Tired of waiting for the provincial government to take action, Holyrood councillor Kim Ghaney called on her colleagues Tuesday as well as residents, businesses and other municipalities to get moving on a ban of single use plastic shopping bags.
Ghaney made the recommendation during her recreation and community events committee report.
Ghaney noted the subject of Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador's resolution calling on the province to ban the bags was recently discussed at the committee.
"To date we've had no updates from government, though we have sent communication to them," the councillor said. "Despite the fact that all municipalities in Newfoundland and Labrador support a ban on single use plastic bags we've not received any correspondence from them."
Ghaney said the leader of the Official Opposition, PC Leader Ches Crosbie, has come out in support of a ban and some towns in the province have already implemented a ban or are considering it. A number of businesses have also taken the initiative to stop using the bags, she added.
"We have in the past discussed options around plastics management in our town, such as supporting MNL and e-mailing the provincial government, but we haven't had any movement to date," said Ghaney. "I feel it is time that we as a council engage with our community business partners to start a conversation around single use plastic bag management. I believe we need to make this a priority in the coming weeks to arrange some discussions to get the ball rolling. We clearly, in my opinion, cannot wait on the actions of the province, because to date there haven't been any. I think it is an important thing for our environment that we take some action on that."
