something the city has been dealing with, as it causes a lot of grief and agony, said Mayor Dan Curtis.

“Whitehorse is not immune to illegal dumping; it is a challenge,” he added, as Streicker noted it’s a move that’s been at least a year in the making after last April’s report from the committee.

“They’ve been asking us to get to a territory-wide system for many years,” the minister acknowledged.

“While challenges with waste management vary community by community, we all share a vision of a better, more sustainable solid waste management in the Yukon.”

As for the immediate next steps, the government will be speaking to municipalities like Mayo soon to sign those regional agreements.

A memorandum of understanding has already been signed with Whitehorse; YG already hauls municipal solid waste from small communities into the city, which won’t change in the immediate term, Albisser added.

“If municipalities would like to explore other options around taking some of the MSW from closer regional sites, that’s a discussion we’ll have later,” he said.

“But we’re looking to sign agreements with municipalities that are ready to do that at any time.

“Based on the rural population using a municipal site, we would provide funding for that regional agreement and that facility to operate as regional facility.”

That means the municipalities will have practices that improve site operations and make sure there’s staffing to keep an eye on what’s coming into the sites to have things like better sorting.

“I would expect most are ready to start discussions – I can’t speak for the municipalities, but some may be signed very, very soon,” Albisser said.

The more long-term goal is to have tipping fees around the Whitehorse periphery (Marsh Lake, Carcross, Tagish, Mount Lorne and Deep Creek) by March 2020.

Areas like Beaver Creek and Old Crow, because of their remoteness, will be excluded in the next round of peripheral areas YG turns its attention to during the following year.