City council repeals Calgary’s single-use bylaw after public pushback

Calgary city council has officially binned a bylaw requiring businesses to charge for a paper bag and only hand out single-use items upon customer request.

Only three councillors voted against repealing the city’s single-use bylaw: Courtney Walcott, Kourtney Penner and Gian-Carlo Carra.

The bylaw, which council approved in 2023, 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.

The new rules faced significant public pushback when implemented earlier this year, which prompted city council to begin the process to repeal process just two weeks later.

“Using the approach of a charge, especially at food service locations was not the way Calgarians were going to engage with us on this,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters.

“You have to recognize when the tactic that you use doesn’t work and that’s what council did.”

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According to city officials, the bylaw’s repeal takes immediate effect and businesses will no longer be required to charge the fee. However, the city noted businesses can still voluntarily “continue with waste reduction practices that best fit with their operations.”

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean called the decision to repeal the bylaw a “victory” for Calgarians.

“They feel that government and experts have been telling them what to do and how to do it,” McLean told reporters. “I think council voted with what Calgarians wanted to see and that was to repeal the bag bylaw.”

Although the process to repeal the bylaw began earlier this year, it required an advertising period and public hearing, which was held Tuesday.

Helga Vanthournout, an environmental consultant, was one of four speakers in favour of keeping the bylaw in place.

Vanthournout said behavioural change takes time and was critical of council’s decision to repeal the bylaw so quickly after it was implemented.

“Two weeks, that’s ridiculous, you’re not giving it a chance,” she told council.

“That’s panic, and I honestly feel that a lot of the reactions we’ve had were putting oil on the fire rather than taking away some of the fears and helping consumers and businesses deal with this.”

“I expect better from my council, to be honest.”

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George Clark was the sole speaker against the bylaw and wanted to see it repealed.

Clark told reporters he felt the added costs were another burden on people already dealing with affordability challenges.

“These sorts of incremental and creeping costs upon Calgarians, Albertans and Canadians are not acceptable,” he said. “I’m very glad that this repeal motion was brought forward.”

Around 15 million single-use items end up in Calgary landfills every week, according to city data. This includes around 3.5 million plastic shopping bags, 6.4 million plastic utensils, 2.4 million takeout containers and 2.4 million disposable cups.

Walcott, who represents Ward 8, said he voted against repealing the bylaw because he felt changes could’ve been made to the existing rules, rather than scrapping them altogether.

“I have not heard a single person suggest they do not want to reduce their single-use items, I have not heard a single person suggest that they are not interested in supporting climate change initiatives,” Walcott said. “I have only heard about the price scheme, and if that was the problem, that is an easy amendment that would’ve saved us three months.”

Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness, who originally brought forward the motion to repeal the bylaw, said she’d be interested in tabling another motion in the future to develop a new waste reduction policy.

However, Wyness said she wants better public consultation with Calgarians on any future waste reduction initiatives.

“We have to do better public feedback,” Wyness told reporters. “One of the challenges is council has constantly heard is we go out with a solution without asking Calgarians how do we make this better, and then incorporate that feedback into whatever administration is thinking.”

The Recycling Council of Alberta said it was disappointed with the outcome of council’s debate on the single-use items bylaw, but is hopeful a new policy can be developed.

“We are supportive of a bylaw,” the organization’s executive director Jennifer Koole told Global News. “If not this one, we’re encouraged by the fact there seemed to be an appetite for not dismissing bylaws in general for single-use items.”

It remains unclear when council would direct administration to develop a new bylaw.

City administration said it would require about a year to develop a new policy to ensure it meets the expectations of both council and Calgarians.

“We don’t always get things right, and this was a great example,” Gondek said. “We will do better next time.”