31 March 2020
Hon. Jeff Carr, Minister of Environment and Local Government
Marysville Place
P. O. Box 6000
Fredericton, NB E3B 5H1
VIA Email: jeff.carr@gnb.ca
Re: Relief for New Brunswick Businesses During the COVID-19 Crisis; PPP EPR Regime
Thank you for your efforts and the effort of your government and opposition colleagues throughout the current COVID-19 health and economic crisis. We understand the dynamic nature of the situation and a appreciate the long hours and difficult decisions being made on a daily basis.
As you know, COVID-19 has created impossible conditions for many businesses and in order to help weather the storm, we have asked governments at all levels to support businesses through the crisis by postponing any increases in taxes, non-essential new regulations, and unnecessary consultations that take us away from this mission. Businesses and governments need to be focused 100 per cent on the current crisis, leaving other priorities aside until the crisis abates. No new taxes proposed in your government’s 2020-21 budget is a great starting point.
More particularly at the provincial level, we are requesting that the development of an Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging and Printed Paper regime be put on hold until the crisis subsides. Even before the current crisis hit, we were concerned that the PPP EPR consultation was being rushed and organizations such as ours did not have adequate time to consult our members and learn enough to provide knowledgeable feedback to the government. As we wrote in our letters on February 14 and February 26 of this year, we felt that more time and information was required.
We remained concerned that costs or red tape would be more than government was anticipating as a result of the speed of the process. The subject matter is complex with many variables to be evaluated in the context of the NB economy – which is going to look much different when the program is ultimately implemented than when it was first contemplated in a pre-COVID-19 context. Now is the time to pause this process, focus on our more immediate issue and re-evaluate at a later date.
Thank you for your consideration of this matter and again, thank you for all of your on the behalf of New Brunswickers.
Sincerely,
Krista Ross, CEO
Fredericton Chamber of Commerce
cc: Hon. Blaine Higgs, Premier, Province of New Brunswick
cc: Hon. Mary Wilson, Minister of Economic Development and Small Business, Province of NB
cc: Hon. Ernie Steeves, Minister of Finance, Province of NB
cc: Mark Miller, Project Coordinator, Department of Environment and Local Government
cc: Sheri Somerville, CEO, Atlantic Chamber of Commerce
cc: Ron Marcolin, Chair, Coalition of New Brunswick Employers
