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TORONTO – Toronto’s executive committee voted Monday evening to scrap the controversial five-cent plastic bag fee.

If city council approves, the fee will no longer be in place as of July 1st. However retailers are still permitted to charge for plastic bags if they choose to do so. If that’s the case, the retailer must prominently display the extra charge.

Mayor Rob Ford said during his weekly radio show that the five-cent fee has been around long enough.

Some critics believe that the companies charging the fee should be donating it in some way.

The fee was imposed in June 2009 by former Toronto Mayor David Miller in an effort to reduce environmental degradation caused by plastic bags.

Since the implementation of the bylaw, plastic bag usage has dropped more than 50 per cent.



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SOUND OFF: What do you think should be done with the fee? Scrap it, maintain it, require retailers to donate the cash to maintain the urban canopy? Join our Facebook discussion.

Currently, the millions of dollars in proceeds from the tax go into the pockets of the retailer.

A motion has been put forward to city council though that would see council ask large retailers to donate a portion of the proceeds to help Toronto’s tree canopy.

The report from the City Manager suggests that if large retailers voluntarily donate 10 per cent of the net revenue from the tax, approximately $270,000 could be raised to help Toronto’s tree canopy.

