Ontario Premier Doug Ford asks LCBO to bring back paper bags for customers

Premier Doug Ford has asked the LCBO to reverse its decision to stop giving customers paper bags for their alcohol purchases.

“At a time when many Ontario families are already struggling to make ends meet, every additional expense counts,” Ford said in a letter dated April 7 to LCBO’s president and CEO.

“That includes charging customers for reusable bags instead of the free paper bags that the LCBO previously offered.”

The LCBO initially announced last year in April it was getting rid of paper bags at its stores and officially phased them out on Sept. 5, 2023.

The company said the move would would save the equivalent of 188,000 trees each year and divert 2,665 tonnes of waste from landfills.

However, in Ford’s letter he wrote that the change has “left people stuck openly carrying alcohol in public when leaving a LCBO store.”

“People rightly expect their government — and, by extension, crown corporations such as the LCBO — to be mindful of these costs and refrain from imposing additional and unnecessary burdens on them,” Ford wrote.

The LCBO only provides eight-pack carriers and boxes when available. It has reusable bags for sale.

“Paper bags are an easily recyclable alternative to single-use plastic, which is why the LCBO adopted them in the first place,” Ford noted in regards to move.

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