Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the legislation is presently written for the Single Use Retail Bag Program, paper bags are treated exactly the same. If you go to a store, a grocery store, you have to pay 25 cents; if you go to a restaurant you have to pay 25 cents. To draw a further comparison, polyethylene bags, plastic bags, are treated the same as recyclable bags.
Can the Minister explain for the House why these bags are all being treated the same, whereas plastic bags are not so good for the environment and biodegradable or compostable bags are good for the environment? So if he can start off by explaining why they’re all being treated the same we can then move forward to the next set of questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The paper bags have their own downside, but I listened carefully to the Member’s comments and statement and I’ve chatted with the Member about this before and I have met with the department about the need, after five years, to take a look at that particular program to look at revitalizing it and maybe fine tuning it. Thank you.
In the interim… Well, first I should say thank you to the Minister for recognizing that the program needs to be reviewed and updated, where appropriate, of course. In the interim, many good retailers are providing paper bags which are compostable and certainly biodegradable bags which are still meeting our objective, which is getting plastic bags out of the environment.
Is there anything that the Minister can do today or commit to in the near future that we can stop having these retailers have to charge the same 25 cents as if it’s a regular plastic bag that does not break down in the environment? I’m trying to get this down. What can we do today, even though we know the updates may be coming forward someday? Thank you.
I don’t have a definitive response to that question, but I will commit to have further discussions with the department to see what short-term and immediate things could be done if there is in fact a need to do that. Thank you.
Is the Minister in any position to bring to light in this House when this type of update could be considered? Because I have a lot of retailers out there that have spent extra money buying biodegradable bags and they’re paying for it, but they believe in an environment of stewardship. But they’re being penalized by meeting the objectives, which is getting plastic bags out of the environment. So they’re doing their part. They’d like to know when the government will do their part by seeing an update or revision or certainly a discussion on this particular issue. So when could we see something in the near future? Thank you.
We will look at how timely we can be. We are somewhat consumed with the budget session and such, but I will once again commit to the Member that I will be able to get back to him before the end of session with some specific timelines. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister familiar enough with the legislation to find out if it’s all in regulations? In other words, can we make changes easily through the regulations, or is it through legislative initiative we’d have to tackle some of these particular problems? For the everyday folk there’s a real big difference in timing and efforts to change these types of rules and, as such, I look to the Minister to ask, what’s the easiest way to make these changes if appropriate and certainly where appropriate? Thank you.
Through regulation and policy would be the best way, but included in my coming back before the end of session with timelines, I’ll highlight some of the things that we think need to be looked at. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
