With Ontario's environment commissioner set to report on the controversial eco-fee, the opposition Progressive Conservatives say the provincial government should scrap it altogether.

"Quite frankly, you don't need 90 days to fix this tax. This eco tax is a bad idea, plain and simple," Leader Tim Hudak told reporters on Monday.

Hudak promised that if he becomes premier after the October 2011 provincial election, he would kill the tax.

The government has argued the fee isn't a tax because it doesn't go into provincial coffers.

However, Environment Minister John Gerretsen announced last week that the government would stop charging the fee to consumers. Instead, it would pay $5 million to pay the cost of the fee while it takes 90 days to examine the program.

The deadline is Oct. 18 to announce its decision.

The fees, which range from a few cents to a few dollars, first came into being in 2008. However, it was massively expanded on July 1 without much advance communications from either the government or Stewardship Ontario -- the industry-led, not-for-profit agency responsible for administering recycling programs.

An outcry grew as people learned that the same products sold in different Ontario cities were being charged different fees. Canadian Tire announced on July 19 it would stop collecting the fee because it was too confusing.

CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss said the fee pays for the recycling hard-to-handle items such as paints, solvents and motor oil.

The cost of keeping such materials out of landfills and sewer systems is set at $25 million per year.

The Tories have argued that neither Stewardship Ontario nor the McGuinty government have provided details on how the revenues have been spent.

Environment Commissioner Gord Miller had planned to talk about the fee in his annual report this fall, but he will instead issue a special report on Tuesday.

"It's best if we get in now to provide the analysis and the recommendations that we've come up with in this regard now, during the 90-day period when the government is reconsidering this stuff," he told The Canadian Press in an interview last week.

Ombudsman Andre Marin has also promised to examine the fee.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss