McKenna defends proposed plastics ban as opponents attack PM’s fumbled answer

OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) – The federal environment minister is defending her government’s proposed single-use plastic ban while critics target the prime minister after he struggled with an answer on plastic reduction.

As he announced the plan for the plastics ban, Justin Trudeau was asked how is family personally reduces plastic use.

Stumbling through his answer, Trudeau said “Drinking water bottles out of, water out of, when we have water bottles, out of plastic — sorry, away from plastic towards paper, like drink box water bottles.”

Conservatives and other critics have used his fumbled response to attack the prime minister’s credibility on plastic waste.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel noted the boxed water he was referring to isn’t as eco-friendly as it sounds.

“It’s 20 per cent less likely to be recycled,” she said.

Trudeau was asked what his family was going to do to protect the environment. His response was crazy (see above video in tweet thread). I raised it in the House, with a full transcription: pic.twitter.com/ZupUvRSrxC

— Michelle Rempel (@MichelleRempel) June 10, 2019

However, when asked about the stumble, Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna defended the need for a ban, and added she’s hearing a lot of support from Canadians.

“Very happy with the announcement — they want to make sure that we eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic because they’re very concern about it ending up in our oceans,” she said. “Canadians are looking for leadership in terms of tackling single-use plastics.”

The federal government’s plan is to ban single-use plastics as early as 2021.

The products could include single-use items like drinking straws, water bottles, plastic bags, cutlery, stir sticks and fast food containers. However, an official list has not yet been released.