Canada EPR fees 2027 rise 13.2% on average in Manitoba as Saskatchewan's aluminium container rate jumps 44%

How Prairie EPR fees are set

Manitoba and Saskatchewan still run shared-cost programs, unlike British Columbia. SPI’s Ledger on Canada’s provinces records that producers fund up to 80% of Manitoba’s program and up to 75% of Saskatchewan’s, with both moving towards full producer responsibility; SK Recycles expects to finish its transition by February 2028¹².

Both producer bodies work with Circular Materials, the national not-for-profit producer organisation. Recycle Manitoba is the program’s operating name: its producer page says the legal entity on producer agreements remains Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba³. A company is obligated there only if it has a Manitoba presence, supplies designated packaging and printed paper, is a brand owner, first importer or franchisor, and has Manitoba gross revenue above CAD 750,000.

Each material line gets its own rate through what both programs call the Four-Step Fee Methodology: gross cost, commodity revenue, program management and a fourth step, which Manitoba’s glossary names material specific reserve management and Saskatchewan’s names material market development. Further factors then shift cost between lines: supplied tonnes, recovery rate, the Material Cost Index, commodity price per tonne, steward count, reserves and rounding².

That method allows a negative rate. Where a material’s bales earn more than the material costs to collect and process, the line can fall below zero. Manitoba’s aluminium cans have sat there for at least two years, and its cause-of-change graphs show the 2026 starting bar at minus 15.43 cents per kg.

Both programs bill on the same calendar. Recycle Manitoba’s page lists quarterly payments on 31 January, 30 April, 31 July and 31 October, and SK Recycles’ fee page gives the same four dates^3,6. Alberta is different, because ARMA charges an oversight fee on top of the producer body’s material fees.

What changed in October

15 October: the Annual Producer Meeting. Circular Materials’ fee consultation page says its 2026 Annual Producer Meeting on Thursday 15 October covered 2027 budgets and fees for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Alberta, Yukon, Éco Entreprises Québec, Recycle Manitoba, SK Recycles and Recycle BC⁸. Ontario’s 2027 fees went to producers through a separate Producer Advisory Group and the WeRecycle Portal.

21 October: SK Recycles posts its schedule. The SK Recycles fees page was updated on 21 October with the 2027 Fee Schedule and cause-of-change graphs⁶. The schedule has 19 lines. Ten fall, eight rise and boxboard is flat at 31 cents per kg, so Saskatchewan’s 2027 change is mixed rather than a general rise.

Late October: Recycle Manitoba posts its schedule. Recycle Manitoba’s producer page, modified on 27 October, links a 2027 Material Fee Rates PDF, a 2027 Fee Rate Cause of Change PDF and a national fee rates spreadsheet³. Its schedule sits on page 77 of the 2026 Report to Producers and gives one sentence on the average change.

The sentence names two causes. A larger budget spread over fewer tonnes raises the cost of each kilogram reported, before any material-specific factor applies. Recycle Manitoba gives no budget or tonnage figure in the schedule, so SPI has not yet confirmed the size of either change.

27 October: Alberta opens its consultation. ARMA’s EPR page says its consultation on 2027 EPR oversight fees runs from 27 October to 11 December 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ABT, and that invoices for 2027 oversight fees will be issued in April 2027⁷. The 2027 amounts are labelled draft, and the 2026 amounts final.

What is not yet public. The 2027 schedules for Circular Materials Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Yukon are listed on the consultation page, but SPI has not yet confirmed their rates, so this piece covers Manitoba and Saskatchewan material fees and Alberta’s oversight fee only.

Canada EPR fees 2027 in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, line by line

Recycle Manitoba prints its variance column without minus signs, so two rows read oddly: aluminium cans show 7.12 against 15.43 with a variance of 53.9%, and HDPE shows 0.71 against 2.76 with 125.7%. The cause-of-change graphs settle the signs. They start aluminium cans at minus 15.43 and end at minus 7.12, and start HDPE at minus 2.76 and end at plus 0.71, and the factors in each graph add to those totals within one hundredth of a cent².

The printed percentages then fit. A rise of 8.31 cents on a base of 15.43 is 53.9%, and a rise of 3.47 cents on 2.76 is 125.7%, by SPI’s calculation. Both lines rose, which matches Recycle Manitoba’s own note that they had the largest increases.

Paper packaging carries the steepest rises outside plastics and aluminium. Corrugated cardboard goes up 15.7% to 30.88 cents and boxboard 16.5% to 18.23 cents, the two steepest paper rises on the schedule¹. Gable top cartons rise only 3.2%, to 50.18 cents.

Printed paper rises on every Manitoba line too. The program keeps two newsprint lines, publishers at 32.44 cents and other newsprint at 35.23 cents, both up 10.2%, and telephone books rise 13.6% to 28.13 cents¹. Magazines and catalogues rise least among paper lines, 5.3% to 26.95 cents.

In plastics, PET containers and bottles take the largest rise in cents, 12.41 per kg or CAD 124.10 per tonne. Polystyrene stays the highest Manitoba rate at 136.84 cents but moves only 1.1%. Plastic film and laminates both sit near 79 cents, up 8.2% and 7.6%.

Saskatchewan’s 19 lines, printed in whole cents, tell a different story. Aluminium food and other containers jump 33 cents to 108, HDPE bottles 14 cents to 74, and other aluminium packaging 13 cents to 86⁴. Polystyrene falls 12 cents to 204, still the highest rate in the province, and plastic laminates fall 12 cents to 112.

What drove the biggest moves

The cause-of-change graphs split each movement into factors in cents per kg. The PDFs print the values but not each bar’s label as text, so SPI read the bars in the order of each program’s glossary; the values add to each published change, which supports that reading^2,5.

Manitoba aluminium cans: lower metal revenue. Of the 8.31-cent rise, the commodity revenue step (Step 2) added 10.70 cents, gross cost 2.80 cents and recovery rate 2.02 cents. A lower commodity price per tonne took 6.20 cents off and supplied tonnes 2.19 cents, by SPI’s reading. That fits Recycle Manitoba’s statement that the line rose on higher gross cost and lower overall material revenue.

Manitoba HDPE: the same pattern. Commodity revenue added 7.43 cents and gross cost 2.53 cents, partly offset by commodity revenue per tonne (minus 5.27) and an allocation tied to the newspaper fee shortfall (minus 4.39), by SPI’s reading. Recycle Manitoba’s schedule says HDPE rose for the same reasons as aluminium cans.

Manitoba PET: costs and revenue together. The 12.41-cent rise came from commodity revenue (3.60), commodity revenue per tonne (3.46), gross cost (2.85), recovery rate (1.03) and supplied tonnes (0.95), by SPI’s reading. No single factor dominates, so the PET rise reflects both a costlier system and weaker bale income.

Saskatchewan aluminium: revenue and recovery. In SK Recycles’ graph the commodity revenue step added 18.86 cents and recovery rate 10.38 cents, with program management adding 8.79 cents, against a 4.93-cent cut from gross cost, by SPI’s reading⁵. The Step 4 bar is zero on every Saskatchewan line, and SK Recycles’ glossary says material market development was not used in 2026.

Saskatchewan HDPE and PET: the same revenue effect. Commodity revenue added 18.11 cents to HDPE bottles, against a 5.11-cent cut from gross cost and 0.93 cents from supplied tonnes, leaving the 14-cent rise. PET bottles show a milder version: commodity revenue added 6.77 cents and gross cost took 6.21 cents off, for a net rise of 2 cents, by SPI’s reading⁵.

Saskatchewan film and laminates: lower gross cost. Gross cost cut 8.07 cents from film and 8.39 cents from laminates, and recovery rate a further 5.34 cents from laminates, by SPI’s reading. The gross cost bar is negative on all 19 Saskatchewan lines, while it is positive on every Manitoba line.

Who pays more in 2027 and who pays less

Beverage brands in PET. PET rises in both provinces: by CAD 124.10 per tonne in Manitoba and CAD 20 in Saskatchewan. In British Columbia, SPI’s 1 November story reported PET bottles up 10.3% to 107 cents¹³.

Canned food and drink brands. Saskatchewan’s aluminium food and other containers line costs CAD 330 per tonne more, the largest per-tonne rise on either schedule. In Manitoba the can line stays negative, so cans still lower a producer’s total, but by CAD 83.10 per tonne less than in 2026, by SPI’s reading. SPI has not yet confirmed how Recycle Manitoba applies a negative rate on an invoice.

