A Saint John councillor wants to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to plastic bag bans.
David Hickey of Ward 3 plans on introducing a motion next week asking staff for a report on a potential ban in the city, as well as provide some recommendations.
He says he wants to follow in the footsteps of several Atlantic communities.
“It seems to be the trend nationally, internationally, even in the Atlantic provinces. On July 1st, PEI banned plastic bags on the island and then you’re seeing Moncton rolling out a new plan as well, and it’s really becoming the framework for what it means to be a sustainable community,” he said in an interview.
Hickey says he wants to get ahead of the curve and prepare the city for a sustainable future.
“We’ll see a federal ban on single-use plastics come 2021, and really the goal here is to try and get ahead of the curve on what’s becoming the new status quo and make sure that we’re giving industry the lead time to adjust,” he said.
(Submitted: David Hickey)
Hickey says banning single use plastics is also something that fits in with Saint John’s eco-friendly goals, especially after declaring a climate emergency in May.
“We’ve put out a climate action plan. This is that in action, and that means that we are applying the considerations we’ve made towards how to deal with climate change and how to deal with waste in the most sustainable way possible,” he said.
Hickey doesn’t expect too much push back from his fellow councillors, especially since this is just an ask for a report. He expects most of the discussion Monday to be around a potential timeline for the report.
“My expectation from staff is that we’ll get a very similar solution to what a lot of other jurisdictions have done, and that’s a phase in process. So you start with say, plastic bags and straws and then move on to the larger stuff—packaging, containers, things like that that take a bit longer to adjust to,” he said.
When asked if there is a possibility of regional cooperation—similar to Greater Moncton’s ban— Hickey says it would be ideal, but given recent track records, he doesn’t expect it to come easily.
Hickey says he hopes this will instead be a catalyst for the province to step up and implement legislation.
“We do need this provincially, and we do need provincial legislation so that we can get ahead of the curve on what’s happening federally, and we can make sure that we have sustainable, well thought out solutions”,” he said.
