CJRO News: July 15 to July 21, 2024

Hello bonjour and welcome to CJRO News on CJRO Radio. I'm Candice Vetter reporting from Embrun.

The provincial government has announced it is cancelling the project investigating the possibility of return-for-deposit pricing on non-alcoholic beverage containers. About one year ago the province formed a working group composed of beverage companies, retailers, environmental groups and other stakeholders.

CJRO attempted to get a response from the Minister of Environment Conservation and Parks, Andrea Khanjin, who made the announcement. A response from Alex Catherwood, her press secretary, said, “Following extensive consultation with stakeholders, it was made clear that creating a new, mandatory bottle deposit return system would add significant costs for small businesses and families. Should producers and retailers wish to work collaboratively to implement a system that is both cost effective and increases recycling rates, we would welcome that, however we cannot support increased costs at a time when cost of living is so high.”

CJRO asked for an explanation of how bottle return would add costs, but did not receive a reply.

Michelle Wasylyshen, spokesperson for the Retail Council of Canada, made a statement saying the council supports the government’s decision.

In contrast, a report released by the Canadian Beverage Association today stated the most effective way for Ontario to achieve a 90% recovery rate for beverage containers is by expanding the province’s existing deposit system.

An Abacus Data poll commissioned by Environmental Defence in March of this year found 81% of Ontarians support a deposit return system, up 5% since last year. The highest support of 89% was in rural Ontario. Support appeared to be cross-partisan.

Environmental Defence states that less than 50% of non-alcoholic drink containers are recycled in Ontario. Provinces with return-for-deposit programs state these items have an 80%+ recovery rate.

CBC published a news piece saying an estimated 1.7 billion plastic drink bottles have ended up in landfills, incinerators and the environment in the last year alone. Recently the City of Ottawa announced there are concerns about the remaining capacity of its Trail Road landfill, and residents of Carlsbad Springs, Russell, Edwards, Vars and points between have been fighting a proposed privately-owned landfill for 14 years.

In a related story, the Taggart Miller consortium, owners of the site at Devine Road and Boundary, on which they propose to set up the 450,000-tonne per year landfill just mentioned, have released their annual compliance report. The group claims to have started construction in 2022, a condition of the approval received in 2017, although no construction is visible. There is no plan for disposal of leachate in the report. The full report can be seen at cjroradio.com under the News tab.

Disclosure: This reporter and some members of the CJRO Board of Directors were registered in 2012 as opposing the landfill.

Laura Maxwell of Tamarack Homes, which is owned by the same Taggart family, sent a message last week to the Community Liaison Committee of the proposed Tewin subdivision saying that studies supporting the Tewin Community Design Plan are ongoing. The lands are just west of Carlsbad Springs within the official City of Ottawa. Monitoring work is underway for many elements of the existing study area, including groundwater monitoring. That means there will be construction equipment along two access routes by Kilgour and Associates. The routes can be seen at cjroradio.com under the News tab.

Image provided by Tamarack Homes

CJRO wants to report on the local news that matters, so send news ideas, issues and comments to newscjro@gmail.com by Monday mornings. Listen to the news and Local First on cjroradio.com anytime or on the Tune In or Radio Player Canada apps, or at FrequencyNews.ca. I'm Candice Vetter for CJRO News. CJRO, last on the dial and first for local news.