As a condition of the Product Care’s Manitoba (MB) program plan approval, the MB Sustainable Development required the expansion of the Program from residential lighting products (CFLs and fluorescent tubes) only, to include lighting products generated by the Institutional, Commercial, & Industrial (IC&I) sector, effective January 1, 2020.
As a result, Product Care has prepared a 5-year budget for the MB lights program, using available information and trends from Product Care’s existing lighting programs that include IC&I generated lights in order to determine an appropriate fee rate.
The timing of the program expansion is challenging, as sales of program products, from which the program’s fee revenue is derived, are in significant decline due to the technology change to LEDs. At the same time the collection volumes, which drive the expenses, continue to increase and are not expected to decline for a period of time.
As a result, it is necessary to increase the Environmental Handling Fees (EHFs) in order that the Program is adequately funded to meet its regulatory obligations.
The Product Care board has reviewed the information available and has approved EHF rate increases for CFLs and fluorescent tubes for the Manitoba program, effective February 1, 2020, as shown in the table below:
| Product Category | Manitoba Lighting Products Fee Category | Current fee rates | New fee rates effective February 1, 2020 |
| Lamps | 1. Fluorescent Tubes measuring ≤ 2 feet | $0.20 | $0.40 |
| 2. Fluorescent Tubes measuring > 2 feet and ≤ 4 feet | $0.40 | $0.80 | |
| 3. Fluorescent Tubes measuring > 4 feet | $0.55 | $1.10 | |
| 4. Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) | $0.15 | $0.30 |
Note that February 1, 2020 was selected as the effective date for the change in the EHF rates for the benefit of members, in order to avoid the busy end of December time period. However, this will require quarterly or annual reporters to file a separate EHF report for the month of January, 2020 under the current fee rates. Please note that even though only one program’s fees, MB Lights, will be affected, all the quarterly and annual reporters registered for any program in MB will have to file a separate EHF report for the month of January, 2020.
For more information, please contact:
Jason Brown
MB HHW Program Coordinator
jbrown@productcare.org