Canada’s Integrated Management Approach to Plastic Products: Defining the Problem and the Jurisdiction

Plastic waste is a global environmental problem. However, management solutions must be developed within local, institutional contexts. This paper considers the Government of Canada’s ‘proposed integrated management approach to plastic products’ both as a strategy for management and as an expression of federal jurisdiction. What is the policy problem to which they are responding, and how are they characterizing that problem in order to claim jurisdiction? Most importantly, what are the policy implications of this jurisdictional question?