Corporate Responsibility

Given the urgent need to reduce the city's environmental footprint, Montreal will move to fully ban the distribution of plastic bags by the end of 2020, Mayor Valerie Plante said Feb 5.

Canada's restaurant owners are eager to do their part to curb this country's addiction to plastics, their association says, but they want the government to leave time for them to adapt to a ban on plastic take-out containers.Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Thursday Ottawa's promised ban on many single-use plastics is coming in 2021 after a scientific assessment of plastic pollution released Thursday found that the waste is harmful to the environment.The list of what will be banned is still in development.Carol Patterson, national vice-president at Restaurants Canada, said the industry needs a reasonable time to find and procure alternatives that are both affordable and better for the environment.“We are really calling on the government to have an approach that takes into account the full life cycle of products but also providing those reasonable timelines for safe and functional alternatives to enter the market,'' Patterson said.At the same time as restaurants are grappling with finding non-plastic options, they are seeing a surge in demand for take-out containers from the explosion of online food-delivery services.

A national ban on many single-use plastics is on track for next year after a government report concluded Thursday that there is more than enough evidence proving plastic pollution is harmful.

A ban on distributing retail plastic bags in Newfoundland and Labrador will come into effect on July 1.

In 2019, the Government of Canada announced a plan to ban single-use plastics in this country by 2021.

Starbucks has an ambitious plan to reduce its environmental footprint, albeit one it acknowledges will require considerable buy-in from its customers.

A judge has fined a union that represents more than 700 workers at a Saskatchewan oil refinery $100,000 for violating a court order that set limits on picketing during an ongoing contract dispute.

The British Columbia government has appointed former New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen as a provincial liaison with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs in an LNG pipeline dispute, a move welcomed by spokesmen for both the chiefs and the company.