The bag ban is off — at least for now.

Toronto city council has halted its contentious ban on plastic shopping bags, handing a victory to Rob Ford at what could be his last meeting as mayor.

EPR means companies are responsible for the full life-cycle of what they sell. It gives them an incentive to reduce waste, to make products less toxic and packaging easier to recycle.

Council will vote on a budget for Solid Waste and Toronto Water for 2012. Unfortunately, the budgets include program cuts and weakening of standards that will harm the environment.

Fortunately, Councillors voted to keep 44 Community Environment Days, and rejected the proposal to subsidize water rates for companies that break the City's pollution regulations.

On October 24th, City Council voted to go ahead with a contract with GFL (Green For Life) to collect waste in half of the City.