Ford orders LCBO to give $11M bag contract to an Ontario company after it had been awarded to a Quebec company

OR: Doug “Open for Business” Ford spends his time being a protectionist against another province in Canada over a tiny $11M contract.

In September 2023, the LCBO stopped providing 135 million brown paper bags annually to reduce waste, which would also cut costs. 7 months later, Premier Ford orders the LCBO to reintroduce paper bags, questioning the environmental benefits, saying it would reduce consumers’ costs and prevent them from being stuck holding alcohol in public.

The LCBO received 45 bids from across Canada on the $10.9M contract to supply single-use paper bags and awarded it to Rosenbloom Groupe Inc., a Quebec company.

Premier Ford then ordered the LCBO to redo the procurement process and award the contract to an Ontario company to support Ontario’s forestry sector.

6 days earlier, Premier Ford said politicans should reject protectionism and embrace trade between Canada and the US:

If Ontario were a stand-alone country, we’d be America’s third largest trading partner in the world

It’s been a full court press from our government to encourage all parties no matter what political stripe they come from, to reject protectionism and embrace a ‘Buy Can-Am’ mentality.

Premier Doug Ford to the Empire Club of Canada

Premier Ford is the current chair of the Council of the Federation of Canada’s Premiers, with the objective to “Promote interprovincial-territorial cooperation and closer ties between Premiers, to ultimately strengthen Canada”.

Outstanding questions:

• How much is going to cost to break the existing Quebec contract?

Timeline

October 22, 2024 – LCBO says it will re-do the procurement process as soon as possible

LCBO recognizes direction received from the provincial government to initiate a new tender process that will be limited to Ontario suppliers at the soonest available opportunity

In the meantime, the LCBO had completed an open procurement to reintroduce single-use paper bags at our retail locations. A contract with Rosenbloom Inc. remains in place and paper bags will be available for consumers in the coming weeks

LCBO

October 22, 2024 – Hours later, Doug “Open for Business” Ford orders LCBO to redo the procurement process and give the $10.9M contract to an Ontario company

Unfortunately, the LCBO’s recent decision to source paper bags from a company outside Ontario goes against our government’s direction, as outlined in a letter that the Minister of Finance sent to the LCBO on July 9

While our immediate priority is to promptly get paper bags back into stores using the selected vendor, I am directing the LCBO to also initiate a new tender process as soon as possible that will be limited to Ontario suppliers

Ontario’s forestry sector is fully capable of meeting the demand for paper bags and ensuring that these products are made in Ontario by Ontario workers.

I trust the LCBO will act quickly on this directive and begin working with Ontario producers to get this done

Please keep the government informed of your progress as this transition takes place and ensure that all procurement processes going forward are fully aligned with our government’s direction to prioritize local businesses and workers.

Premier Doug Ford’s letter to the LCBO

October 22, 2024 – Ontario’s finance minister insists it was not the place of the government to get involved in details of which company should supply the LCBO’s paper bags

October 9, 2024 – LCBO awards $10.9M contract to Rosenbloom Groupe Inc. of St. Laurent, Quebec to supply and deliver paper bags

The same company that was supplying the bags when they were phased out in 2023.

There were 45 bids from:

July 9, 2024 – Ford Finance minister asks LCBO to use “local pulp and paper sources when appropriate” when selecting a supplier

April 8, 2024 – Premier Doug Ford sends a letter to LCBO’s president and CEO directing them to reintroduce paper bags

The LCBO currently provides eight-pack carriers and boxes when available. It also sells reusable bags for $1.25 for a bag to carry 2 bottles, or $2.95 for one to carry 6 and a four-pocket organic cotton bag for $14.95.

At a time when many Ontario families are already struggling to make ends meet, every additional expense counts

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

This change has left people stuck openly carrying alcohol in public when leaving a LCBO store.

people expect Crown corporations to “refrain from imposing additional and unnecessary burdens on them.”

The environmental merits of this decision are questionable at best. Paper bags are an easily recyclable alternative to single-use plastic, which is why the LCBO adopted them in the first place.

As a government, we are focused on making life easier, more convenient, and more affordable for the people of Ontario. The decision to remove paper bags has had the opposite effect.

Premier Doug Ford’s letter to the LCBO

This caught LCBO executives by surprise:

“Don’t understand, you get a letter yesterday but it is already in The Sun??” the LCBO’s chief information officer, Geoff Cronin, wrote to Soleas in one message sent at 7:25 a.m. on April 8.

“Toronto Sun has already picked up on this so we are going to be asked to move quickly. We will likely need to provide direction to the stores this AM,” wrote the LCBO’s chief retail officer, John Summers, at 7:11 a.m. the same day.

CBC

Critical reception

I don’t know where he’s decided that’s the big priority

Every time I’ve ever been to the LCBO and I don’t have my shopping bag, I find the boxes quite handy.

NDP leader Marit Stiles

September 5, 2023 – Paper bags are no longer available

April 27, 2023 – LCBO announces that it would start phasing out paper bags

Remove almost 135 million paper bags annually from LCBO retail stores and convenience outlets; diverting 2,665 tonnes of waste from landfill and saving the equivalent of more than 188,000 trees every year.

Customers are encouraged to bring their own reusable bag when shopping in-store. Alternatively, they will have the option to purchase a reusable bag or request a re-used cardboard box or an 8-pack carrier at no cost.

