UPDATE – ON: Municipal Hazardous and Special Waste Wind Up timeline extended

Stewardship Ontario’s wind up of the Municipal Hazardous and Special Waste (MHSW) program for all program stewards (except single-use batteries) was scheduled to take place on June 30, 2021. However, in late April 2021, the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP), extended program operations for another three months, until September 30, 2021, to allow for further development of the new regulatory regime for these products.  

On April 30, 2021, Stewardship Ontario (SO) consultant Doug Mander reached out to Ontario Government Relations Director, Marcelline Riddell, to advise her of the new timeline and its impact on the distribution of residual funds to stewards. Mander also shared that the delay was due, in large part, to a request by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) for a six-month program extension to address their numerous objections to the proposed new regulatory regime, the Hazardous and Special Products (HSP) Regulation, including the proposed exemption for refillable propane cylinders.

 As members may recall, the proposed new HSP regime exempts refillable propane cylinders because they contribute to the province’s circular economy by being regularly recovered, reused and recycled.    

Riddell participated in a SO webinar on the MHSW program extension on May 18, 2021. The session provided the following key information on impacts for stewards:

• SO has implemented fee reductions for pressurized container stewards reflected on invoices every quarter beginning in January 2020. The program extension does not affect amounts available for fee reductions, but the timing of these disbursements is extended.
• The MHSW program will continue to operate and will need to be funded to do so until the end of September, 2021. Stewards will be billed for an additional quarter of program operations in 2021.
• SO is confident that additional general wind-up costs can continue to be financed from program general revenues.
• Final SO invoices to stewards will now be issued on December 31, 2021, rather than the originally planned October 31, 2021. Final fee reductions will be reflected on stewards’ December 2021 invoices.
• SO will work with stakeholders to transition Orange Drop branded material before September 30, 2021.

Riddell is currently working with SO to determine the cost of the program extension to the propane sector. The CPA will submit comments and concerns on the program extension to SO by the May 26, 2021 deadline set out.

With respect to securing the category exemption for refillable propane cylinders in the new HSP program, the CPA is scheduling a meeting with the minister’s office staff the week of May 25, 2021 to address the issues AMO raises for these products.