Rural residents in Tecumseh no longer have to use hard sided garbage containers.
The town has defined 'rural' as Ward 4.
On January 1, the bylaw went into effect for all homes across the municipality aimed at eliminating rodents.
But, Ward 4 Councillor, Tanya Jobin, says rats aren't a problem in rural areas.
She says there was an issue with garbage cans blowing into ditches and on to roadways.
"They're more exposed to the elements. So having a hard sided garbage container along side a busy highway or busy roadway with large municipal drains and roadside drains just makes it very inconvenient for the residents whether they're a senior or not and it becomes a little unsafe as well for commuters."
Jobin says seniors were having a tough time with the bylaw.
"I went around after the first pick up because I knew it was going to be an issue and I took photos of garbages in the roadside ditches and even said, "This 72-year-old resident has now a garbage pail in a municipal drain that is eight feet deep. Who is going to fish it our every week for this senior?", and once I exposed those photos to council they had a better feeling and understanding of it."
A diagram of the garbage boundaries in Tecumseh (Photo courtesy of the Town of Tecumseh)
She says she knew it wouldn't work from the very beginning.
"What this council wants to do is treat the municipality as one municipality, which it is, but we do have different needs. So I think the decision was made like that to be, "Let's just do it as a municipal wide thing and that's that". I didn't support that decision because I knew that the residents weren't going to take a liking to it."
The change goes into effect immediately for residents of Ward 4.