$1M TO FETCH OUR GARBAGE

Philippines waste war

Ottawa is spending more than $1 million to ship 2,000 tonnes of rotting garbage back to Canada from the Philippines, hoping to bring an end to the diplomatic war over waste before Canada Day.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Wednesday the government signed a contract for $1.14 million with the Canadian arm of French shipping giant Bollare Logistics, to prepare and ship 69 containers of Canadian trash that have sitting in the Philippines for up to six years.

“Canada values its deep and long-standing relationship with the Philippines and has been working closely with Filipino authorities to find a solution that is mutually acceptable,” she said in a statement.

McKenna said the waste must be treated to meet Canadian safety and health requirements. A recent inspection of the containers by the Philippines found all but one of the containers was seaworthy.

They are the remainder from 103 shipped by a private Canadian company to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014 and labelled improperly as plastics for recycling.

The other 34 containers have already been dealt with in the Philippines, despite objections from local officials and environment

CANADA ... HAS BEEN WORKING CLOSELY WITH FILIPINO AUTHORITIES TO FIND A SOLUTION.

groups. Those groups say the shipment was illegal under the Basel Convention, an international treaty Canada signed to prevent richer nations from dumping their garbage in unsuspecting developing countries.

McKenna anticipates the containers will all be back in Canada by the end of June and they will be disposed of properly within Canada before the end of the summer. Canada is trying to go after the company that shipped the waste but it has since gone out of business.

The Philippines, which has been demanding Canada remove the waste for nearly six years, recently set a May 15 deadline for having it removed, with President Rodrigo Duterte threatening to declare war otherwise. When that deadline went past, Duterte recalled his country’s ambassador. On Wednesday he ordered his government to find a shipper to take care of the containers, with plans to leave them in Canadian waters. Hours later, Canada announced a contract had been signed.