Members Only Articles

OWMA members are able to access the presentation from the MOECC on the recently announced one-year service guarantee for ECA approvals. (See presentation here).

Starting in January 2018, the MOECC is implementing a one-year service standard for higher risk ECA applications received in 2018 and beyond. The MOECC will be able to put the review process on hold to give clients more time to provide additional information, if needed.  Clients will be notified of the date and reason the review was put on hold, and what they need to submit to resume the review. The date of the one-year service standard will be adjusted accordingly. Clients and the public will also be able to view and track the progress of ECA applications online.

File Attachments

• MOECC One-Year Service Standard for ECAs - Nov 9 presentation.pdf

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.

File Attachments

• BC EPR Competition Report 2018.pdf

Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Dianne Saxe, released Back to Basics, her four-volume 2018 Environmental Protection Report, to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

The report calls on the provincial government to limit water pollution, commit funding towards programs that protect municipal drinking water sources, as well as increase the protection of wetlands, woodlands, and wildlife across the province.