Plastics ban sets up possible showdown between Alberta, feds
The federal government and Alberta are set up for possible clash over federal plans to label plastic as a toxic waste, a move the plastics and chemistry industry says will deter investment in Alberta.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced Wednesday the federal government would draft regulations to ban six types of single-use plastic items, including plastic straws, stir sticks, takeout bags, cutlery, dishes and takeout containers and six-pack rings. The government intends to add plastics to a list of toxic items under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), a designation that comes after a scientific assessment found plastics to be harmful. Designating them as toxic is a required step in order to ban the planned items.
“One important part of this plan is a ban on harmful single-use plastics,” Wilkinson said as he announced that the regulations would be finalized by the end of 2021. Wilkinson said those items would be banned because they are harmful for the environment and can be substituted with “readily available alternatives.”
The feds' announcement comes a day after Alberta said that part of its economy recovery plan would include a major focus on boosting investment in petrochemicals — a building block for plastic.
Wilkinson downplayed the potential friction between the feds and the province, saying that Alberta's recovery plan also includes a focus on plastics recycling.
Still, the petrochemical industry and Alberta government are concerned about parts of the federal plan. “They have to approach everything as do no harm,” Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage said at a press conference, noting that Alberta's economic recovery plan focuses on the “full life cycle approach for plastics, including recycling” but emphasized that plastics are used across the economy.
“We use it (plastics) in every single thing that we do, every minute of the day,” she said. She added the province is prepared to fight if the federal plastics strategy infringes on the province's constitutional responsibilities or economic recovery plan.
The feds' move to add “plastic manufactured items” to the Schedule 1 list of toxic substances under CEPA will hurt Alberta's ambitions to become a Top 10 petrochemical and plastics producer, said Bob Masterson, president and CEO of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC).
The provincial government is hoping the petrochemical sector would generate more than $30 billion by 2030, create more than 90,000 direct and indirect jobs and generate more than $10 billion in revenue for the province in corporate and personal income taxes, and help the province offset the decline in oil and gas investments.
Masterson said Wilkinson's announcement did contain some positive news for the plastics industry, which supports more recycling investment and the goal of building “a circular economy for plastic,” but he called the ban of specific items, such as plastic bags, arbitrary.
“Why does the government want to ban things that can and are being recycled?” Masterson said in an interview, adding the federal government is at the same time announcing investments in companies that recycle those same materials.