The outcry over a new bylaw limiting single use products has been getting louder by the day, and now so is the response to the city’s possible move to scrap it.
Two weeks after Calgary’s Single-Use Items Bylaw came into effect, city council voted Monday to start the process to repeal the bylaw. The bylaw, which council approved last year, set a minimum fee of 15 cents for paper bags and $1 for reusable bags, and required businesses to only provide single-use utensils, cutlery, napkins and condiments by customer request.
“I think (the repeal is) great. Go for it. I’m 100 per cent in,” said Charlene Pellerin, 17-year owner of Mug Shotz Bar and Grill.
The past several years have been tough, she said, as the business struggled with the pandemic.
That’s why she has actually held off on implementing any new charges to customers.
“It’s hard enough having to raise prices through inflation, everything that’s been going on,” she pointed out. “And for us to further charge our customers for something else — we’re not doing it.”
“I think it’s none of (the city’s) business. Absolutely none of their business if I don’t want to charge my customers.”
Pellerin said Mug Shotz has been and is willing to continue to eat the extra costs for its loyal customers. She said it’s also not fair to ask her staff to take on extra duties.
“We are so busy here. My servers, my staff do not have any extra time to be like, ‘How many napkins do you need?’ It’s ridiculous.”
The Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) does not agree that the bylaw is ridiculous or a waste of money. Conservation specialist Phillip Meintzer told Global News he is very disappointed the bylaw may be scrapped without it even getting a chance to get off the ground.
“It kind of seems like, at first kind of glance, that it’s a knee jerk reaction. It’s only been a couple of weeks.”
Meintzer pointed to all of the “actual waste” strewn around the city, saying getting rid of this bylaw will only make things worse.
“We should be trying to get as many of these single use plastic items off the streets, out of our trash and stop the production of them because they just contribute to waste,” he added.
The AWA agreed there are appropriate times and places for single use items but said many places where the bylaw are now implemented are not those places.
Meintzer believed that the city “backpedaled” due to public pressure, adding most people didn’t know how many single use items they actually used until the bylaw was put into place on Jan. 16. He said a repeal would be a huge step back for the city.
“If the city wants to be seen as making ground on environmental initiatives, I think it’s a bad look for the city.”
Mayor reaction to council vote
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek told Global News she saw an amendment to the bylaw which would remove the charge at drive-thru’s and fast-food restaurants prior to Monday’s council meeting. Gondek said she believed that was the biggest issue Calgarians have had with the bylaw, but she pointed out unfortunately that amendment “didn’t see the light of day.”
Gondek said the full repeal replaced that.
“I do believe that some members of council didn’t understand what they were voting on,” she said. “I think they thought that a repeal means you can make amendments — it doesn’t.
“I’m a little disappointed that the thing that Calgarians asked for the most wasn’t the one that we addressed first.”
The bylaw will remain in place until the public hearing process is complete.
–with files from Adam Toy and Adam MacVicar, Global News
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