EYES ON SANTA
Rules in London, Ont., being examined as a template for local licensing system
Alyssa, 3, Finley, 1, and mom Nicole Toldo react to seeing Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus on Saturday during the 52nd annual Windsor Santa Claus Parade, which was presented in a drive-thru format at St. Clair College.
The mess of rain-soaked junk left scattered around locked clothing donation bins at the start of the pandemic is an image city councillors hope won't be repeated, now that they're moving to regulate the bins with strict requirements and licensing.
Complaints around the bins have been heard for years, Ward 3 Coun. Rino Bortolin said Monday as he made the motion to create a licensing system similar to London's, which requires the charities to pay $75 for an annual licence plus $25 per bin, which are among the lowest fees among the seven Ontario cities surveyed.
He said he's fielded many calls from people complaining about the bins.
“There's been bins that appear on public property without permission, there are bins that have no contact information, no relevant information,” said Bortolin. A lot of other municipalities are moving to either pass bylaws or licensing regimes, he noted.
“It's important we know who owns it, there are standards kept, and it not turn into a blighted property for a lot of these locations.”
London's regulations would require bin owners to provide written permission from property owners and proof of charitable status. Bins would only be located in areas with specific zoning, and bins would be labelled with the owner and operator's information so they could be immediately reached in the event of any problem such as discarded clothing and furniture dumped outside the bins.
The measures may have headed off some of the problems in March, when the pandemic arrived and many of the charities operating bins locally shut down their operations, locked up their bins and closed the used clothing stores that distribute the items donated by the public. At the same time, the city's public drop-off depot also closed, eliminating another legal place where people could discard their unwanted items. As a result, people — many at home due to the pandemic and cleaning out their basements and garages — started dumping items beside the donation bins. Catching the culprits proved impossible. And because the bins were located on private property owned by corporations that were difficult to reach, city staff faced major headaches getting the messes cleaned up.
The city's 311 service received one complaint about donation bins in 2019. In 2020, there have been 26. The city had no bylaw regulating donation bins. An attempt to regulate them in 2016 didn't pass.
Most bins locally are operated by such charities as the Canadian Diabetes Society and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, although there's no comprehensive list. Concerns have been raised in recent years about “charity masqueraders,” which are private firms that give the false impression they're collecting used clothing and goods for charity, said Simon Langer, national manager of government and strategic partnerships for the diabetes society. He was urging council to consider entering into a partnership with his charity to create a “textile diversion program” involving location of bins on city properties — outside arenas, community centres and city hall. There'd be no cost to the City of
Windsor, but locating the bins on city property with City of Windsor designations on the bins would give the public confidence in the program, which is aimed at diverting 95 per cent of all used clothing from landfills.
Langer said his organization learned valuable lessons from the pandemic shutdown that caused so many problems. “We're apologetic for any issues that have come up during that time and we're looking to continue to move forward, continue to build, just as we were prior to this pandemic.”
He said the society agrees it's necessary to regulate donation bins, but pleaded with council not to impose fees while it's still struggling with the economic fallout from the pandemic.
Bortolin's motion, which passed without opposition, calls on administration to come back with a new licensing regime similar to London's and recommended fees.
The second part of his motion calls for administration to examine the proposal from Canadian Diabetes for a textile diversion program. According to Langer, Windsor generates about 7.8 million kilograms of used textiles annually, with 85 per cent of it going to landfills. More than half the clothing that's diverted is sold again, with most of the rest recycled into other products including textiles and insulation.
Diversion saves landfill space, costs the municipality nothing, and helps charities like Canadian Diabetes.