TORONTO - Stewardship Ontario -- the government-created body that brought Ontarians the botched eco-fee plan -- has signed a confidential battery recycling deal with an American-based outfit that scored poorly on a "mystery shopper" test.

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation of Canada (RBRCC), a U.S. non-profit group with a Toronto office, hired well-known Liberal lobbyist Bob Lopinski to lobby Waste Diversion Ontario (WDO), the premier's office and several ministries to accept its proposal to recycle batteries in the province.

According to documents provided by the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, WDO raised concerns about the plan and RBRCC eventually withdrew its offer and negotiated a direct deal with Stewardship Ontario (SO), which falls under the oversight of Waste Diversion Ontario.

In response to QMI Agency questions, SO spokesman Amanda Harper Sevonty said the organization would not provide any details. "As we are a not-for-profit, private company ... our relationships, contracts and work with suppliers is confidential," she said by e-mail Friday.

Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod said the agency continues to operate under a veil of secrecy despite being created by the government and currently funded by provincial tax dollars. Stewardship Ontario has been given the right to levy eco fees that amount to a tax on consumers and the public should have access to information about its contracts, MacLeod said.

"Without a level of transparency, they're not going to be fully accountable to the public," she said.

RBRCC, set up by the U.S. battery industry in 1994, initially approached WDO to run the province's entire battery recycling program with SO as the enforcement mechanism.

The minutes of a WDO board meeting in February say staff conducted a "mystery shopper" exercise, visiting 53 retail RBRCC rechargeable battery collection sites, and discovered that four locations could not be found, 13 directed WDO staff to another program, and 13 outright refused to accept batteries for recycling.

Once members of the public and retailers learn more about the mandatory recycling initiative in Ontario, the awareness of staff in stores should improve, RBRCC president Carl Smith said.