A Kamloops Councillor, who’s been at the forefront of a possible plastic bag ban, isn’t too worried about the BC Court of Appeal decision that Victoria’s bylaw didn’t get proper approval from the Environment Minister before being enacted.
Dale Bass says council is still going to continue with consultation because it’s not going to stop the process.
“Let’s remember also that this is an NDP government propped up by a Green Party and the Minister of Environment is a strong environmentalist and all he really needs to do is have an order-in-council issued,” she said. “I mean, he could very easily resolve this.”
Earlier this month, Kamloops council voted to proceed with a plastic bag ban with the goal of implementing it before next summer.
“I suspect in the next several months, something will happen that will fix it,” Bass said. “And so from Kamloops perspective, we don’t want to stop because we don’t want to have the process all over again when Minister [George] Heyman finally says ‘hey here, here’s your fix, go to it.'”
However, she believes it doesn’t really matter what governments do, people will eventually change the way they buy things in the future.
By Jeff Andreas