Ontario farmers fear slow leaks of thousands of dollars each year as the province’s tire stewardship program moves to a cost-recovery model for the recycling fees levied on agricultural and other off-road tires.
Ontario Tire Stewardship’s (OTS) executive director Andrew Horsman last month announced changes to the organization’s used tires program would kick in effective April 1, to “ensure that the true cost of tire recovery and recycling is reflected,” such as the costs of tire collection and transport to recycling facilities.
The move, OTS said, came in January in the form of new provincial regulations, based on a directive in February 2012 from the provincial environment ministry to Waste Diversion Ontario to work with OTS on changes to the used tires program funding model.
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The changes move off-road tires to a graduated, weight-based scale of increased fees, while the tire fee on passenger vehicle and light truck tires is to decrease to $5.69 per tire, down from $5.84.
“Before the increase, agricultural tires carried a flat stewardship fee of $15.29 each, regardless of rim diameter or tire weight,” Mark Wales, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), wrote last week in a letter.
Now, he wrote, those fees will range from $5.88 for off-road tires under 33 pounds to a “whopping $352.80” for tires weighing between 826 and 1,543 lbs.
By comparison, the next larger group of tires (1,543 to 2,645 lbs.) would now require a used tire fee of $546.84, and giant industrial tires, weighing over 2,645 lbs., would each command a used tire fee of $1,311.24.
Tires “will be reported on in program categories that more closely align with operational costs incurred by the stewardship activities associated with that tire,” OTS said.
It’ll be up to tire stewards, OTS said last month, to manage inventories and distribution networks and determine the “appropriate phase-in” of the new fees.
Ernie Hardeman, the provincial Tories’ critic for agriculture, warned the fee increase “will take millions out of our agricultural industry and cause losses to our farm equipment dealerships.”
In a release last Wednesday, Hardeman charted the fees levied on tires for a Deere 9770 combine, putting Ontario’s total fees at $1,646.40 compared to $210 in British Columbia, $90 in Saskatchewan, $54 in Newfoundland, $24 in Manitoba and Prince Edward Island and zero in other provinces.
“We need to ask ourselves, How it can cost that much more to recycle a tractor tire in Ontario than in other provinces?” he said.
In an open letter to tire users, Horsman wrote that while “OTS understands any cost increases are unwelcome,” an analysis of disposal fees — the levies charged to Ontario’s users of off-road tires before OTS’ current used tire program was launched in 2009 — found the new used tire fees will be “comparable or lower.”
In that sense, he wrote, the increase will still be a “net cost reduction to off-road tire users.”
OTS’ move, however, appears to have caught Ontario farmers largely by surprise. The OFA said last week there have been “no opportunities for the public, or OFA, to comment on these increases” and the farmer group “was not informed of these changes.”
The rate increase “will be detrimental to Ontario farmers, unfairly penalizing their farm businesses by costing them thousands of additional dollars in extra fees each year,” the federation said last week.
The OFA called on farmer members to write to their MPPs and urge the province to reverse OTS’ move and “commit instead to working with the industries affected to find a workable solution.”
Meanwhile, when purchasing new tires, Ontario buyers may see the tire fee itemized on their invoices or receipts, OTS said.
“If you believe a retailer is not charging the correct fee, you may return to the retailer where you made the purchase and request an adjustment or refund,” the organization said.
Related story:
Ag tires rolled into Ont. recycling plan, Aug. 15, 2008
