VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Vancouver is talking to the province about a plastic bag ban, with the hopes of being the greenest city there is, but did Toronto beat us to it?

Councillor Andrea Reimer says it’s a complicated, bureaucratic process to bring in a ban like this and she wishes municipalities had more power to make these kinds of decisions.

“Our understanding is that legislatively, cities in Canada don’t have that  ability. There are two municipalities, Tofino and Leaf Rapids in Manitoba that have banned plastic bags, we’ve watched those with interest.”

Reimer adds we still have time to reach the environmental goal, “The greenest city goal is for 2020, because we understood that we have a long way to go on a number of items including waste.”

She says if it does happen, plastic bags will be phased out gradually.

Premier Christy Clark says she’s open to helping cities like Vancouver cut through the red tape if they want to ban plastic bags,  but she admits it’s not easy. “It’s something that we are talking about, and it’s something that we are talking to municipalities  about now that the minister of environment is really, obviously, pretty interested in the issue.”
    
A few American cities, like Los Angeles and even countries like Rwanda have bans in place.
    
Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford disagrees and says the ban is the dumbest thing council has ever done.

Toronto city council passed a motion Wednesday to scrap the five-cent retail bag fee on July 1, removing one of Ford’s pet peeves.