By Steve Hubrecht
Invermere will ban single use plastic bags and possibly other types of single use plastics as well as takeout styrofoam, sooner rather than later.
Invermere’s previous council (prior to the fall 2022 municipal election) directed district staff last summer, to start preparing a bylaw banning single use plastic bags once the district had hired an environmental planner. That planner — Anne Sophie Corriveau — has been hired, and during last week’s committee of the whole meeting, she appeared before council seeking clarification and direction on just such a bylaw.
“Where is council at on this?” inquired Corriveau, asking whether councillors wanted her to go ahead with a bylaw specifically banning single use plastic bags or they wanted her to draft a bylaw banning a broader range of single use plastics (such as drinking straws) and materials such a takeout container styrofoam? And, if it is the latter, precisely which kinds of plastics did council want banned as part of the bylaw?
Corriveau pointed out that 20 municipalities in B.C. have already adopted plastic use bylaws — about half of which target just single use plastic bags and the rest of which target a broader range of materials. She also noted that this past December federal government regulations came into effect banning the manufacture and import of single use plastic checkout bags, single use plastic cutlery, single use plastic straws and stir sticks, and other single use plastic food service ware. The outright sale of these items is supposed to be prohibited in Canada by December this year.
Councillor and acting mayor, Kayja Becker, indicated her preference that the bylaw be broader that just checkout bags, saying “I like the idea of a single use plastic bylaw.” She added she sees no reason to simply wait until the federal government institutes a Canada-wide ban, noting that there may well be many delays at the federal level that could push the national single use plastics sales ban well beyond December 2023.
“We need to get it going as a municipality as quickly as possible,” said Becker. “We need to do the right thing.”
“I struggle with this a lot,” countered councillor Gerry Taft. “When you go into a grocery story there’s all kinds of things — packaged products, meat, sushi — that’s all wrapped in plastic. Why do we say that bags and straws are evil, but not these other types of plastic?”
Taft also said he thought the district might find it hard to enforce a bylaw banning single use plastics.
“We have an anti idling bylaw, but we don’t have the means to enforce it. So a lot of people still idle,” he said, wondering if the plastic bylaw would end up being the same.
“It’s one thing to have a bylaw in place to feel good, but are we going to go down to (a local restaurant famous for takeout food) and get mad at them? Are we going to put the resources into actually enforcing it?” asked Taft.
Becker responded that creating the bylaw may in fact amount to just taking “baby steps” but “we still need to do something…. the average citizen in Invermere is, I think, a good person. They will do their role by trying to abide by it (the plastics bylaw), even if we can’t enforce it.” She added that even if not everybody has stopped idling, many people have, and a good number of those who do idle, do it less than they once did. That’s a victory, and makes the anti-idling bylaw worthwhile, outlined Becker, adding that plastic bylaw will be similar.
Despite his equivocations, Taft said that if council as a whole wants to implement a single use plastic bylaw, there is no point in waiting for the federal
