• Mayor Valérie Plante has announced that Montreal will enforce a complete plastic bag ban for retail stores by the end of 2020.
• The announcement comes as several companies, including IGA, have already eliminated bags in their stores.
• Visit MTLBlog for more headlines.

Plastic bags will soon be seeing their final day in Montreal, as Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante has announced that her administration is currently taking action to modify by-laws to ban all plastic bags in retail stores in the city as soon as possible. In fact, in the statement shared on her Instagram page, Plante says, "in short, 2020 will be the last year for plastic bags in our metropolis." It is no question that Plante has been a staunch protector of the environment and has done her best to use her time in office to transform Montreal into a cleaner, greener city. 

Plante, along with the administration of Projet Montréal, spearheaded the project to acquire land for a park in the west end of the island, which will become the largest municipal park in Canada at eight times the size of New York's Central Park. 

And after Montreal's historic Climate Strike march and protest, Plante quickly came forward with an action plan that would change Ville-Marie, effectively most of downtown Montreal, to increase mobility and decrease vehicular congestion.

Now, Plante is on a mission to eliminate plastic bags in the metropolis of Montreal and she wants it done by the end of this year.

Read the caption to her Instagram post below.

"ENVIRONMENTAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Plastic bags found in nature can take up to 1,000 years to decompose. We can't afford to wait 1,000 years to make decisions."

"This is why our administration is taking action now to modify our by-law and ban all plastic bags in retail stores in Montreal as soon as possible. In short, 2020 will be the last year for plastic bags in our metropolis."

The tweet below reads: "Global plastic crisis: we can't wait 1,000 years to make decisions. That's why our administration is now taking action to change our rules and ban all plastic bags in retail stores in Montreal as quickly as possible."

Many stores in Montreal have already done away with plastic bags, particularly IGA, who also went away with single-use plastic in general, and invited customers to bring in their own reusable containers when purchasing ready-made food in their stores.

All in all, it sounds like Montreal has another green milestone to be proud of. 

The mayor's Instagram stories, below, read, "plastic bags found in nature can take up to 1000 years to decompose. We can't afford to wait 1,000 years to make decisions.

"This is why, following the example of several municipalities and major commercial players in Quebec, such as [IGA Quebec] for example... our administration is now taking action to modify our regulations and to ban all plastic bags in retail stores in Montreal as soon as possible."

[rebelmouse-image 26886960 alt="Montreal Is Banning All Plastic Bags By The End Of 2020" photo_credit="val_plante | Instagram" expand=1 original_size="3264x2000"] val_plante | Instagram

Last week we shared with you the news that Montreal had become the first city in Canada with a fully-electric public bus line when the STM announced the 36 Monk bus would now be serviced entirely by battery-powered buses.

This goes hand-in-hand with Plante's dedication to eliminating vehicular pollution by pushing for hybrid-only buses in the near future, a plan that is already underway.