LCBO

This move would also save them money, which would be either:

1. Savings passed to the customer in lower prices at the LCBO, or
2. Increase LCBO net income, which goes to the Government of Ontario in the form of an annual dividend, which helps fund key local and provincial public programs and services including health care, education, and infrastructure.

September 29, 2017 – LCBO selects Rosenbloom Groupe Inc. of St. Laurent, Quebec to supply and deliver paper bags

RFQ 2017-733-056 Supply and Delivery of Paper Bags

There were 14 bids from:

• Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. 111 Progress Avenue, Scarborough
• Colorad Packaging Ltd. 200 Beghin Ave, Winnipeg
• Graphic Associates 140 Advance Blvd., Unit 7, Brampton
• Rosenbloom Groupe Inc. 1225 Hodge St. , St. Laurent
• Staples Advantage 550 Pendant Drive., Mississauga
• Blue Water Sourcing Inc 187 Shepody Cir, Ottawa
• McCulloch Office & Storage Systems 165 Ayr St, Caledonia
• Supremex Inc. 33 Plymouth St, Winnipeg
• The Shutter Professionals 1965 Salem Road N., AJAX
• TJ MIK572 Amelia Cres, Burlington
• Blueprint Promotions 380 Markland Street, Markham
• De Luxe Paper / Novolex 35 Dynamic Drive, Scarborough
• Innovations UAE Inc 108-2 Newhaven Manors, Brampton
• Medihealth-Service and Distirbution Sytems 343 Drewry Av , Toronto
  

2008 – LCBO stops providing plastic bags

Instead providing cardboard boxes and paper bags instead and encouraging customers are encouraged to bring their own reusable bags.

The LCBO used 80 million plastic bags per year in 2007.

The Canadian Plastics Industry Association said banning plastic shopping bags at the LCBO is a bad environmental decision “based on politics rather than scientific fact,” and claimed that new plastic bags are more environmentally friendly than paper bags.

CTV News

The manufacture of paper bags is more energy intensive, requiring 2.2 times more non-renewable energy than plastic shopping bags, using 4.7 times more water and emitting 3.1 times more greenhouse gases

Canadian Plastics Industry Association

Ford government claims

Let’s address each claimed benefit of bringing back paper bags one at a time.

In the letter, Premier Ford points to the following reasons:

1. Reducing costs/making it more affordable by providing “free paper bags”
2. Stuck openly carrying alcohol in public
3. Environmental benefits are “questionable”

Will it save customers money?

Claim: Ontario’s Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said that consumers would save money:

(The cost) is not going to be put on the backs of consumers at the LCBO

Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy

Fact check: “free” bags are not free and handing out single use bags will make products more expensive

Ultimately, the cost of the bags is part of the LCBO’s overhead and recovered in the price of the products they sell. In calculating the expenses and market for their products, the LCBO’s in-store cost of service expense offsets the cost of retailing the product in a brick-and-mortar or online store according to an LCBO spokesperson, which would presumably include supplies such as brown paper bags.

The cost of the 135 million paper bags handed out annually is factored in to the price of their products:

This move would cost the LCBO money, which would be either be:

1. Passed onto the customer in higher prices at the LCBO, or
2. Decrease LCBO net income, meaning less going to the Government of Ontario in the form of an annual dividend to help fund key local and provincial public programs and services including health care, education, and infrastructure.

Are reusable bags more environmentally friendly than plastic and paper bags?

Claim: Premier Ford said the environmental benefits of eliminating the use of paper bags are “questionable”.

The LCBO currently provides eight-pack carriers and boxes when available. It also sells reusable bags for $1.25 for a bag to carry 2 bottles, or $2.95 for one to carry 6 and a four-pocket organic cotton bag for $14.95.

Fact check: reusable bags are more environmentally friendly than single use bags if they at least a certain number of times

Life cycle studies done in Europe and North America have determined that, overall, plastic bags are better for the environment than paper or reusable bags unless the latter are used many times. Most, however, did not consider the problem of litter, which we know is a major drawback of plastic bags.

Ultimately, the single use of any bag is the worst possible choice. The key to reducing your environmental impact is to use whatever bags you have around the house as many times and in as many ways as possible.

Columbia University – Climate School (2020)

A 2018 study Life Cycle Assessment of grocery carrier bags by Denmark’s Ministry of the Environment and Food found that reusable plastic bags have to be reused 8 times to be have lower climate impact than a plastic shopping bag, and 84 times to be better on all environmental indicators.

Reduce, reuse, then recycle, in that order

Using less is always better than relying on recycling, which is never 100% efficient.

Is someone openly carrying alcohol in public “stuck”?

It may feel awkward walking out with booze after years of conditioning to have it hidden, but everyone knows what’s in the brown paper bag with the “LCBO” logo printed on the side.

Openly carrying alcohol in public does carry a stigma – if one lived in 1955.

Glenn Parsons Guelph, Ont.

Summary

This move will have a (small) negative for you, if you:

• Have a reusable bag that you use at the LCBO
• Are happy to use the eight-pack carriers and boxes
• Don’t buy a lot at a time and are fine with carrying out your purchases with your bare hands

This move was good if you:

• Are mildly inconvenienced by forgetting to put your reusable bags in the car and bring them with you into the LCBO
• Don’t use reusable bags, the eight-pack carriers or boxes
• Feeling awkward while open carrying alcohol and prefer it to be hidden in a branded paper bag