Stewardship Ontario continues to consider the July 6, 2021, announcement of the proposed sale of Canadian Stewardship Services Alliance (CSSA) to Resource Recovery Alliance, a wholly owned subsidiary of GFL Environmental Inc. (the Proposed Acquisition).
Stewardship Ontario’s priority is to protect all commercially sensitive information entrusted to it from being used for any purpose other than to serve the needs of Stewardship Ontario. In light of the Proposed Acquisition, Stewardship Ontario has commissioned a third-party audit of CSSA’s compliance with its contractual obligations under its services agreement with Stewardship Ontario, including the Plan to Further Mitigate Conflict of Interest and Undue Commercial Advantage arising out of Stewardship Ontario’s Continuing Relationship with CSSA, established in February of this year.
In the meantime, Stewardship Ontario has requested that CSSA immediately prepare a plan to secure and isolate historical information that is not required for steward fee setting for 2022.
Stewardship Ontario is also assessing what, if any, measures it should take to reduce its ongoing reliance on commercially confidential information to manage its annual business cycle. Based on the results of this assessment, as well as the audit described above, Stewardship Ontario will, in consultation with the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority, determine what other measures may be required to ensure that all commercially sensitive information entrusted to Stewardship Ontario continues to be protected.