The agency in charge of the controversial new “eco fees” consumers are paying — with some being wrongly overcharged — must get its house in order pronto, Environment Minister John Gerretsen warned Tuesday.

After almost two weeks of being pilloried by opposition parties and critics over the fees of up to $6.66 per item, Gerretsen wrote a letter to Stewardship Ontario chief executive Gemma Zecchini raising “serious concerns” about overcharging reported by some retailers.

“This is unacceptable and must be addressed immediately,” Gerretsen warned the independent agency, which is composed of industry representatives.

“Stewardship Ontario must take quick action to resolve these issues and restore consumer confidence.”

Gerretsen threatened to revoke the agency’s power to set fees if swift action is not taken.

“I expect Stewardship Ontario to put in place the necessary audit and compliance systems to ensure consumers are not overcharged. If the situation is not rectified, I will consider options to ensure consumers are not being misled about any fees being charged, or eliminate altogether the ability to charge additional set fees to consumers.”

Stewardship Ontario was set up by Queen’s Park to oversee recycling programs and make sure household hazardous waste is disposed of using environmentally friendly methods

Opposition parties said the letter smacked of a last-minute public relations ploy.

“Holy smokes, it’s a dollar short and days late. The way the letter’s written it’s like they’re trying to cover their butts,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, noting the government is already under fire for the HST, solar power subsidies and wind turbines.

“It makes you wonder how much this government has lost control of its agenda . . . it’s like they’re walking along a road of hot coals.”

The scramble to do damage control comes with Premier Dalton McGuinty on holidays and after top-level changes in his office following the departure of former chief of staff Peter Wilkinson.

“It’s a dog of a program,” said Progressive Conservative MPP and environment critic Toby Barrett. “We’re only one week into it. Where is this outfit taking it?”

Gerretsen, who had already been in touch with Stewardship Ontario on July 8, said he expects a speedy response but didn’t set a deadline.

His letter comes amid other criticisms the eco fee program appears at cross purposes with other government initiatives on the environment.

Four years ago, the Ontario government began handing out coupons encouraging consumers to buy the curly-looking compact fluorescent light bulbs that use 75 per cent less electricity than regular bulbs. It even banned the old-style bulbs starting in 2012.

Now those same energy-efficient bulbs are subject to the controversial new eco fee that came in along with the 13 per cent HST on July 1.

The environmental fee for the new bulbs, which contain mercury, is 14 cents.

It’s a classic mixed message and it has both supporters and critics crying foul over the eco fee scheme administered by Stewardship Ontario.

“The program is important but it has been delivered in an entirely clumsy way,” said Beatrice Olivastri, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Canada, noting the bulbs contain mercury.

“Can’t we deal with it better?”

The fees of up to $6.66 per item now apply to aerosols, including asthma inhalers, cleaning products, pharmaceuticals and thousands of other potentially toxic items. The highest fee is for large fire extinguishers.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Calling the fees a “secret eco tax,” Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak urged McGuinty to order them scrapped and promised the Tories would do so if elected next year.

“If the Liberals don’t, a PC government will,” he said. “We don’t need a brand new eco tax . . . particularly back-to-back with the HST.”

Hudak singled out some types of grass seed packaged with fertilizers as another example of what’s wrong.

“That just shows that this is nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with another tax grab on the backs of ordinary Ontario families.”

The Tories also pointed out the eco fee applies to tire pressure gauges — which, ironically, conservationists say motorists should use regularly to make sure their car tires are inflated property to get the best gas mileage and reduce pollution.

New Democrats joined Hudak in questioning whether Stewardship Ontario, manufacturers and retailers charging the fees are adequately supervised, calling on Ontario Ombudsman André Marin to investigate “potential abuses.”

They include the “bluntness” of fees that don’t distinguish between “less green and more green products,” such as recycled paint versus standard paint, and what Horwath dubbed “the apparent ability of retailers to charge an eco fee in excess of the fees set by Waste Diversion Ontario, effectively disguising a retail price increase as something to do with improving the environment.”

Stewardship Ontario did not return a telephone call from the Star but its website notes “every cent we receive . . . is used to pay for a program that will mean less waste in landfill, less damage to our waterways — and a better future for generations to come.”

None of the money goes to government.

Gerretsen told the Star last week that the program diverts over 20,000 tonnes of hazardous waste a year from Ontario landfills but acknowledged the strategy to publicize the new fee “wasn’t good enough.”

In another irony, one of his predecessors in the job, current Children and Youth Services Minister Laurel Broten, boasted in 2007 that replacing regular light bulbs with compact fluorescents would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“It’s the equivalent of taking 250,000 cars off the road,” she said in a statement. Around the same time, then-energy minister Dwight Duncan downplayed the amount of toxins in the compact bulbs if disposed properly at toxic waste depots.

“There’s less mercury in a CFL bulb than the battery in your wristwatch,” said Duncan, now finance minister.

Read more about: