Waste Services Update: What's Happening and What We're Doing About It

Written By Geoff Hogan

Truck at Minors Bay

Posted for Go Home Lake Cottagers Association members

The District of Muskoka is making decisions right now about waste services that directly affect every Go Home Lake cottager. Here's what you need to know — and what your Association is doing on your behalf.

The short version

On April 22, Muskoka District Council will review a report (PW-4-2026-7) responding to the Township of Georgian Bay's request for a remotely monitored waste depot to replace what we lost when the 12 Mile Bay Road Depot and local bin sites were closed at the end of 2025.

The bad news: A new depot at Go Home Lake is almost certainly not happening. Staff, consultants, the Ministry of Environment, and the District's recycling partner have all lined up against it for regulatory, financial, and operational reasons.

The worse news: On top of losing the depot, the District is also proposing cutting Saturday Lakeside Waste Collection in 2026 — the exact day most of us are actually at the cottage.

What Council is choosing between

Five options are on the table. In plain terms:

  • Option 1: Do nothing new. Study the idea later as part of the Solid Waste Master Plan.

  • Option 2: Add up to 25 more hours per week at existing depots (including South Gibson).

  • Option 3: Add up to 50 more hours per week at existing depots.

  • Option 4: Build a remote depot at Go Home Lake for summer only. Estimated cost: $72K–$170K to build, $142K–$270K per year to run. Not ready for 2026.

  • Option 5: Same as Option 4, but year-round. Staff do not recommend it — the technology fails below -15°C.

Staff are steering Council toward Options 1, 2, or 3. None of them restore depot access in our area.

Why a Go Home Lake depot is being rejected

The consultant's report cites:

  • The Ministry of Environment's Barrie office will not support unstaffed remote depots given past issues with illegal dumping at bin sites

  • Circular Materials (the recycling agency) won't service a remote site — the District would have to pay for recycling collection separately

  • The District doesn't own suitable land near Go Home Lake; provincial land access would take years

  • Electronic access systems fail reliably below -15°C

  • Capital costs of $72K–$170K plus $142K–$270K per year for a single site

  • Setting a "precedent" that other municipalities would demand matching

What we're doing

Your Association has written to Council ahead of their decision. Our letter makes four requests:

1. Pick Option 3, not Option 2. If we're not getting a depot back, the minimum acceptable offset is the maximum possible expansion of hours at South Gibson Depot — the closest supervised facility to our marina. The extra cost over Option 2 is about $25,000 per year — modest for the service improvement it delivers.

2. Restore Saturday Lakeside Collection. Removing Saturday service from a program designed for seasonal residents is backwards. Saturday is when we're here. We've asked the District to share the attendance data behind this decision and reinstate Saturday service during peak summer.

3. Make sure water-access properties are properly counted. The District's current analysis shows 75% of properties are within a 20-minute drive of a facility — but that number is based on driving, not boating. Our letter spells out what the real burden looks like for a water-access cottager:

A typical round trip is a 10-minute boat ride each way at 35 km/h to the marina, plus a 10-minute drive each way to South Gibson Depot, plus time at the facility — 75+ minutes for a single bag of garbage. Boat fuel alone runs $10–$18 per trip. Each trip generates 7–15 kg of CO2 from the boat portion before you've even started the vehicle. Across hundreds of water-access properties over a summer, the cumulative fuel and emissions cost is significant — and it's a cost the District isn't currently measuring.

The Dillon report already acknowledges that some residents are simply hauling waste back to their primary homes outside the District. That's not a sustainable outcome for anyone. We've asked Council to complete a proper water-access analysis — including fuel cost and emissions — before they set the new District-wide service standard, and to include water-access communities in the consultation process.

4. Keep the remote depot option open for the future. The technology is improving. The Guelph pilot will generate more data. We've asked Council to genuinely keep this option alive rather than shelving it.

What you can do

  • Attend or watch the Committee meeting where this is decided

  • Contact your District Councillors directly to echo these requests

  • Share the Association letter with other cottagers

  • Tell us your Lakeside attendance experience — especially Saturday usage — so we can push back on the data behind the service cut inquiries@gohomelake.org

  • Track your own waste trips this summer — time, fuel, distance. Real member data makes our next round of advocacy much stronger.

We'll update members once Council votes and will communicate next steps, including any delegation opportunities.

Geoff Hogan
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🗑️ Waste Management Update: Advocating for Go Home Lake