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June 20th, 2022

Liberals plan to phase won’t get harmful plastics out of our oceans

NDP Environment and Climate Change Critic Laurel Collins made the following statement:

“Plastic pollution in our oceans threatens our environment and human health – hurting wildlife, coastlines, and communities. It impacts everything from fisheries and tourism to the toxins found in our bodies.

Plastic pollution has huge costs for our economy, our environment, and our communities – and Canada is falling behind in phasing out single-use plastics. We need the bold and urgent action to fight the plastic pollution crisis which is the second greatest threat to our planet behind the climate change.

But the Liberals keep failing on their promises to ban single-use plastics. They promised to ban single-use plastics by the end of 2021, but we won’t see this happen until the end of 2023.

To make matters even worse, the proposal for the ban only includes six single-use plastic items, which is less than 1 percent of plastics. That means some of the most commonly found garbage on our beaches and in our oceans, like coffee cups, cigarette butts, and produce bags will not be included in the ban.

In 2018, members of all parties agreed to NDP MP Gord Johns’ proposal to create a national strategy against plastic pollution – yet the Liberals have still not implemented a real plan to keep our oceans plastic free.

It is a pattern of this government and this minister to make announcements on measures to help our environment but then they fail to follow-through with necessary changes needed to protect our environment. It has been four years since Parliament called for a national strategy on reducing plastic pollution, but again the Liberals are acting too slowly and only including some plastics. Canadians want urgent action on reducing plastics, not two years from now. People have been waiting; they don’t want an environmental plan that fails to stop plastic pollution on our beaches, oceans and rivers.

New Democrats will continue fighting to expand the types of single-use plastics included in the ban, and for these single-use items to be banned immediately. We will keep pushing the Liberal government to act swiftly to protect human health and the environment.”