Eco-Fees a Conservative Legacy

QUEEN'S PARK, ON, July 9 /CNW/ - Lisa MacLeod should check with her colleagues before trashing efforts to divert hazardous waste from Ontario landfills. After all, it was the Harris-Hudak Conservative Government which first introduced and passed the Waste Diversion Act in 2002:

• "You've got to be responsible and pay. That's what the bill's about. I don't know how you can be against that..." Norm Sterling (Carleton - Mississippi Mills) Hansard: December 3^rd 2001.
• "This is a good idea and it doesn't take a genius to accept this concept and put it in place." Norm Sterling (Carleton - Mississippi Mills) Hansard: December 10^th 2001.
• "...it is our intent to designate the following materials as part of this initiative: blue box consumer packaging; household special wastes such as paints, varnishes and other household cleaning products; organics such as household food wastes; scrap tires; used oil; electronic equipment such as computers, televisions, telephones etc; batteries; fluorescent lighting tubes; and pharmaceutical products." Ted Arnott (Waterloo-Wellington) Hansard: December 3^rd 2001.
• "This important piece of legislation would establish a permanent, non-profit organization run by industry and municipal representatives to develop, implement and fund waste diversion programs in Ontario." Elizabeth Witmer (Kitchener - Waterloo) Hansard: June 26^th 2001.
• "..this bill, very importantly, gives this board the opportunity to, I believe, levy certain kinds of charges against certain different industries to ensure that the municipalities on the other end of the table get enough money to put a decent program in place and to expand the efforts of Ontario in terms of dealing with their waste stream." Norm Sterling (Carleton - Mississippi Mills) Hansard: December 3^rd 2001.

Tim Hudak, as a then-member of Cabinet, helped to create an arms-length process through which eco-fees could be charged and used to pay for the safe disposal of certain hazardous materials. None of the fees collected end up as part of government revenue.

In suddenly opposing a Harris-era legacy project, Lisa MacLeod will give new meaning to the term 'trash talk'.

For further information:

Andrew Teliszewsky
[email protected]
416-325-3670