Calgary council to review single-use bylaw, property taxes
Posted Jan 30, 2024 9:23 am.
Last Updated Jan 30, 2024 1:34 pm.
Taxes and takeout will be under the microscope at Calgary city council Tuesday.
Council will debate whether or not to look at cutting $23 million from this year’s budget and instead, give that money to taxpayers in the form of a rebate.
Six councillors, from Wards 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, and 13, are pushing for this change.
If enough councillors gets on board with today’s discussion — voting in favour of the motion — staff will bring forward a list of potential cost savings to council by the end of February.
READ MORE: Calgary council will debate lowering property taxes from approved 7.8 per cent
The single-use item bylaw will also be looked at Tuesday.
“I think people are very used to bringing their own bags and people are very used to the call to action on behalf of consumers and this is just a step in that direction,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek said on the bylaw when it was introduced just a few short weeks ago.
It has caused quite a stir.
Coun. Dan McLean says his inbox has been filled with emails.
“Hundreds, hundreds — I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said Tuesday. “More unpopular than the fireworks, more unpopular than the repeal, more unpopular than tax hikes — I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Monday night, the mayor said some changes could be coming to the bylaw, which forces businesses to charge for reusable bags and only give out utensils and napkins if someone asks for them.
Business owners have already dealt with some frustrated shoppers.
WATCH: Local businesses donating profits from Calgary’s single-use bylaw
“It’ll be interesting to see how people accept it,” one business owner told CityNews. “People are already a little angry about having that question and it just seems like one more decision, one more layer of things people have to do.”
“[We put] the cost of that bag into the prices that we have for our products so I personally feel it’s kind of double-dipping — getting more money from people for a product we already charge you for,” another said.
But, it hasn’t been all negative.
One business owner said she wants it to start a wave of change.
READ MORE: Calgary’s single-use item bylaw takes effect Tuesday
“I’m hoping that it’s going to catch on and more and more people are going to do the same thing,” she said.
Last week, Premier Danielle Smith said she didn’t like the bylaw, and asked her municipal affairs minister to see if it oversteps the Municipal Government Act (MGA).
The six councillors that pushed forward the motion for a tax-payer rebate, are also pushing to repeal this bylaw.
On Tuesday, they will be voting to get an update from administration.
If that goes through, the next steps could include big changes, or seeing it dropped all-together in the future.
-With files from Tiffany Goodwein
