By Lauren Boothby

Victoria’s plan to ban plastic bags hit a snag this week after a plastics group filed a suit against the City.

The Canadian Plastic Bag Association, a group representing plastic bag manufacturers and distributers in Canada and B.C., is suing the City of Victoria because they claim the bylaw is beyond the municipality’s legal power to enforce. The petition filed Monday in Vancouver, asks the city to quash the Plastic Bag Regulation Bylaw, and seeks costs.

The group claims the municipality does not have the power to regulate businesses to protect the environment, or to only allow paper and reusable bags, and compel businesses to charge for them.

The City’s legal team is currently working on a response to the lawsuit. Mayor Lisa Helps said she could not comment at this time.

The City of Toronto abandoned a similar bag ban in 2012 after they were sued by the same organization.

Victoria’s bylaw restricts businesses from charging for or providing free plastic bags, with exceptions. Small paper and plastic bags provided free for live fish, frozen food, and bakery goods, and small hardware items, for example, would be permitted. In other cases, businesses would have to charge customers 15 cents for paper bags, or $1 for a reusable bag. Businesses could face fines of up to $1,000 for non-compliance.

The bylaw was finalized earlier this month, making Victoria the first city in the province to ban plastic checkout bags, and will begin to be enforced in July

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