Ford tells LCBO to find Ontario paper bag supplier weeks after $11M deal inked with Quebec firm

Premier Doug Ford has told the LCBO to find an Ontario-based supplier for its soon-to-be-reintroduced paper bags, onlyweeks after the Crown corporation confirmed a nearly $11-million contract with a Quebec producer.

"Our government has made it a priority to champion Ontario-made products and support Ontario businesses, especially in public procurement," Ford said in a Tuesday letter addressed to Carmine Nigro, chair of the LCBO board.

"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," Ford continued.

Earlier this month, the LCBO said it had inked a $10.9-million contract with RosenbloomInc., a Montreal-based producer, to supply its roughly 670 retail locations with paper bags. A request for quotes issued by the LCBO on April 22 said the contract term was two years.

Single-use paper bags were phased out of LCBO locations in September 2023 as part of an effort by the Crown agency to reduce its carbon footprint and divert waste from landfills. Previous to that change, Rosenbloom had been the LCBO's supplier for two decades.

On April 9, however, Ford ordered paper bags be reintroduced, citing affordability concerns.

"At a time when many Ontario families are already struggling to make ends meet, every additional expense counts,"the premier wrote in another letter. "That includes charging customers for reusable bags instead of the free paper bags that the LCBO previously offered."

Internal communications obtained by CBC Toronto showed the letter caught LCBO executives by surprise, and they scrambled to procure new supply.

The instructions from Ford did not include any explicit direction to find an Ontario-based producerfor the bags, and the LCBO's tendering process began just two weeks later.

In his Tuesday letter, Ford said the LCBO's decision to source paper bags from a company outside the province "goes against our government's direction."

Ford pointed to again another letter, sent to the LCBO by the finance minister in July three months after therequest for quotes went out and three weeks after bidding closed telling leadership to "emphasize the importance of timeliness for paper bag return, including sourcing from local pulp and paper sources when appropriate."

In an email on Wednesday, an LCBO spokesperson said its contract with Rosenbloom Inc. in Quebec will stay in place for now and paper bagswill be available again in the coming weeks.

"We will initiate a new tender process that will be limited to Ontario suppliers at the soonest available opportunity," the spokesperson said.

They did not respond to questions about how much it could cost to end the existing contract prematurely, or how long it may take to find a new supplier.

Party leaders at Queen's Park on Wednesdayquestioned the premier's priorities and said he should be focusing on the more important issues like health care and housing, rather than talking about paper bags at the liquor store.

"I think it's just ridiculous that the premier is so focused on bags at the LCBO when we have an unprecedented number of people experiencing homelessness in Ontario,"Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreinersaid.

"We have a whole generation of young people wondering if they'll ever be able to own a home. We have 2.5 million Ontarians without access to a family doctor. Instead of focusing on those issues the premier is talking about bags at the LCBO? His priorities are misplaced and we're going to hold him accountable for it."

In terms of telling the LCBO to go back and find an Ontario bag supplier now and what it would entail,Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said, "I don't know how much they have wasted in time and money and what it's going to take to break that deal that they had already made."

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie questioned the timing of Ford's latest directive to the LCBO.

"This has sounded sketchy from day one. Doug Ford is sticking his fingers in government procurement. Can he promise this $10 million deal won't go to one of his buddies?" she said.