A Vancouver Island MP is looking to spur action on a national plan to deal with plastic clogging our oceans.
“We need to redesign the plastics economy and we need producer accountability.”
The NDP’s Gord Johns, representing Courtenay-Alberni, is submitting a bill written with the help of the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law program.
It lays out the reduction of single-use plastics and a plan to deal with derelict fishing gear.
Johns says the federal government needs less talk and more action.
“The government has made a promise that at the G7 they are going to create a framework and take action, but we have yet hear their plan,” he said.
“Others in the G7 and around the world are putting forward solutions and are taking actions, so I don’t know why the government of Canada is taking its time.”
Johns says cities like Vancouver and Montreal are showing leadership on plastics — and now we need the same leadership nationally.
“I appreciate the government committing to creating a charter to deal with ocean plastics, but what Canadians want is a plan, and they want to know that it’s going to take action — that this action’s going to take place this year instead of waiting for years down the road.”