Québec solidaire wants to put an end to Publisac. The party has tabled a bill to allow the distribution of the bag of advertising notebooks only in front of residences whose occupants expressly demand it.
The initiative practically takes over the bylaw that Mayor Valérie Plante was to present in Montreal.
In addition to imposing this so-called opt-in formula, the Quebec solidaire bill would ban the use of plastic bags for Transcontinental publications. It would impose packaging that must not be separated from its content to be recycled.
“It’s time to change the way Publisac is distributed so that only people who want it receive it,” MP Ruba Ghazal said in a Twitter post announcing the tabling of “Bill 191”.
It provides that the distribution of the Publisac would only be permitted “when the pictogram prescribed by government regulation is displayed”.
Bill 191 also proposes to crack down on the recalcitrant. Those who violate it by leaving the bag of advertisements in front of properties where it is not claimed would face hefty fines, ranging from $ 500 to $ 1,000.
Conditional investment
La Presse revealed Thursday that Transcontinental had “proposed” to invest 45 million in the east of Montreal and to create 100 jobs there at the end of 2019, provided that the City allows it to continue to distribute its Publisac.
In a Transcontinental document obtained by La Presse, the company dangled a plastic recycling plant to convince the Plante administration to maintain the regulatory status quo on advertising books. Currently, the company distributes its product in front of all residences, unless a pictogram asks not to put it down.
“Conditional on maintaining the current distribution method, we are proposing to the City of Montreal: a major investment in the circular plastic economy that would make Montreal a leader in the field,” indicates the document, which Transcontinental presented to Mayor Plante on December 2, 2019.
This intervention took place at the very end of the public consultation on the control of circulars. The Standing Committee on Water, the Environment, Sustainable Development and Large Parks then recommended banning the distribution of the Publisac where no pictogram requires it.
In an email to La Presse, Transcontinental explains that the company wanted “to invest in a favorable environment where there would be Publisacs to recycle and manufacture”.
Two years after the end of the consultation on circulars, the City has finally not moved on the file, but the executive committee was to present a draft by-law in June. Mayor Valérie Plante finally decided to wait until the elections had passed before tabling him.