Fees and Invoices
Stewardship Ontario issues invoices annually to obligated stewards and provides an option for quarterly payments.
With the introduction of simplified fee setting in 2022, most current stewards will no longer need to report their annual supply data to Stewardship Ontario for the remaining years of the Blue Box Program, which ceases operations at the end of 2025. Annual fees will be calculated for each steward’s budget share, with the percentage based on individual steward fees for invoice years 2021 and 2022 (2019 and 2020 sales data years).
Prior to simplified see setting (which will apply to stewards 2023 invoices) Blue Box annual fees were calculated based on a steward’s reported quantities of each material category and the applicable material fee rates. For example, in 2021 stewards reported the materials supplied to Ontario consumers in 2020 to inform an invoice issued in January 2022. A summary of the fee methodology and the fee rates for 2022 invoices are available here. Resources for the fee setting processes used in 2021 and earlier, including the Pay In Models (PIM), are available on request.
Stewardship Ontario expects its annual budgets will decrease as the province begins the Blue Box transition to full producer responsibility in July 2023.