Hastings County councillors criticize Ontario's recycling program and rising OPP costs
Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2025 1:22 pm
Both are unfair to taxpayers, county councillors say, and rising policing costs are unsustainable
Hastings County councillors are pushing back against Ontario’s new recycling program and continuing increases in policing costs, both of which they say are unfair to taxpayers and municipalities.
Councillors on Wednesday aired their objections in the monthly meeting of council’s finance committee at the county’s Belleville headquarters. Letters from the Ontario government ministers overseeing each issue served only to further anger local leaders.
They blasted the new province-wide changes to recycling.
“The whole program has been very, very poorly thought out,” said Warden Bob Mullin, mayor of Stirling-Rawdon.
“It’s only gotten more complicated,” Mullin said. He explained it has required changes to equipment at both of the municipality’s landfills, meaning additional cost and potential safety issues.
Some things, such as battery collection, covered in the past don’t seem to be part of the new program, Mullin said.
Councillors were reacting to an Oct. 1 email message from Ontario’s environment minister, Todd McCarthy.
Producer responsibility organizations were created by manufacturers in an attempt to comply with regulations for collecting, recycling, and disposing of their products.
But the new system fails to provide the collection of recyclables from certain establishments, politicians say, and it’s causing problems for businesses and municipalities alike.
Bancroft Mayor Paul Jenkins said he’s heard from “a lot of unhappy businesspeople” who now face increasing costs.
“We actually lost about $200,000 (in) revenue that we got from the residential side” of the process, he said. Jenkins said he believed residential collection will eventually be “OK.”
McCarthy’s message states municipalities must continue to work with small industrial, commercial, and institutional (IC&I) establishments to find ways to collect recyclable materials.
“This is not the outcome I had hoped for when I wrote PROs on June 4, 2025, to ask them to prepare an offer of service that would continue small IC&I collection at municipal cost,” he wrote. The producers’ organizations on Sept. 19 stated “they would not be able to fulfill” that direction, McCarthy added.
He said he remains “disappointed that the design of the proposal does not support broader curbside collection, leaving a gap in service across municipalities.” McCarthy noted he was, however, pleased the organizations will work with communities using depots for collection of recyclable materials to allow for collection from small IC&I locations.
The producer organizations’ proposal would see those organizations being responsible for hauling and recycling materials from homes, while municipalities would handle those duties for the other establishments, the minister wrote.
“My government is committed to the best possible blue box system for both producers and municipalities. To this end, we will be considering improvements to the system over the coming year,” he added.
Municipal recycling concerns
Tweed Mayor Don DeGenova said his council has “great concerns” about the program.
“This has been a grave inconvenience to our small businesses,” he said. “It’s had adverse affects, also, on our residential taxpayers as well.”
DeGenova said the company administering the program equated Tweed with less-populated Limerick Township. He said it then provided too few bins for the municipality, meaning they’re often full by the time some residents arrive at the dump. He said the company has reported it has no additional bins to provide; workers are instead storing bags of recyclables in a storage unit.
He said his chief administrative officer is in daily contact with the company and municipal officials are frustrated by the lack of response.
DeGenova expressed disapproval with the minister’s letter and said McCarthy oversees what is happening yet wrote it wasn’t unfolding as the minister had hoped.
Also on councillors’ agenda was a Sept. 26 letter sent by Solicitor General Michael Kerzner to the heads of municipal councils and their chief administrative offices. It was an update on policing costs.
Kerzner reported the increase in policing costs in 2026 versus those of 2025 would be capped at 11 per cent, excluding the cost of any enhancements in service.
The province is easing the eligibility criteria for municipalities to receive discounts, he wrote.
Kerzner stated the government “heard loud and clear that greater clarity, predictability and stability in the OPP cost recovery model, and associated billing statements” is critical to municipal budgeting.
OPP costs unsustainable: mayors
Several councillors also said the ever-increasing costs for Ontario Provincial Police service are not sustainable. Both Tweed and Bancroft councils have created separate policing levies on their tax bills so taxpayers can see for themselves how much they are paying for the service, their mayors said.
Tweed’s DeGenova said Ontario Premier Doug Ford has yet to respond to the mayor’s proposal for the province to resume paying policing costs as part of the premier’s vow to “protect Ontario” amid American tariffs. DeGenova said his own proposal calls for a requirement for municipalities to spend the resulting savings on infrastructure development.
“We would be stimulating the economy and helping him on this journey, when he’s trying to protect Ontarians’ jobs, because we’re looking at a lot of steel and we’re looking at a lot of bridge construction and whatnot,” he said.
“I have had no response from him in that regard.”
He said policing accounts for nearly 22 per cent of Tweed’s total budget.
“Ditto,” said Bancroft’s Jenkins.
He said Ontario lowered last year’s actual cost after a municipal backlash, and it’s unclear wither the 11 per cent increase would be relative to the actual 2025 increase or the one first announced by the province.
“If we get another 11 per cent, that’s going to be a toughie,” said Centre Hastings Mayor Tom Deline. The creation of a separate levy to highlight those costs is “a great idea” he may use, he said.
Deputy Warden Tony Fitzgerald, mayor of Hastings Highlands and chairperson of the finance committee, was not optimistic.
“The sad and frustrating part for a lot of us is, in both of these ministerial letters, I think they thought they were doing us a favour,” Fitzgerald said.
“Where do we get 11 per cent?” he said. “This is no help at all.
