Media Contact: T.J. LeBlanc
Email: tleblanc@northumberlandnews.com

McGuinty Government To Develop a New Alternative

The province has temporarily scrapped eco-fees in order to develop a more business and consumer-friendly model to help deal with the cost of hazardous material disposal.

Although eco-fees have been added to environmentally hazardous materials for almost two years now, the addition of the eco-fee to more items in combination with the HST, left some consumers angry earlier this month.

"The eco-tax is not affecting me, but it's affecting a lot of my customers and some of them are a little upset about it. I think people are just noticing it now because of the HST," said Steve Pare, co-owner of Pare's Home Hardware.

According to a news release issued by the province, the McGuinty government has listened to consumers and, as a result will spend the next three months formulating a new plan.

"The government will work with businesses and Stewardship Ontario over the next 90 days to develop a new system that works for consumers and works to protect our landfills and waterways from dangerous materials," the news release stated.

Since July of 2008, consumers have been paying the environmental disposal fee on items such as paints, antifreeze, batteries, oil containers and filters, as well as fertilizers. New items added to the list include laundry detergents, soaps, bleach, hand sanitizers, lighters and many pharmaceuticals including sharps and syringes.

A slight misunderstanding with the so-called eco-tax is that, in fact, it is not a tax. According to Stewardship Ontario, the additional cost consumers were seeing is an environmental disposal fee handed down from manufacturers to retailers. The fee is charged to the manufacturers directly by Stewardship Ontario for disposal of these materials and it is then a company's decision whether or not to pass the fee down the line. The McGuinty government is putting a stop to this, even if only temporarily.

According to Mr. Pare, the business had little choice but to add the fee to consumer products.

"The fee is charged to us regardless. We are just collecting it to go to Stewardship Ontario," Mr. Pare said. According to the local business owner, he believes that people are now looking at their receipts and they're in an uproar. Mr. Pare says that the idea of an eco-fee is not a bad idea, but the way the government is going about it is all wrong.

Effective July 21, 2010, any Ontarians who feel they have been charged any unfair eco-fees are asked to call the consumer-protection hotline at 1-800-889-9768 or TTY: 1-877-666-6545.