Toronto city council has voted to ban plastic bags outright by 2013.
Council had spent Wednesday at city hall debating whether to eliminate a mandatory five-cent bag fee that Mayor Rob Ford had wanted axed.
A majority of councilors decided to kill the bag fee by July 1 of this year, but Willowdale Coun. David Shiner also made a motion to eliminate plastic bags altogether by Jan. 1. His motion passed 24-20.