Yellowknife, N.W.T. - The city of Toronto has become the largest city in North American to introduce a ban on plastic bags and that's news to the ears of Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley.

Councillors in Hogtown voted to do away with plastic bags beginning in 2013, something Bromley said will help the city become a cleaner place.

He said the similar legislation on plastic bags here in the NWT has helped to make the territory look nicer over time.

"It was not uncommon to drive through an area and see plastic bags hanging all over the trees and in the garbage. They clog up drainages etc,” he said. “They pollute wildlife that end up eating them. You know young foxes playing with them or whatever."

However, the executive director for the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, Tim Doyle, said plastic bags do still serve a purpose to some people.

"You have people that go out and they don't necessarily plan that they are going to buy something,” said Doyle, “They need a bag to be able to travel down the road."

Still, Doyle said the 25 cent charge for plastic bags is one of the best policy changes the GNWT has ever done.

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