British Columbia Women's Institute (BCWI) passed the following resolution at its Annual General Meeting held June 12th 2020 by Zoom.

" Be it resolved that British Columbia Women's Institute urge the British Columbia Government to enact legislation to ban the sale of single use non compostable plastic dog waste bags and instead encourage products and methods that are proven environmentally safe and will degrade into natural substances."

Reason for this Request:

• BC has no legislation to prevent or discourage the ongoing use of non compostable plastic bags for disposing dog waste

• Plastic bags made from traditional petroleum/natural gas products take up to 1000 years to break down ( ocean crusaders.org)

• Non compostable plastic bags eventually do break down into micro plastics infiltrating watershed and soils

• These micro plastics are entering the food chain and will have long term implications for animals and mankind

• There are 8.2 million dogs in Canada and the average dog produces 152 pounds of waste per year ( Canada Animal Health Institute 2019)

• In the Westshore area of Victoria 640,000 dog bags are used each year ( Victoria News, Oct 24/2018)

There are many environmentally safe methods and products commercially available for the disposal of dog waste.