Earlier this year the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks in Canada sent a formal letter to the Ontario Electronic Stewardship (OES), requesting the organization to cease its activities. As a result of this, OES had to develop a wind-up plan, to ensure a proper transitional period between 2018 & 2020 (the deadline of cessation of the activities).
OES currently has a surplus of funds, built up by the environmental fees paid by its members. In order to smoothly minimize these funds the OES will no longer charge environmental handling fees to producers. This change will take effect on February 1, 2019.
Producers are still obligated to report the products put on the market in Ontario up until June 2019, but they do not have to pay for them anymore.
This is a temporary situation: when the wind-up plan is finalized producers will likely be expected to pay fees again. However, it is currently unknown where producers will need to register in Ontario.
14 Dec 2018 at 1:42 pm