by SUSAN MANN
Tire recycling fees for off-road vehicles including tractors and combines are about to get a whole lot more expensive.
Progressive Conservative environment critic Michael Harris, the MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga, says Ontario Tire Stewardship, the organization responsible for recycling tires in Ontario, will introduce new fees April 1. He claims the fees could increase the cost of doing business by 2,200 per cent in some cases. The off-road category includes tires used for dump trucks, tractors and feller bunchers, a large forestry vehicle.
The fees are charged when people are buying the equipment, he says.
For example, the eco-fee for one front tire on a harvester-combine is going up to $352.80 from $15.29, he says.
Meanwhile Oxford MPP Ernie Hardeman, the Progressive Conservative’s agriculture critic, has launched a petition calling on the government to suspend the fee increases until an impact study is done and proposals to lower fees are implemented.
In a background document to his March 22 press release, Harris used these examples:
• John Deere 9300 tractor – new total fees - $729.12; previous total fees - $61.16.
• John Deere 9770 combine – new total fees - $1,644.40; previous total fees - $91.74.
• Maxxum 110 tractor – new total fees - $423.36; previous total fees - $61.16.
• CAT 980 front-end loader – new total fees - $5,244.96; previous total fees - $417.
Harris blames the Liberal government for the fee hike, saying the fees are being introduced to pay for years of mismanagement at Ontario Tire Stewardship. He says the organization has run annual deficits to about $8 million on off-road tires since 2009 when the Liberal government created the program.
“Rather than address the fundamental flaws with the tire recycling program, the Liberals developed a Band-Aid solution charging OTS (Ontario Tire Stewardship) to develop a cost recovery model,” he says.
In a statement on its website about the new fees, Ontario Tire Stewardship says it continues to refine its practices to ensure Ontario’s tires are recycled efficiently and responsibly. “Part of this has included a review of our fee structure.”
The organization says fees for passenger and light truck tires will decrease to $5.69 per tire from $5.84 while off-road vehicle tires will have varying increases based on a tire’s weight. “In many cases the new off-road tire fees are still lower than the costs of tire disposal prior to the introduction of the used tire program in 2009.”
The new fees are designed to ensure that the true cost of tire recovery and recycling are reflected, the organization says. It also notes that during the past four years it has been meeting or exceeding its diversion targets with an average 95 per cent diversion.
Kate Jordan, Ontario Environment Ministry spokesperson, says by email Ontario Tire Stewardship is a private sector operation responsible for the safe recycling of used tires. It sets the fees for the tires. “The government does not set the fees nor receives any money collected from the fees,” she says.
Harris says the Liberal government approved the new fees through Waste Diversion Ontario, the oversight and implementation arm of the Liberal government’s waste diversion policies. The government directs Waste Diversion Ontario to oversee the Ontario Tire Stewardship, which operates the tire-recycling program, he explains.
It’s the environment minister who issued a regulation on Feb. 9, 2012 to Waste Diversion Ontario (WDO) to create a cost recovery model, Harris says. “OTS then develops the plan and submits it back to WDO for approval, which then in turn submits it to the (environment) minister for final sign off,” he notes.
For the ministry to claim it “has nothing to do with the operation and implementation of the government’s recycling program is truly laughable,” he says.
Harris says the Conservatives would eliminate Waste Diversion Ontario, bring “all of the oversight authority back into the (environment) ministry” and inject competition into the recycling marketplace. They’d implement a program for the environment ministry to set targets and monitor the outcomes but allow “the producers of the product to implement their own program” and that would drive down costs and improve environmental standards, he explains. BF
Comments
The Liberals keep saying how important agriculture is to this province. Must be a new way to mend the rift between the rural/urban divide and an interesting way to show your appreciation for agriculture Minister/Premier Wynne.
Even Newstalk 1010 from downtown Toronto was talking about this issue last night - and how ridiculous it is. It must be REALLY out there to grab the attention of TO radio show hosts away from Rob Ford's alleged drinking problem.
Wynns performance is being judged weekly. ('weakly' open to interpretation)
Nobody in the farm community batted an eye when the price of tires increased dramatically a few years ago - suck it in, people, if you're prepared to pay more to buy these tires in the first place, "kwitcher bitchin" about what it costs to get rid of them. Furthermore, if you're going to the bank with money earned from the legislated largesse of ethanol and/or supply management, you have no right to complain when government requires you to give some of it back. I'm with the government on this one.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Talk about bitchin how do you know it,s sm and ethanol farmers doing the bitchin. They say it,s everyone paying not just 2 group of farmers unless they are the only ones which can afford to own machinery. I think it must be time to give the bashing of the 2 group of farmers a rest and come up with and idea that would help everyone in Canada and not just farmers to keep the work here.
