Mayor Rob Ford now says he wants to scrap the five-cent plastic bag fee. To many stores, his opinion may not matter.

Even if Ford succeeds in persuading city council to eliminate the bylaw that makes the fee mandatory, some retailers will simply continue charging shoppers for bags, says Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, a Ford ally.

A senior official at the industry group that represents Canada’s major grocery store chains said Ford’s Wednesday pronouncement on the bag fee had caught the companies unprepared: They believed they had been assured by the mayor’s office in early December that Ford would not try to eliminate the fee.

“From our perspective, this is surprising. It seems there’s been a change of heart,” said Allen Langdon, vice-president for environmental issues at the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors.

Ford told the Toronto Sun in early December that he had not decided whether to attempt to scrap the fee or to alter it so that the city, rather than retailers, kept the money. He told the National Post Wednesday that holiday-season conversations with shoppers who “can’t stand” the fee have convinced him it should be abolished.

The Toronto Environmental Alliance and World Wildlife Fund Canada said the fee should be preserved. Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, an environmentalist, said its elimination would be “idiotic.” And while Langdon said the grocery industry group would not issue an opinion until more details emerged, he said its members considered the fee a success.

Several major retailers, Loblaws included, extended the fee across Canada even though they weren’t required to do so. At Loblaws alone, World Wildlife Fund Canada spokesman Josh Laughren said, fees have produced a nationwide reduction of 1 billion bags. Langdon said the number of bags distributed at companies that belong to his group has dropped by 71 per cent in Toronto since the fee bylaw took effect in 2009.

Loblaws spokesperson Julija Hunter said the company would not yet comment on what it might do if council scrapped the bylaw. She also noted, however, that the company has been charging for bags at Real Canadian Superstores in Western Canada since the early 1990s and at No Frills stores in Ontario since the 1980s. “We have a history of supporting the reduced use of plastic bags,” Hunter said.

In early December, Ford said of the fee: “In the grand scheme of things, is it better for the environment? Yes.” But he said then, and again this week, that he was irked retailers received profits from the fee — 3.5 to 4 cents per bag, according to the Canadian Plastics Industry Association — and decided how they would be spent.

Economic development committee chair Michael Thompson joined Ford in voting against the fee in 2008. He said Thursday, however, that the city should itself collect the fee, and spend the proceeds on environmental initiatives, rather than eliminate it. He also disputed Ford’s argument that Torontonians detest the five-cent charge.

“At the end of the day, if it were removed, I don’t have a problem with that. But the thing is, we know the use of plastic bags has decreased,” Thompson said. “I think people have become extremely comfortable with it. People have become accustomed to the fact they have to pay. In my car, I have a lot of cloth bags, so when I go shopping I just take one out.”

Deputy mayor Doug Holyday, who opposed the fee in 2008, also did not express unequivocal support for Ford’s position. “I’d want to see some reports and see what the results have been. If some good has come by it, maybe you do have to take another look at the matter,” Holyday said. “If it’s turned out that, yes, it’s cost people money but has done something for the environment — I think we have to know just what’s happened.”

Right-leaning councillor Peter Milczyn and left-leaning Paula Fletcher said the city did not have the authority to levy a tax like the one Thompson proposed. Milczyn and Councillor Karen Stintz, another Ford ally, said they did not think even the current bylaw is legitimate.

“It’s outside our jurisdiction,” said Stintz. “We have no business telling retailers what they should charge for their goods.”

Franz Hartmann, executive director of the Toronto Environmental Alliance, urged Ford to consider the savings to taxpayers the fee produces by reducing the number of bags that must be sent to landfills and picked up as litter by city workers. De Baeremaeker noted that, in addition to the environmental benefits of the fee, many of the retailers have donated some of their revenues to charitable causes.

“Why would Mayor Ford want to cancel a fee where the end result will be more garbage, more litter and less money to charity?” he said.

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Ford did not say when he would try to bring the matter before council. His spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

With files from Dana Flavelle