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BC MOE Releases EPR Competition Report

BC MOE Releases EPR Competition Report
28 Nov 2018 by Calvin Lakhan

A report commissioned by the BC MOE has been released - the second half of the report gets into what is wrong with the BC PPP regulation from a competition perspective.

The report identifies several non-regulatory, administrative reforms to how the British Columbia Ministry of Environment (MOE) approves stewardship plans and administers oversight under the British Columbia Recycling Regulation that can enhance competition and improve economic efficiency.

Notable amongst these administrative reforms is improved data collection by the MOE to better inform the setting and oversight of performance standards, refocusing stewardship plans to describe how competitive markets will be harnessed to achieve EPR outcomes and ongoing MOE collaboration with the Competition Bureau Canada to educate BC EPR market participants about their responsibilities as competitors.

Competition related issues might arise where regulators wish to address broader economic or political considerations by specifying how producers or their agents will achieve certain performance objectives. In such cases additional regulation may be required to ensure efficient outcomes. A case in point is the MOE’s approval of the Multi-Material BC (MMBC) packaging and printed paper (PPP) steward plan which essentially requires MMBC to create a province-wide household collection network for PPP.

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