For Immediate Release
March 31, 2008

Recycling The Tire Tax
Does McGuinty have a tire recycling plan?

Dunnville – Haldimand-Norfolk MPP and Environment Critic Toby Barrett says that the McGuinty Liberals may be putting the cart ahead of the horse when it comes to imposing a tire tax for the recycling of old tires.

“I understand that we are lagging behind other provinces in this department and I believe that it is time to catch up; however, is it fair to impose a tax when there is no real plan in place on how and where these tires will be recycled?” Barrett asked.

Barrett pointed to the fact that his office often receives calls from garages looking for tire disposal locations -- when his staff asks the Ministry for advice, the locations given are often few and far between.

“If this government hasn’t been able to come up with a plan to simply stock pile tires, I wonder how they will put together a plan to recycle tires,” Barrett questioned. “I want to work toward a tire recycling plan too but the first step is to consult with folks – hitting them with a tax is simply greedy and makes one wonder where those monies will end up.”

Allegedly, the proposed tire tax, which would see three to five dollars added to each new tire, came as a surprise to the Ontario Tire Dealers Association. He said that responsible government consults with industry stakeholders to devise a plan first. “It looks like the Premier is getting ahead of himself.”

Ontario had a five dollar tire tax in 1989 – brought in by Liberal Premier David Peterson – however, NDP Premier Bob Rae killed the tax in 1993 because the money went to general revenues.

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For more information please contact MPP Barrett at 1-800-903-8629