What’s got into Toronto city council? It usually attracts well-deserved criticism for compulsive dithering and needless delays. (Exhibit A: The debate over light rail.) So it’s downright jaw-dropping to find a majority, from across the political spectrum, breezily agreeing Wednesday evening to ban plastic shopping bags.
Their decision touches virtually every retailer and shopper in the city. Yet councillors voted without an updated report from staff, without public consultation, without talking to businesses they were about to affect, without analyzing environmental impacts, without a legal review, and with no advanced notice. As a result, of course, they got it wrong.
Forbidding merchants from selling or giving out thin plastic carrying bags, including biodegradable versions, doesn’t appear to make environmental sense. Paper bags that would replace them require more energy to produce and to transport, and can’t be put to use in as many alternate ways.
The legal status of prohibiting bags is uncertain, with opinions differing on whether Toronto has the power impose this change. Having the ban come into force on Jan. 1 next year leaves retailers relatively little time to prepare. And it’s sure to encourage consumer hoarding — especially since, as of July 1, merchants will no longer be required to charge a nickel for these bags.
Mayor Rob Ford predictably blamed “NDPers, used to the gravy train,” for this “ludicrous” mess. But the bag ban was put forward by Councillor David Shiner, one of Ford’s council allies, and backed by several members of his hand-picked executive committee.
“We have to get rid of some of these councillors,” Ford told AM640’s John Oakley Thursday morning. He even blamed Toronto residents for failing to rise up and protest city council’s mistakes. “It’s the people’s fault,” Ford said. “People are just sitting back listening.”
In fact, this only happened because Ford put plastic bags on city council’s agenda in the first place. His goal was to trash a mandatory five-cent fee for plastic bags that had been instituted in 2009 and which had produced tangible results. According to city hall’s statistics, plastic bag usage dropped by 53 per cent in Toronto following imposition of the fee — or about 242 million fewer bags each year. That’s a lot of litter.
Ford managed to sabotage this progress by assembling enough votes to kill the nickel bag fee. But the law of unintended consequences kicked in. Council went even further, rashly voting to eliminate plastic bags all together.
That outcome seems worthy of a comedy routine. As a result of Ford’s successful crusade against the “bag tax,” there won’t be a fee for plastic shopping bags — but no bags either. Thanks, Mr. Mayor.
Reversing the ban won’t be easy. Ford noted that reopening the issue requires the support of two-thirds of city council, and “that’s a challenge.” The ban will be written up in the form of a bylaw in the fall and there may, at least, be public hearings before then.
It should never have come to this. But there’s a lesson here for jaded pundits and the public alike: Be careful in wishing for a fast-moving, bold and decisive city council. You might just get it.
