VANCOUVER

Philippines rubbishes plan to bring Canadian garbage back by end of June

The Canadian Press Published Thursday, May 23, 2019 11:33AM PDT

Filipino environmental activists wear a mock container vans filled with garbage to symbolize the 50 containers of waste that were shipped from Canada to the Philippines two years ago, as they hold a protest outside the Canadian embassy at the financial district of Makati, south of Manila, Philippines on Thursday, May 7, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Aaron Favila

Text:

OTTAWA - The Philippines is rejecting Canada's late-June timeline for repatriating its garbage.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told a media briefing in Manila Thursday that Canada's timeline isn't good enough and that the Philippines government will have 69 containers of mislabelled Canadian trash headed back across the Pacific no later than next week.

Earlier this week Panelo said President Rodrigo Duterte had ordered the containers dumped in Canadian waters.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Wednesday Ottawa has contracted the Canadian office of the French shipping giant Bollore Logistics to treat the waste and then bring it back to Canada before the end of June.

Environment officials say the containers must be fumigated in the Philippines before being loaded onto a ship but neither McKenna's office nor Global Affairs Canada have responded to questions about Duterte's latest move.

The containers were shipped to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014 by a Canadian company falsely labelled as plastics for recycling.