(Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

By CKOM News Staff

Sask., Alta. governments challenging ‘toxic’ label on single-use plastics

Mar 7, 2023 | 11:20 AM

The Government of Saskatchewan has joined Alberta in challenging an environmental labelling decision from Ottawa.

According to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice, Ottawa’s decision to label single-use plastics as “toxic substances” under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 represents an overreach by the Trudeau government.

“It is our position that the federal government cannot simply declare plastics to be under its environmental jurisdiction,” Bronwyn Eyre, Saskatchewan’s justice minister, said in a statement.

“Under the constitutional division of powers, it is well-established that provinces have exclusive jurisdiction to regulate specific industries. Establishing a competing federal regulatory framework in this area will simply create duplication, confusion and economic harm.”

The provincial governments’ challenge will be heard in a Toronto federal courtroom from Tuesday through Thursday, the ministry said.

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The ministry added Saskatchewan will argue that the federal government’s jurisdiction over environmental protection is restricted to “established toxic substances, such as lead, arsenic, mercury and dangerous industrial chemicals,” and that the federal government’s declaration that “plastic manufactured items” qualify as toxic is unsupported “under federal criminal law powers.”

The ministry said the provincial government will take a “public interest perspective on the constitutional division of powers issue.”

The Government of Saskatchewan has been working for some time to achieve greater autonomy from Ottawa and control over natural resources, particularly though its controversial Saskatchewan First Act.