Household and dairy brands in HDPE. HDPE bottles rise CAD 140 per tonne in Saskatchewan, and Manitoba’s line turns from a credit of 2.76 cents into a charge of 0.71 cents.

E-commerce shippers and grocers. Corrugated cardboard rises 15.7% in Manitoba and 3.8% in Saskatchewan, and Manitoba boxboard 16.5%. Heavy corrugated users carry the largest share of any basket by weight, so this line drives most mixed bills.

Snack and frozen brands in film and laminates. Saskatchewan cuts plastic laminates CAD 120 per tonne and film CAD 60, while Manitoba raises them CAD 55.90 and CAD 59.90. A flexible pack therefore gets cheaper in one Prairie province and dearer in the next.

Cereal, dry goods and aerosol brands. Boxboard is flat in Saskatchewan at 31 cents but rises CAD 25.80 per tonne in Manitoba. Steel aerosols rise CAD 17.90 per tonne in Manitoba, while Saskatchewan’s other steel line, which now includes paint cans, falls CAD 10.

Foodservice and meat packers in polystyrene. Polystyrene is the highest rate in both provinces. Saskatchewan cuts it CAD 120 per tonne to 204 cents, and Manitoba raises it CAD 15.10 to 136.84 cents.

SPI calculation: SPI priced the 100-tonne basket from its Canada Ledger on each Prairie schedule: 45 tonnes of corrugated cardboard, 25 of clear glass, 8 of PET, 6 each of HDPE, film and other steel, and 4 of aluminium containers. In Manitoba it costs CAD 28,918 at 2027 rates, up CAD 4,045 or 16.3% from CAD 24,873. In Saskatchewan it costs CAD 57,670, up CAD 2,550 or 4.6% from CAD 55,120.

In Manitoba, corrugated cardboard adds CAD 1,881 and PET CAD 993 of the CAD 4,045 rise. In Saskatchewan, aluminium adds CAD 1,320 and corrugated CAD 900, while film saves CAD 360 and glass CAD 250.

The pinch point: negative rates and Alberta's oversight layer

Negative rates create a data risk. A producer whose system rounds or drops signs, as the printed variance column does, could report Manitoba’s aluminium cans as a charge of 7.12 cents instead of a credit. On 4 tonnes the gap is CAD 570, by SPI’s calculation, and finance teams should check that their EPR software carries the sign.

Alberta adds a second fee. ARMA’s oversight fee is paid by each obligated producer on top of Circular Materials’ material fees: every producer pays a flat fee, and producers above the supply threshold also pay a variable rate on total supply⁷. For packaging and paper, the draft 2027 variable rate falls 8.1% to CAD 0.0307 per kg, and for hazardous and special products 28.6% to CAD 0.0733, by SPI’s calculation.

SPI calculation: a packaging producer above the threshold supplying 100 tonnes in Alberta would pay CAD 3,250 in oversight fees at the draft 2027 rates, against CAD 3,520 in 2026: CAD 180 flat plus CAD 30.70 per tonne. That excludes the producer’s Circular Materials Alberta fees, for which SPI has not yet confirmed 2027 rates.

How the Prairie changes compare with British Columbia

The three western schedules are all in Canadian cents per kg, so the direction of change can be read side by side. The levels still differ in base: Recycle BC prices a full-cost program, while Manitoba and Saskatchewan price shared-cost programs, so a lower Prairie rate does not mean a cheaper system.

Aluminium splits the West. Recycle BC cut aluminium food and other containers 27.1% to 35 cents, SK Recycles raised its matching line 44.0% to 108 cents, and Manitoba’s can line stays negative^1,4,9. PET rises in all three, by 10.3% in B.C., 2.3% in Saskatchewan and 37.3% in Manitoba. Film falls in B.C. and Saskatchewan but rises 8.2% in Manitoba. Clear glass rises 5.2% in B.C. and 3.5% in Manitoba but falls 3.2% in Saskatchewan, to 30 cents.

Inside each scheme, ratios show the relative penalty. Film costs 2.6 times corrugated cardboard in Manitoba in 2027, down from 2.7 times, and 2.1 times in Saskatchewan, down from 2.2 times, by SPI’s calculation. In Saskatchewan aluminium containers now cost 1.21 times PET bottles, against 0.86 times in 2026.