If the cost-of-living crisis is truly a concern for the B.C. government, why did the BC NDP add mandatory minimum consumer costs to reusable and paper bags when it banned single use plastic bags?
In a departure from recent policy decisions, this fee, effective July 15, will impact everyone, from low-income families to the highest earners. But who gains advantage from this policy shift?
On the surface, it appears grocers – everyone’s natural enemy these days – will benefit the most.
It’s challenging to find the exact amount a store pays for these bags. A rudimentary internet search of websites offering bulk branded bag products reveals costs of approximately $0.25 per reusable bag and $0.01 or less for each paper bag.
Based on the above non-scientific research, grocery chains stand to make a minimum of $1.75 per reusable bag and $0.24 on each paper bag. Once again, increased consumer costs will add to grocers’ bottom lines. The end result will be less affordable groceries for everyone.
Why now?
The timing of this shift is particularly confusing.
Two months before the writ gets dropped for the 2024 provincial election, with affordability a primary issue for voters, the ruling BC NDP could have parked this unpopular initiative until the dust settled after Oct. 19.
Maybe with two parties now battling to capture the right, centre-right and free-market vote, the governing party believed the vote split would eliminate the policy as an issue, while helping capture environmentally conscious British Columbians who lean left.
It doesn’t sound like former BC Green leader and climate scientist, Andrew Weaver, will be among those won over by the bag measure. In an OpEd for the Vancouver Sun last week, Weaver not only came out in support of the B.C. Conservatives, he bashed Premier David Eby’s leadership, his “radical ideological-driven activism” and “out-of-control” fiscal management.
Ouch.
On the affordability front, Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Foods Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University told CTV News in January consumers should “get used to” high grocery costs, but that prices should start to drop by mid-summer.
It’s unlikely anyone’s feeling relief during their shopping excursions yet.
Regardless of the rationale for the new minimum bag fees, or who benefits financially, the result is that voters will feel the pinch even more, and affordability in B.C. will take another hit.