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In a victory for the Liberal government, the Federal Court of Appeal has upheld its decision to list plastics as toxic, enabling Ottawa to ban single-use plastic items.
The decision deals a blow to Canada’s plastics industry, which had challenged the federal government’s regulations aimed at stopping plastic pollution.
The unanimous decision said a judge had erred when they ruled that Ottawa’s decision to list plastic items as toxic was “unreasonable and unconstitutional.”
The three appeal court justices said that ruling was “predicated on an incorrect premise” and it did not infringe on provincial or territorial jurisdiction.
“There is no constitutional issue here,” the decision stated.
The court also found the government’s decision was reasonable because plastics have the potential to be toxic to humans and the wider environment.
In 2021, the Liberal government listed all plastic items as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
The listing was a precursor to enable the federal environment minister to proceed with regulations to ban single-use plastic items nationally on plastic checkout bags, cutlery, styrofoam containers, stir sticks and plastic straws.
In 2023, Federal Court Justice Angela Furlanetto struck down that ban. In her ruling Furlanetto said that Ottawa’s decision to classify plastic-manufactured items (PMI) as toxic was too sweeping.
The judge concluded that the federal government did not demonstrate that all plastics cause harm to humans and the environment and that it was trespassing on provincial jurisdiction.
The case was brought forward by major industrial players, including Dow Chemical, Imperial Oil and Nova Chemicals, who brought forward the case.
The Liberal government, under then prime minister Justin Trudeau and former environment minister Steven Guilbeault, quickly appealed. It received a stay from the Federal Court of Appeal, allowing the ban to continue.
The legal battle is likely not over since plastic manufacturers could launch a final appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
