With fewer than 50 days until new recycling regulations kick in, the New Westminster Chamber of Commerce is hoping the province will step up and make some changes before it’s too late.
Chamber chair Christine Conway told The Record her members are worried the fees being pushed on to businesses in B.C. are significantly higher than what businesses are paying in other provinces, despite being administered by the same organization – the Canadian Stewardship Services Alliance.
“Obviously, we’re concerned when there’s a disparity between what the regulation is designed to do and the actual impact it has on the businesses,” she said.
Conway said member businesses with the chamber are concerned B.C. companies are being asked to pay more in fees because the province and municipalities won’t be covering any of the costs, unlike other provinces such as Ontario.
Stewardship Ontario requires businesses to pay printed and packaging fees that range from 0.42 cents to 23.27 cents per kilogram of recyclable materials. Under the new Multi Material B.C. (MMBC) program, businesses will be asked to pay anywhere from 20 cents to 70 cents per kilogram of recyclable materials.
Conway said there should be consistency to fees across the country to allow for an even playing field for businesses.
“We’d like to see a little more benchmarking to other provinces because right now there doesn’t seem to be a lot of equality between this province and the next province, and it hasn’t been communicated to us as to why there’s a difference,” she said.
Conway said everyone agrees that reducing the amount of packaging used by businesses is a good idea, but the chamber is worried the province is rushing what should be a big decision, ultimately compromising the entire program.
“The timeline on this, as well as the lack of transparency as to where the fees are actually going to be going, are some of the concerns,” she said.
Most of the New Westminster Chamber of Commerce members are small to medium-sized businesses and were given an exemption by the province from the new regulations. The decision to exempt smaller businesses from the new program gives Conway hope that the province might delay the launch of the new regulations.
“The deadline is in May, so there isn’t really a whole lot of time. That being said, things can be stopped if there’s proper motivation to do so,” she said. “We just want to see this implemented properly.”
