The Mayor of Salmon Arm isn’t too concerned that the BC Court of Appeal ruled against Victoria’s bylaw that banned plastic bags.

The court ruled that Victoria needed approval from the Ministry of Environment, which it did not seek out, and Alan Harrison says his community is watching to see what happens next.

“We’re in a transition period, a six month transition with our bylaw in Salmon Arm, and so we have a little bit of time,” he said. “So we are going to watch and just see how it plays out. I think it’ll be a topic at the UBCM in September as well, so we have time to talk about it there and decide upon a direction, depending on what the city of Victoria decides.”

Harrison says Salmon Arm’s plastic bag bylaw, which is based off Victoria’s has been well received in his community.

“We’re well down the road here of transitioning into other uses for plastic bags. But I think a lot of communities area, so I would hope that the minister would consider that,” Harrison added. “This step is actually not necessarily a bad step because it certainly gets the province’s attention.”

“You know we are going to see a decision one way or another, and that’ll give clear direction to the cities.”

He adds the UBCM has been lobbying for a ban, noting it is similar to the when smoking in restaurants was banned in the 1980’s.

“The UBCM had lobbied the province to ban that, and the province didn’t feel like they were ready to do that. And so individual communities started to do it including the city of Salmon Arm. As communities passed their own bylaws, the province then eventually legislated it provincially.”

Salmon Arm’s bylaw came into effect on July 1. Plastic bags will be completely outlawed as of January 1, 2020.