UPDATE - ON: Municipal Hazardous and Special Waste Wind Up Plan for pressurized containers

Residual Funds and Invoices

On December 20, 2019, the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks directed Stewardship Ontario to disburse Municipal Hazardous and Special Waste (MHSW) residual funds to stewards. These residual funds represent any remaining funds after all program financial obligations are met. The plan for these residual funds was approved by the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA) on February 29, 2020.

With respect to the anticipated fee reduction for pressurized containers, the MHSW Wind Up Plan (WUP) includes initial schedules for Refillable Pressurized Containers (five quarters) and Non-Refillable Pressurized Containers (potentially one quarter) (located on page 58 of the WUP).

Stewardship Ontario consultant Doug Mander has indicated to Marcelline Riddell, CPA government relations director, Ontario, that these initial schedules are continuously under review and SO will reach out to the CPA prior to implementation to review any changes and resulting communications. 

An Addendum to the MHSW WUP dealing with residual funds was approved by RPRA in February 2020. As per the WUP, SO began implementing the fee reduction for single-use batteries on January 2020 invoices.  Information on how the fee reduction for single-use battery stewards was implemented can be found under the tab “Information Webinars” on the SO MHSW Wind Up Plan web page.

Steward reporting schedules associated with the wind-up period will remain the same as with the current program with the following adjustments:

• Steward adjustments to supply reports for 2020 will need to be submitted to SO by February 12, 2021;
• Steward adjustments to supply reports for 2021 will need to be submitted to SO by August 31, 2021 (two months after the program termination date); and
• Final SO Steward invoices after the program termination date of June 30, 2021 will be issued around September 30, 2021 (rather than one month after the end of the final quarter).

Important Municipal Hazardous and Special Waste (MHSW) milestones:

• April 12, 2018 – the Minister of Environment and Climate Change issued direction to Stewardship Ontario (SO) to wind up the MHSW program by December 31, 2020.
• December 11, 2018 –  the Minister of Environment, Conservations and Parks directed the single use battery program wind up to be accelerated by June 30, 2020.
• July 2, 2019 – the Minister extended the termination date for the MHSW program for all categories, other than single use batteries, to June 30, 2021. At the same time, he also extended the timeline for SO’s submission of a program wind up plan to the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA) to September 30, 2019.

The MHSW WUP was approved by RPRA at the end of the year. The program will be fully wound up sometime in 2022 if all milestones are met. The CPA will keep members updated on any further program developments or pertinent information for industry on this file.