City Councillor Wants Saint John To Ban Single-Use Plastics
SAINT JOHN– While Saint John city councilor David Hickey was walking down by the harbour last week, he saw something that didn’t belong.
“Noticing this plastic bag floating in the water,” Hickey said in the caption of the photo he posted to his Facebook page. “What are your thoughts on a ban on single-use plastics in Saint John?”
He received a number of comments saying something needed to be done. A week later, he now plans to introduce a motion before Saint John Common Council that will ask city staff to look at the possibility of doing just that.
“I think for me, it was just rooted in what seems to be the trend of a lot of progressive, forward-thinking municipalities and jurisdictions too. We’ve seen it banned in P.E.I. and you see it being rolled out in Moncton as well,” said Hickey, in an interview with Huddle. “And I think it really is just starting to set the standard on what the environment and what the culture around plastic and around using single-use plastics is becoming.”
The motion Hickey plans to bring forward at the July 29 council meeting will have city staff research and put together a recommendation on how the city would move forward on such a ban, which council would then vote on.
“Essentially what I’m asking for is for staff to look into putting together a report and a recommendation on Saint John banning single-use plastics,” said Hickey.
Though the motion has not yet been introduced council yet and it’s not clear what recommendations staff would come back with, Hickey says he imagines a by-law banning single-use plastics would be implemented in phases.
“It will likely start out as something that’s phased-in. We’ll start with plastic bags and straws, and then move on to cutlery because we get into such a complex thing,” he says.
“For a lot of grocery stores and [places] like that, you’re talking about completely changing the way things are manufactured and the way things are prepared.”
The federal government announced last month plans to ban all single-use plastics by 2021, Hickey hopes a municipal by-law will help business plan for an inevitable transition.
“I think getting on this early, it gives industry in Saint John the chance to adapt and a chance to be leaders in this,” he says.
The City of Moncton passed a by-law to ban single-use plastic bags back in June. Though the feedback on the move was generally positive, Moncton city councillors Pierre Boudreau and Blair Lawrence told Huddle at the time that the by-law is a good first step toward getting all of New Brunswick on board.
“We are hopeful that the province will come in at some point in the very near future with a more comprehensive total ban on all single-use plastics. It should be a provincial decision,” Boudreau said.
“It is absolutely not going to come close to the overarching need to regulate the kinds of plastics that are in our world and the way we have to regulate it but I think it’s an important baby step in the right direction,” Lawrence said.
Hickey also hopes Saint John adopting a similar by-law will encourage the New Brunswick government to adopt a policy province-wide.
“The bigger the jurisdiction that does it the better. But in my capacity as a city councillor, this is what I can control and what I can hope to work to change,” he says. “I hope that in doing that … it will set the example for what the province should do and what the province should look like.”