Michelle Berardinetti says the (sizable) bag tax proceeds should go to trees—not retailers
Michelle Berardinetti says the (sizable) bag tax proceeds should go to trees—not retailers
Toronto’s five-cent plastic bag tax could boost Toronto’s environmental cred in a new way: Councillor Michelle Berardinetti wants to put some of the cash that retailers collect—and currently keep—towards helping the city’s trees. A staff report, released today, suggests that part of the $5.4 million collected annually go towards replacing aging trees and greenery destroyed by the emerald ash borer, an invasive tree annihilator. But, though Berardinetti already brought up the idea with Rob Ford during a recent sit-down, it’s hard to imagine him supporting this idea. He’s come out strong against the bag tax in the past (and getting rid of it seems to be one of his few concrete plans for the near future). [Globe and Mail]
 bag tax proceeds should go to trees—not retailers&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/bags-in-tree.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_136230" align="alignleft" width="320" caption="The bag tax: a win-win for trees? (Image: Terry Ross)"][/caption]
Toronto’s five-cent plastic bag tax could boost Toronto’s environmental cred in a new way: Councillor Michelle Berardinetti wants to put some of the cash that retailers collect—and currently keep—towards helping the city’s trees. A staff report, released today, suggests that part of the $5.4 million collected annually go towards replacing aging trees and greenery destroyed by the emerald ash borer, an invasive tree annihilator. But, though Berardinetti already brought up the idea with Rob Ford during a recent sit-down, it’s hard to imagine him supporting this idea. He’s come out strong against the bag tax in the past (and getting rid of it seems to be one of his few concrete plans for the near future). [Globe and Mail]){kind=link}
Can you please stop the lazy, slapdash journalist shorthand of referring to this mandatory fee as a “tax”. “Tax” implies that the revenues from this initiative make their way directly to public coffers, which they clearly don’t a dynamic for which Mayor Miller took considerable heat from the enviro/left press.
Another ill-advised policy by Mayor McCheese: “Everywhere I go, people want plastic bags, not reusable ones. Plastic, plastic, plastic.”.