HALIFAX—The federal, provincial and territorial governments have agreed on a list of measures that could reduce plastic pollution, but a detailed action plan is still to come.

After a day of meetings in Halifax on Thursday, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment released the first phase of a plan for zero plastic waste, listing extended producer responsibility (EPR) as a top priority.

The plan says that EPR, which holds companies accountable for the end-of-life management of plastics they produce, is “one of the most effective mechanisms for diverting plastic waste.”

Federal environment minister Catherine McKenna said she was happy that environment ministers from the provinces and territories agreed to work on the six priorities listed in the national plan, but it would “take time” to negotiate the implementation.

Details for the action items are due to come out gradually, with completion dates ranging from December 2019 to 2022. When those details are released, the plan says, they’ll be made available for application “at the discretion of jurisdictions.”

Speaking briefly to reporters after the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) meeting, McKenna said “our goal always is to work the provinces and hopefully they will step up.”

“Whether it’s tackling climate change or tackling plastic pollution, the federal government certainly can’t do it alone and plastic pollution doesn’t know any borders and we hope they do step up.”

McKenna did not stay for a press conference Thursday afternoon where seven provincial ministers spoke about their commitment to the zero plastic waste plan.

As the current CCME president, Nova Scotia Environment Minister Gordon Wilson hosted the meeting and said that he takes plastic waste reduction “very seriously.” Wilson said his department would begin working on steps to take “in the near future.”

“We have no firm timelines right now, but it is probably one of the most active conversations that we have, and I’ll give you my commitment that it is one that I’m going to continue to move forward,” he said.

Wilson said he’s waiting for the results of a review on Nova Scotia’s waste-management system before he decides what specific action to take. He couldn’t say how much plastic waste might be reduced when a plan materializes.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “It would be difficult, right now ... to put a projection on that actual number.”

Canada only recycles about nine per cent of the plastic it produces. According to a recent report prepared for Environment Canada by Deloitte and ChemInfo Services, in 2016 Canadians threw out 3.3 million tonnes of plastic, 12 times more than was recycled.

Much of the responsibility for plastics standards and producer responsibility lies with provincial governments, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced earlier this month that Canada was looking at banning a number of single-use plastic items within the next two years, including Styrofoam take-out containers, plastic straws and cutlery.

The products that will be banned won’t be determined until a review of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) is completed.

Some environmental groups are calling for plastics to be listed as a toxic substance under CEPA, which would spur the provinces into action on the zero plastic waste plan.

Three of the seven provincial environment ministers who were at Thursday’s press conference said that while they were committed to reducing plastic waste, they felt it would be heavy handed for the federal government to change CEPA for that purpose.

Ontario Environment Minister Jeff Yurek said the federal government shouldn’t “dictate” a path for reducing plastic waste, but work with each province and territory individually.

His sentiment was echoed by Saskatchewan Environment Minister Dustin Duncan and New Brunswick Environment Minister Jeff Carr, who said it would constitute “meddling” in the business of the provinces.

Carr pointed to the federal carbon tax as another example of federal “meddling” – a topic of significant dispute between the federal government and many of the conservative ministers who were at the table on Thursday. Five provincial governments are currently challenging the constitutionality of the tax.

McKenna said those tensions carried into Thursday’s meetings but didn’t stop them from moving forward on the plastics file. A second phase of the national zero plastic waste plan is expected in 2020.

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The group of ministers also discussed climate change, including carbon storage and ways to adapt to extreme weather.

McKenna said she wants to see the provinces and territories come together to “act like a country” and address climate change together, but she felt the conservative ministers at the provincial-federal meeting were not in agreement.

She said, in French, that after Thursday’s discussion, “conservative politicians do not seem to realize how much we’re paying for the costs of climate change.”

With files from Canadian Press

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