“I don’t know if there’s any hope for us. They don’t seem to be listening.”
https://www.intelligencer.ca/news/local ... ycling-opp
Hastings County councillors are pushing back against Ontario’s new recycling program and continuing increases in policing costs, both of which they say are unfair to taxpayers and municipalities.
Councillors on Wednesday aired their objections in the monthly meeting of council’s finance committee at the county’s Belleville headquarters. Letters from the Ontario government ministers overseeing each issue served only to further anger local leaders.
They blasted the new province-wide changes to recycling.
“The whole program has been very, very poorly thought out,” said Warden Bob Mullin, mayor of Stirling-Rawdon.
“It’s only gotten more complicated,” Mullin said. He explained it has required changes to equipment at both of the municipality’s landfills, meaning additional cost and potential safety issues.
Some things, such as battery collection, covered in the past don’t seem to be part of the new program, Mullin said.
Councillors were reacting to an Oct. 1 email message from Ontario’s environment minister, Todd McCarthy.
Producer responsibility organizations were created by manufacturers in an attempt to comply with regulations for collecting, recycling, and disposing of their products.
But the new system fails to provide the collection of recyclables from certain establishments, politicians say, and it’s causing problems for businesses and municipalities alike.
Bancroft Mayor Paul Jenkins said he’s heard from “a lot of unhappy businesspeople” who now face increasing costs.
“We actually lost about $200,000 (in) revenue that we got from the residential side” of the process, he said. Jenkins said he believed residential collection will eventually be “OK.”
McCarthy’s message states municipalities must continue to work with small industrial, commercial, and institutional (IC&I) establishments to find ways to collect recyclable materials.
“This is not the outcome I had hoped for when I wrote PROs on June 4, 2025, to ask them to prepare an offer of service that would continue small IC&I collection at municipal cost,” he wrote. The producers’ organizations on Sept. 19 stated “they would not be able to fulfill” that direction, McCarthy added.
He said he remains “disappointed that the design of the proposal does not support broader curbside collection, leaving a gap in service across municipalities.” McCarthy noted he was, however, pleased the organizations will work with communities using depots for collection of recyclable materials to allow for collection from small IC&I locations.
The producer organizations’ proposal would see those organizations being responsible for hauling and recycling materials from homes, while municipalities would handle those duties for the other establishments, the minister wrote.
“My government is committed to the best possible blue box system for both producers and municipalities. To this end, we will be considering improvements to the system over the coming year,” he added.
Municipal recycling concerns
Tweed Mayor Don DeGenova said his council has “great concerns” about the program.
“This has been a grave inconvenience to our small businesses,” he said. “It’s had adverse affects, also, on our residential taxpayers as well.”
DeGenova said the company administering the program equated Tweed with less-populated Limerick Township. He said it then provided too few bins for the municipality, meaning they’re often full by the time some residents arrive at the dump. He said the company has reported it has no additional bins to provide; workers are instead storing bags of recyclables in a storage unit.
He said his chief administrative officer is in daily contact with the company and municipal officials are frustrated by the lack of response.
DeGenova expressed disapproval with the minister’s letter and said McCarthy oversees what is happening yet wrote it wasn’t unfolding as the minister had hoped.
Also on councillors’ agenda was a Sept. 26 letter sent by Solicitor General Michael Kerzner to the heads of municipal councils and their chief administrative offices. It was an update on policing costs.
Kerzner reported the increase in policing costs in 2026 versus those of 2025 would be capped at 11 per cent, excluding the cost of any enhancements in service.
The province is easing the eligibility criteria for municipalities to receive discounts, he wrote.
Kerzner stated the government “heard loud and clear that greater clarity, predictability and stability in the OPP cost recovery model, and associated billing statements” is critical to municipal budgeting.
OPP costs unsustainable: mayors
Several councillors also said the ever-increasing costs for Ontario Provincial Police service are not sustainable. Both Tweed and Bancroft councils have created separate policing levies on their tax bills so taxpayers can see for themselves how much they are paying for the service, their mayors said.
Tweed’s DeGenova said Ontario Premier Doug Ford has yet to respond to the mayor’s proposal for the province to resume paying policing costs as part of the premier’s vow to “protect Ontario” amid American tariffs. DeGenova said his own proposal calls for a requirement for municipalities to spend the resulting savings on infrastructure development.
“We would be stimulating the economy and helping him on this journey, when he’s trying to protect Ontarians’ jobs, because we’re looking at a lot of steel and we’re looking at a lot of bridge construction and whatnot,” he said.
“I have had no response from him in that regard.”
He said policing accounts for nearly 22 per cent of Tweed’s total budget.
“Ditto,” said Bancroft’s Jenkins.
He said Ontario lowered last year’s actual cost after a municipal backlash, and it’s unclear wither the 11 per cent increase would be relative to the actual 2025 increase or the one first announced by the province.
“If we get another 11 per cent, that’s going to be a toughie,” said Centre Hastings Mayor Tom Deline. The creation of a separate levy to highlight those costs is “a great idea” he may use, he said.
Deputy Warden Tony Fitzgerald, mayor of Hastings Highlands and chairperson of the finance committee, was not optimistic.
“The sad and frustrating part for a lot of us is, in both of these ministerial letters, I think they thought they were doing us a favour,” Fitzgerald said.
“Where do we get 11 per cent?” he said. “This is no help at all.
“I don’t know if there’s any hope for us. They don’t seem to be listening.”
https://www.intelligencer.ca/news/local ... ycling-opp