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The plastic bag charge is just one more anti-business measure brought in by a city council that was primarily anti-business

Will Toronto Keep the Plastic Bag Fee?



Speaking to the Toronto Board of Trade last April, Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak said that Toronto needed a mayor who would focus on cutting taxes and job growth. Hudak described council under David Miller as being obsessed with “bags, bottles and bicycles.” A truer statement was never made, at least by a politician.

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Former Mayor David Miller instituted a mandatory fee of a five cent charge by stores for plastic bags given to customers. No other jurisdiction in Canada has such a program. It was all to save the environment that David Miller and his cronies always put ahead of the citizens that elected him. The five cent charge is not a tax; the money collected goes to the retailer and not the government. As each bag costs less than five cents, the retailers, especially the large supermarkets, are making big bucks out of the program. Many of the large retailers promised to donate this windfall to environmental causes but there is no requirement that they do. As with their other revenues, they are not accountable to the public who are forced to pay this charge as to how this money is spent. With the election of the evil right wing Rob Ford, Don Cherry’s “pinkos” and “left wing kooks” are now afraid that the new mayor will end the program. While Ford did not mention plastic bags during the election campaign, he’s moving quickly to get rid of the city’s vehicle registration tax, another of David Miller’s quick fixes to make Torontonians pay to finance runaway spending. Can the plastic bag charge be far behind? The lefties are in mortal fear that it isn’t. Ford told the Toronto Sun that he hasn’t really thought about getting rid of the program that is working by reducing the amount of plastic used. If he keeps it, he wants to see the charge applied as a tax and the proceeds go to city, not the retailers. Small businesses; independent grocers, convenience store owners and restaurateurs who do significant take-out business, want the charge scrapped. Many people who make purchases in small stores do so on impulse; these stores are unlike large supermarkets where people know they are going to buy a lot of items and can bring their own bags if they do not want to pay for new ones. The plastic bag charge is just one more anti-business measure brought in by a city council that was primarily anti-business. The Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors that represents the large supermarket chains told the Toronto Star that the five cent charge is working and the amount of plastic bags has been reduced. In other words, they’re in favour of the status quo. This would be typical of big business in Canada. While sipping Courvoisier in their fancy clubs, extolling the virtues of free enterprise, these corporate giants are just as dependent upon the state as are those who have chosen welfare as a lifestyle choice. They want the government to continue to impose a law that would see them make profits that they are under no obligation to disclose. And if small businesspeople suffer at having to charge their customers five cents for every plastic bag, well that’s just too bad. Ford should scrap the plastic bag charge. While Toronto is the only jurisdiction in Canada that has a mandatory charge, retail stores in other areas charge for plastic bags. In the absence of regulation there is nothing to prevent a business from charging five cents or ten cents or five dollars for a plastic bag if they wish. The most disgusting aspect of this five cent charge is that it is similar to a tax but is not a tax. We’re in effect being taxed not by the government but by retailers so they can enhance their bottom lines. Ford is right when he says a tax, where the money goes to the government, is preferable to the current practice. But if he wants to stay on the message of “respect for the taxpayer” that he used so successfully during the campaign, he is better off getting rid of it altogether. The only downside to this is that the pinkos and left wing kooks will whine and complain. But as long as Rob Ford holds office, they’ll be whining and complaining anyways.


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Arthur Weinreb -- Bio and Archives

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. Arthur’s latest book, Ford Nation: Why hundreds of thousands of Torontonians supported their conservative crack-smoking mayor is available at Amazon. Racism and the Death of Trayvon Martin is also available at Smashwords. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com,  Drudge Report, Foxnews.com.

Older articles (2007) by Arthur Weinreb


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