Charging Stores For The Abandoned Carts

Charging Stores For The Abandoned Carts A Candid Conversation By Theresa Grant Real Estate Columnist While watching the local news the other night I heard a story regarding Brampton, Ontario. Apparently, according to the newscaster, Brampton is now going to start charging stores for the abandoned shopping carts that are left randomly all over the City. The charge it is stated is $100.00 per shopping cart. They do pose a real problem, and I know about this firsthand having worked for a municipality in Durham Region for many years. These shopping carts are taken from stores or parking lots by people and left abandoned absolutely anywhere the person feels like dumping them. They often block walkways and sidewalks making it impossible for someone in a wheelchair or a person who is walking with an aide or device to get around them. They are a nuisance. It made me wonder why this hasn’t been done before. The municipality that I work for gets calls constantly to retrieve abandoned shopping carts form various areas of the city. They then have to send staff to pick them up. There is no charge to the store that the cart came from. In fact, the City is paying the people who go and retrieve these carts. It makes me wonder also, who came up with this idea? I know that here in Oshawa, Councillor Brian Nicholson just mentioned publicly that some or a few of his constituents had brought an idea to him regarding a walkway or pathway in Ward 5. He in turn consulted with the Regional Councillor for the same area, and they are presenting this idea to Council. That is brilliant. Why don’t more Councillors operate that way? It seems that Brian Nicholson is a rare breed. He lives in the community, speaks to his community, listens to his community, and then goes to city hall and represents his community. Imagine! I guess my bigger question here is why aren’t all Councillors doing this? We here in Oshawa also see the abandoned shopping carts all over our city. But when an idea is suggested by a member of the public, one of the first responses we hear deals with funding. Why can’t we have a Council that thinks outside the box or is at least willing to listen to people who do? There is often either revenue or savings to be had in the ideas of others. They just need to be listened to.