Alberta Warns Guilbeault That Ottawa’s Plastic Ban Will Hinder Local Progress, Innovation

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, accompanied by Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, announces a ban on single-use plastics and items at a beach in Quebec City on June 20, 2022. The Canadian Press/Jacques Boissinot

The Alberta government has sent a letter to Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault, objecting to the federal government’s designation of plastics as a toxic substance.

Rebecca Schultz, Alberta minister of the environment and protected areas, said in a July 5 letter that Ottawa’s sweeping ban on plastics “will punish innovative solutions, and hinder locally driven progress.”

Ms. Schultz said that Ottawa is failing to focus on the “real need to manage plastic waste appropriately.”

She said the province had previously communicated its opposition to designating plastics as toxic, and to the government’s ban on six single-use plastic items.

“The ramifications of this designation have a negative impact on Alberta’s economy which further inhibits our ability to invest in innovative solutions,” she wrote.

According to the minister, Ottawa’s sweeping ban will “extinguish” rather than recognize real low-emissions innovation. Ms. Schultz said that Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek wrote to Mr. Guilbeault in May in support of Leaf Environment Products. The Calgary-based company produces compostable bags used in Canada and internationally, said Ms. Schultz.

The City of Calgary designated the products as non-plastic and compostable.

Ms. Schultz said the company has been caught in the ban and will be barred from supplying low-emissions alternatives to traditional plastic shopping bags.

“Alberta requests that the federal government immediately reevaluate the practical implications of the ban, to enable us to continue realistic progress in Canada’s and Alberta’s journey to a carbon neutral economy by 2050,” she wrote.

Ms. Schultz said the province remains committed to discussion with the federal government to work toward more sustainable management of plastic waste in Canada.

The Liberal ban on single-use plastics came into effect on Dec. 20, 2023, with Ottawa stating it would eliminate 1.3 million tonnes of hard-to-recycle plastic waste, and a million garbage bags’ worth of pollution over the next decade.

The plan means that Canadian companies can no longer produce or import plastic grocery bags, cutlery, stir sticks, straws, or take-out containers. By early 2024, the government will also make it illegal to sell these products.

In June, the plastic ban extended to the manufacture and import of plastic rings used to package six-packs of canned drinks. Those too will be banned from sale by June 2024.

A legal challenge before the courts earlier this year heard arguments from plastic manufacturers and the federal government on whether Ottawa was entitled to list plastic products as toxic using the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The plastics industry maintains that waste regulation falls within the jurisdiction of the provinces and territories and that the government’s efforts must follow the Constitution.

Isaac Teo contributed to this report.