Calgary votes to scrap single-use items bylaw

Calgary city council has voted 12-3 to repeal the single-use items bylaw.

The bylaw required businesses to charge 15 cents for a paper bag and one dollar for a reusable bag, as well as offer other items like cutlery and plastic utensils by request only.

The rules went into effect in January and sparked a significant amount of criticism.

Couns. Courtney Walcott, Gian Carlo Carra, and Kourtney Penner were the dissenting votes.

Tuesday began the process of formally repealing the city’s single-use items bylaw Tuesday with a public hearing.

Two weeks following implementation, council voted 10-5 to begin the process of repealing the bylaw, which requires a public hearing.

“Essentially all that’s before [council] is the repeal bylaw, so there’s really not going to be an opportunity to rehash it, to try and amend it, it’s either ‘yes or no,’ an up down vote, we either repeal it or we don’t,” explained Coun. Andre Chabot ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.

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This comes just one day after the longest hearing in Calgary’s history wrapped up — more than 700 people turned out to city council to voice their concerns and support for proposed blanket rezoning.

Chabot was hopeful council would successfully pull the plug on the single-use items bylaw.

“I think there’s going to be other opportunities to reduce our waste going to the landfill, other than this bylaw,” he said. “Maybe something down the road will come back that addresses it from that perspective, but for now I think the best solution, and what we’ve heard from people, is just get rid of it.

“If you want to try and start over, fine. But don’t try and sausage-make on the council floor, it’s not going to work.

The city says roughly 15 million single-use items get thrown into the landfill every week.

Calgary restaurants, bars say good riddance to single-use bylaw

Calgary restaurants and bars have been rolling with all the punches stemmed from the city’s single-use items bylaw and many say they aren’t sad to see it go

For many working in the service industry, it’s been a long four months and counting. Ernie Tsu with the Alberta Hospitality Association says it’s created more challenges for an industry still trying to recover from the effects of the pandemic.

“The cost of the cutlery, napkins and all of those items, during a time when we had to survive on takeout, was quite high,” he says. “Then when the single-use bylaw came in leaving restaurants sitting on an inventory, that effects their cash flow.”

Tsu says the bylaw has proven to be ineffective since it doesn’t fall in line with the federal policies.

“They didn’t marry it with the federal intitiative, which ended up getting shot down in the Supreme Court of Canada,” he says. “What this city council needs to understand is, they need to listen to Calgarians.”

He says businesses have developed fatigue, and while the bylaw is good in theory, he agrees that it’s “unreasonable” and “unconstitutional.”

-With files from Tiffany Goodwein