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Toronto stores hand out 460 million shopping bags a year – and starting next June, shoppers may have to pay 5 cents each for them under a plan worked out between the city and big grocery retailers.
But not if the little guys have anything to say about it.
Smaller grocery operators yesterday questioned the city's legal authority to set a minimum price on bags. (Retailers are free to charge more than a nickel.)
"It's very simple," said John Scott, chief executive of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, whose members operate about 4,000 stores. "We don't think they have the legal right to tell any retailer: `Here's how much your good has to sell for.'"
The proposal goes to city council next week, but Scott says he hopes councillors send it back for more consideration.
The plan is supposed to reduce the use of plastic bags by 70 per cent by 2012. It came to life after the works committee supported a plan the big grocers hated – one that would force them to give shoppers who supplied their own bags a 10-cent refund for every bag saved.
The Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors intensely lobbied city officials to propose a plan putting the onus on consumers to pay a nickel a bag – to be pocketed by the store owners.
Grocery industry officials said the extra money they get will be used for environmental projects. But their only formal commitment is the 70 per cent reduction.
So how much does a bag actually cost? It depends who you ask.
Grocery store officials refused to say yesterday. Geoff Rathbone, Toronto's general manager of solid waste, said they cost 3 to 5 cents each. But Joe Hruska, a lobbyist for the plastics industry, said 1.5 cents.
In stressing that consumers can avoid the charge by bringing their own bags along, the city hopes to avoid a legal problem: An outright tax on bags goes beyond the city's limited taxing powers.
"This isn't about taxes," Mayor David Miller said yesterday. "This is about the environment. To do the right thing about the environment, you need to reduce."
The city will start accepting bags in the blue bin next month, but processing them will cost about $1 million a year.
Miller says he uses a plastic box to carry home groceries. "To change people's behaviour, you have to offer them alternatives," he said.
Diane Brisebois, chief executive of the Retail Council of Canada, gave the plan only muted approval, though she said she'll ask her members to support it. She agreed with Scott, however, that the city is the wrong level of government to set such policies: "To have a serious impact, you need a harmonized program across the province."
Councillor Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) said the industry hasn't been sufficiently consulted and that the proposal is coming forward without a full look at the legal implications. But Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Ward 38, Scarborough Centre), who chairs the works committee, said it's a reasonable compromise with the grocers.
- With files from Phinjo Gombu
