The Yukon government’s public engagement on a fee for single-use shopping bags could see both plastic and paper bags subject to it.

Details of that would still need to be worked out, a spokeswoman said this afternoon.

Environment Yukon’s Erin Loxam confirmed today that plastic bags are likely to be targeted with the fee and paper bags are still being considered through its public survey that opened earlier this year.

Community Services Minister John Streicker delivered a ministerial statement in the legislature last week on a similar topic of solid waste.

“The proposed regulation would mean that when a consumer goes to buy their groceries without a reusable bag, they will need to pay a fee for a single-use paper or plastic bag,” Streicker told the legislature last Tuesday.

The following day, he was subject to questions from the Yukon Party.

The opposition noted that after it asked Environment minister Pauline Frost in March about whether the proposed surcharge would include paper bags, Frost had answered to her knowledge, that was not the case.

“I will have to get back to the member, but the discussion right now that we are having is on single-use plastics,” Frost said March 26 during committee of the whole discussions.

The Yukon Party’s Geraldine Van Bibber also pointed out last week the government had made no mention of a paper bag fee in its Feb. 25 release announcing the survey was open.

Speaking to the Star this afternoon, Loxam explained that much of the language that had been put out about the public engagement included references to “single-use bags,” which include both paper and plastic.

While there were no references made to paper bags in the Feb. 25 release, Loxam explained that once people click on the survey itself, there are questions about paper bag fees.

In fact, the first page that lays out some of the details of the survey notes that there has already been some support shown from the public for single-use paper and plastic products from engagements that took place in 2014 and 2018 on other recyclable items.

That survey also points out that about 14 per cent of plastic is collected for recycling worldwide, while non-recyclable plastics like single-use bags can take years to break down and end up in the environment (in forests, waterways, stomachs of birds and wildlife, etc.).

It explained that paper bags are less of a hazard because they can be burned, composted or recycled – even though there is still “significant amounts of energy and natural resources” needed to produce them.

Loxam pointed to the survey page today, which notes that biodegradable single-use bags are not compostable and need specific conditions to degrade. They may also contain plastics and other metal-additives that don’t degrade in landfills.

The survey also makes it clear that it will be asking questions around both paper and plastic bags, and whether it will be a graduated approach to implementing the fees, she added.

Referencing the N.W.T. passing rules in 2010 to put that 25-cent fee on paper and plastic single-use retail bags, the survey page notes almost 30 million fewer bags were purchased since then.

That’s inspired the Yukon government to propose “a similar surcharge on single-use shopping bags used at the point-of-sale,” which includes at cashiers or self-service check-outs – and both paper and plastic bags, Loxam added.

The Yukon Party also asked if the government would do an economic analysis when looking at adding a fee to paper bags – to which Streicker responded by calling for patience.

“What I want to say is let’s do the engagement with the public which is open right now,” he said. “Let’s see what the results of that are.”

He also pointed to the sister territory which had already imposed a 25-cent fee on all single-use retail bags (both plastic and paper), as an indication of how things might flow here in the Yukon.

On a somewhat related note, a petition of more than 1,000 signatures was presented by the Yukon NDP’s Kate White last Tuesday, calling for a mandatory fee on all single-use retail bags until an outright ban was in place.

In just a few weeks, Zero Waste Yukon’s petition collected more than 1,400 signatures from Yukoners around the territory who support a fee to reduce the number of single-use bags used in the territory.

The group hopes that a single-use retail bag surcharge would be the starting point for continued action to address single-use waste.

“We’re glad to see that (the) Yukon government is consulting on a proposed single-use bag surcharge, and we’d like to see it move forward as soon as possible,” said Ira Webb, the program co-ordinator for Zero Waste Yukon.

“Bags are just a drop in the bucket, and we need to continue diligently working to address single-use packaging and other disposable items that are filling our landfills and burdening our environment.”

White told the legislature that while it supported the notion of reducing single-use plastics, the party “would like to see that expanded to include things like straws, coffee cups and plastic water bottles.”

The survey itself runs until April 26. It looks at things like the fee amount, approach and timing for YG to implement it, the types of bags that are on the table for the fee and possible exemptions.

It can be found on engageyukon.ca, but does not specify on its webpage exactly when results will be posted (unlike other engagements that say a What We Heard document will be available during the fall, summer, etc.).