Jamie Sarkonak: Liberals admit their own plastics ban is a disastrous sham

We’re never going to get an apology from the Liberals for their failed single-use plastics ban — but on Dec. 20, we got the next best thing: an admission that it was all a costly mistake.

It’s buried in the government’s proposal to cancel the export ban on plastic straws, cutlery, grocery bags, ring carriers, stir sticks and other food packaging, which took effect earlier this month. A draft amendment to the federal plastics regulations to that effect is open for public comment until Feb. 28, and will likely become law soon afterward.

It states the ban on exports of single-use plastics “will not fulfil an environmental objective commensurate to its economic impact” — but is certain to harm Canadian firms by shunting business to their competitors elsewhere in the world.

If the export ban remains in place, the government says, “Any foreign market that used to satisfy demand by importing Canadian goods would instead source equivalent goods from other suppliers in their own domestic market, or abroad. Irrespective of whether Canadian businesses are permitted to export the (single-use plastics), foreign consumption/use patterns (which correlate to the overall prevalence of plastic pollution and plastic waste in those environments) are not expected to change.”

The Liberals are only talking about plastics here, but their new position undermines much of their hostile stance on the Canadian oil and gas sector: you can restrict market access and punish local producers all you want, but the buyers of the world are just going to find another seller — even if that seller is an enemy. Just look at Europe: self-defeating emissions rules have resulted in a lack of power generation and a dependency on Russian oil, in part because Canada never stepped up to the plate. We ultimately chose climate targets over Ukrainian lives.

The Liberal crusade on plastic started in 2018 with talks of reducing plastic waste, escalating in 2019 to discussions of bans. In 2021, plastic was added to the list of federally regulated toxic substances to bring it into Ottawa’s jurisdiction. In 2022, a multi-phase ban was declared by then-environment minister Steven Guilbeault: first to go was the manufacture and import of the targeted types of single-use plastics that year, followed by a prohibition on their sale within Canada in 2023. At the end of 2025, it was extended to include exports (along with the manufacture and import of plastics for the purpose of export).

A hiccup in all of this has come from the courts: the order challenging the designation of plastic as a federally regulated toxic substance was ruled unconstitutional by the Federal Court in 2023 — however, the ban remains active as an appeal is underway.

While the courts might still strike down the entire scheme, and while the Liberals signalled that they were going to call it off in October, the draft regulations tell us that much of the damage has already been done.

Back in 2021, the feds loosely estimated that the export ban on the horizon would harm more than 100 Canadian plastics manufacturers and cost them roughly $69 million in profits. Since 90 per cent of our single-use plastic exports went to the United States, according to departmental data, one imagines that new contracts were signed in countries like Mexico. Indeed, plastic exports from Mexico saw a substantial boost in 2021, and they remain elevated compared to pre-2021 figures.

When the hundred-or-so Canadian firms were re-examined in November 2025 as the case was being made for allowing exports, 44 per cent appeared to still be in the business of forbidden-plastics manufacturing. Meanwhile, 48 per cent were found to have “already shifted away,” while another eight per cent had been bought out or shut down.

Another note that came with the draft regulations reads: “Industry associations support the proposal (to repeal the export ban), with some individual companies expressing relief at the announcement, but at least one stating the Amendments would come too late, as they were already in the process of winding down export activities.” Some producers “have diversified toward paper, fibre or other compostable substitutes.”

The federal proposal doesn’t get into the number of jobs that have been lost in the crackdown. It does acknowledge, though, that if exports were not permitted again, “some amount of labour associated with the proportion of those facilities’ product lines that previously made (single-use plastics) for export would be displaced elsewhere in the economy.” If this is certain to save jobs, then the domestic ban on manufacturing and sales absolutely took jobs.

The government frames all of this as a positive, an indication that the reversal of the export ban will be a good thing for Canada. However, the domestic ban remains in place, and many firms appear to have exited the business. Even if our guys can once again sell plastic forks to the Americans, many of the old contracts will have been lost in the upheaval.

The Carney government’s slow response is noteworthy, too: it waited until the ban took effect to put forth the draft regulations that would reverse it. Acting earlier would have caused far less economic damage.

For climate consultants in Ottawa, this was just an awkward journey down the green rabbit hole and back again; for the factory workers who were rendered obsolete by regulation, this was yet another intrusion into their lives that left them worse off.

When Canada returns to exporting single-use plastics to the world, the Liberals will try to play it as an economic win — but what they’ll really be doing is covering their tracks. Their grand strategy is still one that involves kneecapping the country for bragging rights at international climate summits. Unless they can apply their recent epiphany to the rest of the economy, the stagnation will continue.

National Post