At a July 2 council meeting, the Town of View Royal voted unanimously in favour of fronting the entire bill for a bear-safe bin pilot project for residents of the Riverside neighbourhood after the council first agreed to enter a cost sharing agreement with residents at a March council meeting.

Ivan Leung, director of engineering, said residents had concerns about the cost sharing agreement, in which the town would put aside $5,000 to help pay the cost of the new bins and residents would pay the rest. One Riverside resident said the cost of the bins, which would be around $170 each, would limit participation.

The town plans to invest 28 bear safe bins, which is about $8,800 excluding taxes, which would amount to one bin for every two houses around the perimeter of Thetis Lake Park within the Riverside neighbourhood, which could potentially reduce wildlife exposure to easily available attractants by 50 per cent.

The pilot is currently funded through garbage collection user fees, mostly for the annual purchase of new bins to replace old and damaged bins. According to a staff report, here is a chance that fewer residential bins may require replacing this year and there may be a chance that the original garbage bin replacement budget could accommodate the estimated $3.800 deficit amount.

"If this is the case, then there would be no change to the current garbage collection budget. However, if the demand for residential bins exceeds the allocated budget, the likelihood of a service deficit would increase, resulting in a need to increase garbage collection user fees beyond the current planned increases identified in the financial plan," noted the report.

Council voted in favour of accommodating the increased budget, and 28 bins will soon be available on a first-come-first-serves basis.