The pressure is off for many B.C. municipalities reluctant to sign a new recycling contract many had complained was one-sided and unrealistic.
But an extended deadline doesn’t come with any guarantee that local governments will be able to renegotiate the terms, said Vancouver councillor Andrea Reimer.
“There seemed to be an assumption on their part that the challenge for municipalities was that we just haven’t had enough time, and that’s not the issue,” Reimer told Business in Vancouver.
“We’ve read the contract, we’ve considered it at quite a bit of length and we need more time to have our voices heard and to see some meaningful changes in the contract.”
Multi Material BC (MMBC) had given municipalities until September 16 to sign up to contract it to manage recycling programs that up until now have been run by local governments. The non-profit agency has been tasked with implementing new legislation that requires industry to take responsibility for recycling paper and packaging.
Municipalities had three options. They can contract their current in-house recycling services to MMBC, and receive a portion of a total of $60 million in financial incentives for signing up.
Municipalities who decide not to contract to MMBC can either get out of the recycling business altogether and let MMBC do it for them, or continue to operate their existing programs, but not receive the financial incentive offered by MMBC.
MMBC released a statement Friday afternoon stating that local governments who did not sign up by September 16 may “become part of MMBC’s program at a later date.”
Local governments are concerned that the rate MMBC has set to cover recycling program costs is too low, and that taxpayers may have to cover the shortfall.
Small businesses have also complained that the process has been confusing and that it is unclear how much they will have to pay under the new system.
Last week, MMBC announced that small businesses who make under $750,000 gross sales will not have to submit a report detailing all the packaging they put into consumers’ hands. That measure is temporary until the organization develops a small business policy.
