Soon to be history. The common grocery store check out bag will be banned in Prince Albert starting Aug.1. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

bag backlash

Small retailer backlash to P.A. plastic bag ban

Jan 30, 2020 | 5:00 PM

There’s been a backlash from some retail sectors in Prince Albert to city council’s move to ban plastic check out bags from the beginning of August.

Business representatives are saying some store owners were blindsided by the ban which could hurt them financially. But the mayor said the city had to choose a date to introduce the ban and the community has been given six months lead-up time.

The P.A. Chamber of Commerce said they had heard from some smaller retailers who had an excess of plastic bags and would not be able to get rid of them all by the summer, unlike the larger grocery stores and other outlets. Smaller stores are looking for a short reprieve from the ban.

Chamber says smaller stores want more time

“Not to be rude to our [larger] franchise owners but they do have options and have other stores across Canada they can ship their plastic bags to,” Chamber CEO Elise Hildebrandt told paNOW. “Let’s sit down with the smaller mom and pop stores and see if they can be given a six-month extension.”

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Sobeys national grocery chain announced last summer it would eliminate the plastic shopping bags by February of this year, offering customers reusable totes or paper bags to carry their purchases out of the store. The company has said the change will eliminate 225 million bags used annually at more than 250 stores across Canada. There were no immediate plans for the company’s Safeway stores.

Hildebrandt said without the extension, the smaller retailers would be forced to throw their bags “straight into the garbage.” She cited one example of a small retailer who could be out of pocket by as much as $3,000. The city’s main reason for the ban is to keep plastic bags out of the landfill.

“These smaller retailers totally get it and say they’ll find a way to move to paper or cloth bags [in future]. They don’t want an extension forever and just want to find a way to work with the city,” Hildebrandt said.

Impulse shopping could be impacted

Sharon Faul, the GM of the Gateway Mall said she had several different types of retailers who were trying to get their heads around the plastic bag ban and transition to reuseables.

“They need to know where they can take these plastic bags, where they can dispose of them; obviously they can’t return them,” she said. “For these mom and pop operations that’s going to be a big expense and that’s going to be a big headache for them.”

Faul suggested the ban could hurt sales at the mall.

“Impulse shopping probably won’t be an option. People wander down to the mall at lunchtime, they’re not carrying a reusable bag with them, and [now] they’re going to think twice before visiting a store and picking something up,” she said.

Faul said she understood the impact plastic bags had on the city’s landfill but added the community needed to be behind the project for it to be a success.

In response to Faul’s concerns Mayor Greg Dionne said that’s why a six-month transition phase was decided upon.

“We had to pick a date, there’s no date that will make everyone happy. You could wait a year, you could wait 18 months, or six months. At the end of the day there still would be supplies left and unfortunately we can’t help them in that situation.”

With files from The Canadian Press

Editor’s note: this story was amended to correct Sharon Faul’s last name.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow