You might notice on your next trip to the store an “Eco- Fee” added on to various items. This is not optional, this is now mandatory. Call it what you will, it is a tax.

Supposedly, this is to pay for recycling products and Stewardship Ontario will be setting up drop off points for various items (mine is 15 miles away from my home).

I have to ask, why is it on consumables such as laundry detergent? If I buy a bag of cement and use it in my yard, why should I have to pay Stewardship Ontario and extra $10 for recycling it? They will have nothing to do with recycling it. I’m sure that cement will still be in my yard 50 years from now. Responsible disposal of any product is still up to the consumer so why are we being forced to give money to this non-governmental agency?

Ontario might be the first place in the world that’s now become an official Corporatocracy. We now have a tax that, rather going to democratically-elected government accountable to the people, goes directly into the hands of corporations with no accountability to the public whatsoever.

I encourage you to go to the Stewardship Ontario’s website and read their Board of Directors. We didn’t elect any of these corporate lobbyists so where do they get the authority to impose these mandatory taxes?

Maureen Anderson

Amherstburg, ON