I like to read the ideas which some people write or complain about , but its really get boring hearing
Comment modified by editor
When the marketplace drives up the price of new tires, nobody complains, yet when the government changes the disposal fees by only a fraction of the price increase nobody complained about in the first place, it's an example of the sort of selective complaining farmers are famous for doing. Why would anyone complain about paying an extra $400 to get rid of a tire which went up by $1,000 in price in the last two years without any complaining at all? Furthermore, why would supply managed farmers complain at all? - this fee just gets added to their cost of production and then gets foisted off onto poor consumers. This is one time when farmers are wrong, and government is right.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
This time you are completely wrong Stephen . OTS is not run by the Gov. . it is a private company . It is not an arm of the Gov.
Funny how other provinces can dispose of the same tires so much cheaper . Sort of sounds like Greed Energy . Produce it in Ontario and it must be premium priced and then sell it at a loss . Why do that when you could by hydro from Quebec for less . Much less !
It all has to do with the comparing the price increase of the tires themselves to the cost of getting rid of them - everybody should have been in the same tizzy when the price went up in the first place, but there was nary a peep. Methinks the farm community is gullible to the influence of the full moon. Let's protest something which really does matter instead, like cutting the AgriStability benefits to 70%, or the insistence on keeping the linkage between RMP and AgriStability.
Or to look at it another way, if you can't afford to pay $400 once in a blue moon, to get rid of a tire on a $400,000 combine, you can't afford the combine in the first place - that's reality, and that's what I'd come back with, if I was in government.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
I would have thought an economist might look at the bigger picture... the follow the money insight. When some green environmentalist initiated the fee for grocery bags to save the landfill the fee charged was to be given to charity. Some more insightful person asked the presidents choice chain I believe to show the receipt of the charitable donation. Long and short of it was there was no donation and no receipt.The fee was dropped in the GTA and most often when I cross into the next municipality that is not in the GTA and they want to charge the fee ... Just for fun I ask for the receipt. Result no charge. Maybe we need to follow the money here.. . we might be shocked to see what the morals of the environmental fee collectors are.
I hate to say it but I think you're wrong. Everyone should be bitching! The reason nobody "batted an eye" was because the price didn't quadruple in price. This new policy is going to run people into the ground, because nobody is going to buy tires in Ontario anymore, when they can go to the states or quebec and save $250 a tire because they don't have to pay this ridiculous fee. This is going to cause a huge stink with the people who sell tires, as well as the farmers who don't have close access to these options. And custom workers are going to lose their minds, especially considering how many tires on their equipment they have. It's not like the float them around, they run the roads all the time and tires wear quick enough and they have to change a set a lot quicker then the average farmer, trust me I know, I do custom work for a living. And that will piss of the rest of the farmers who aren't already pissed off cause their bills will be more cause the operator is going to have to pay this new fee, and he's going to have to charge more. All in all its just a terrible idea, and hopefully people keep bitching so that this new fee is gone.
Hunch your back there's a twister coming ! And no lube !
So the price of every thing will go up and yet the farmer will have to suck it up with no way of recovery and put at a bigger price disadvantage to other provinces and the US of A . Truckers will increase their rates , farm suppliers will up rates for custom fertilizer app rates . Here we go again sucking the hind tit !
The consumer will pay for this in the end anyways. Has anyone noticed for example, the price of a loaf of bread lately.
What we all need to do is show that this is unacceptable! We should dump them off on the steps of parliament. If there is no adjustment to a reasonable fee I will burn my old tires at night on the back 40 and take a wizz in the direction of parliament!
It is paid when you buy, not when you dispose of. Unless you buy outside the province
Grant Crack
MPP, Glengarry-Prescott-Russell
Dear Mr. Crack,
As member of the OFA , I just read the OFA notice of the new fees relating to FARM tire recycling.
Escalating these fees by over 400% makes no sense in this economy nor would it be acceptable
in any business practice. The recycling of tires is a business like any other and the companies
doing the recycling are supposed to be profitable businesses like any businesses that continues to operate.
The larger farm tires are more efficient to recycle because of the amount of rubber in one tire.(less handling)
As an independent business owner we do not get to defray our costs by crying to the government
because we do not run our business properly (Hydro-One is a classic example).
If the Ontario Stewartship Council cannot be self-perpetuating then LET IT DIE.
Do not think that because the Farmers are doing somewhat better in the last 3-4 years that they
have not struggled over the previous 50-60 years. There is something very wrong with the attitude
of the government when they think that they can just suck even more money out of the people
who really support this province through their taxes.
Let’s do something constructive for a change!
Your immediate reply would be most appreciated and please consider copying your reply to OFA.
George D. Henderson
Chute à Blondeau,
"the organization(OTS) has run annual deficits of about 8 million since 2009 when the program was created by the liberals". Sounds like this claimed private business was already in trouble prior to this program. To top it off, they are supposedly overseen by a government agency, Waste Diversion Ontario. I would say this problem should have been addressed in 2009, instead of now after accumulating interest on 8 million, hence the need for very high recovery fees. A full blown audit for OTS would be in order also. I would like to see the wages of some of the top employees at OTS if the government is going to grant them the ability to set their prices for a "cost recovery model".
Post new comment