SMALL BUSINESS POLICY

MMBC is committed to minimizing the administrative burden on small businesses participating in the packaging and printed paper (PPP) program. We are currently conducting a consultation with business associations to arrive at a reasonable small business policy that is financially fair to all PPP producers while relieving low volume producers of much of the associated administrative burden.

Unfortunately, there is no standard in Canada for determining the definition of a small business. Criteria differ and range from the number of employees (50 according to BC statistics and up to 100 according to Industry Canada) to the amount of annual revenues. None of these criteria is a useful proxy for determining an appropriate definition of small business that takes into account the volume of packaging and printed paper they put into the BC residential marketplace.  In other words, a business may be “small” according to some of the definitions – yet it may contribute large volumes of packaging and/or printed paper into the waste stream.

Neither the Environment Management Act nor the BC Recycling Regulation provide an exemption for any class of producer, nor do they enable other parties to establish exemptions. Therefore, MMBC is only able to provide administrative exemptions or de minimis requirements for members who join the program and wish to be compliant with the Recycling Regulation.

Following a consultation period, MMBC intends to finalize a Small Business Policy by January 2014, in advance of launching the PPP program in May 2014. While the Policy is being developed, MMBC has advised small businesses with sales under $750,000 that they need not report and register with MMBC in 2013. (Of the businesses in BC that operate in sectors that are likely to supply PPP into the BC residential market, it is estimated that approximately 34,000 companies have annual sales less than $750,000).