Eco Fees Trashed! Another McGuinty Government Fiasco...

It looks like the Eco Fees are being tossed in the trash! Yet another shameful disaster led by our beloved McGuinty Government...

Here's the story from the Toronto Sun:

Grits backtrack on eco fees

The new eco fees are being dumped.

Environment Minister John Gerretsen is expected to announce the change Tuesday morning, reversing course after two weeks of controversy.

“The waste diversion program will continue, however, the government will be looking at solutions to the concerns heard from Ontarians about the program that would ensure household hazardous waste continues to be diverted from our landfills, while ensuring that Ontario consumers are protected,” a government source says.

This is yet another major step down for the Liberal government, which has had to backtrack on the sex-ed curriculum and the leveraging of major public assets through SuperCorp.

They are also still dealing with the fallout from record deficits and the HST.

Earlier on Monday, Canadian Tire said it would stop charging the new eco-fees starting Tuesday over concerns about the “botched roll-out” of the program.

Mike Arnett, president of Canadian Tire Retail, said in a news release that Waste Diversion Ontario set up a very complicated system based on materials — instead of products — so that two very similar products may have different eco fees.

“Even more confusing, the interpretation of these fees is left up to each retailer, meaning that five different retailers may charge five different eco fees for the exact same product, all depending on how they interpret the very complicated fee structure,” he said.

Stewardship Ontario is independent body set up by the Ontario government to deal with waste that should be diverted and recycled, or treated before going into a landfill site.

The program began charging fees for nine designated materials, such as paint, in 2008, but ramped it up to 22 materials on July 1, the same day the government brought in the harmonized sales tax.

--jackandcokewithalime


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