Stewards
Are you a steward?
Manitoba’s Packaging and Printed Paper Stewardship Regulation may affect any business that supplies, distributes or sells packaged products or printed paper in Manitoba. The regulation requires affected companies to register as product stewards and to remit fees that are used to cover up to 80% of the cost of municipal recycling programs.
Answer the following questions to determine if your company or organization is a Steward:
A. Is your company resident in Manitoba?
Does the company or organization carry on business in Manitoba, have a permanent establishment in Manitoba or have a resident employee, agent or representative?
B. Is your company a Brand Owner, First Importer or Franchisor?
A “Brand Owner” is a Manitoba company considered to be:
- a company/organization or person that is a registered trademark holder or licensee of a trademark (brand); or
- a company or person that owns or is the licensee of intellectual property rights of a brand of printed material or product.
A “First Importer” is a Manitoba company or resident that is the first company or person to take ownership (title) of products into the province where the Brand Owner is not resident in Manitoba.
A “Franchisor” is consider to be the obligated Steward with respect to all designated packaging and printed paper and the packaging of all goods, supplied within the relevant franchise system in the data year.
C. Does your company use or apply designated packaging and printed paper (DPPP) to products supplied to Manitoba?
DPPP includes packaging and/or printed material that accompanies consumer goods that are usually purchased by residential consumers, are likely to enter the home and ultimately, are managed by residential municipal waste management systems.
D. Does your company have a gross Manitoba revenue greater than $750,000 in a given year?
A Steward is “obligated” if it and/or its Affiliates and Franchisees had gross revenues of more than $750,000 from the combined sale of all its products and services in Manitoba in a given year. All sales in the consumer as well as industrial, commercial and institutional markets are included for the purposes of determining gross revenues in Manitoba.
If you answered ‘Yes’ to all these questions you are obligated to register and file a Steward’s Report with MMSM according to The Waste Reduction and Packaging Act. Failure to file a Steward’s Report or pay fees in accordance with the requirements stated in the Rules for Stewards is a violation of the Rules and may be subject to enforcement under the Act.
We encourage all companies and organizations to register even if you answered ‘No’ to any of the above questions. Steward registration allows us to keep you informed on any updates and/or changes to the program. It also removes your name from our follow-up list.
To find out more about whether your company must register and pay fees, view our guidebook: Are You Obligated?
