Calgary repealed its single-use items bylaw, sealing the fate of a controversial measure the city put in place to try to limit waste going to landfills.
It was put to rest after a comparatively calm public hearing, with four people taking part, compared to the recent citywide rezoning public hearing that saw 736 people submit. The vote on the matter was 12-3 in favour of a repeal.
The item was sent to repeal back in January, just weeks after it was enacted in Calgary. Councillors said they’d received hundreds of emails opposing the single-use items bylaw. That kicked off a process of repeal that mirrored that of implementing a bylaw.
The public hearing kicked off with Grade 8 student Auke Kaplan, who urged council to vote against the repeal. He said the issue was simple: Having to pay for or ask for single-use items makes one think twice before getting them.
“Do I really need 10 napkins for one hot dog? Do I really need a lid to carry my coffee five meters to my table? Do I really need a bag for a burger that I will eat in the next two minutes? Let’s be clear. None of these will be forbidden,” he said.
“My parents can still have coffee from a sippy cup, my friends and I can still get takeout. And if I’m having a particularly messy day, and I do need those 10 napkins, I can get those, too. All this does is encourage more of us to look for alternatives more often.”
Kaplan said it’s beneficial for the city as it uses fewer resources and creates less waste.
City officials said that any potential new bylaw would take as little as three months, but likely more as they wanted to go back to the public for further input. Operational Services GM Doug Morgan later said that one year would be a reasonable timeline to bring back a new bylaw to ensure that it aligned with council and supported by the community.
Next council would likely decide on single-use items’ future
Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott said that he initially voted in favour of the bylaw because he didn’t want to waste time starting over. He said if something is good, but not perfect, you can iterate along the way – much like you do with any other bylaw.
While they still have this bylaw to work with, he expects that it’s going to be a long time before something new on this file comes back. Coun. Walcott said that the prior bylaw took nearly five years of work to create.
“We’ll come back and do this whole process over versus making the appropriate improvements and that is something I’ll still remain disappointed in,” he said.
“I personally believe that if that were to happen and it’s not going to be this council that’s going to do it.”
Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra asked admin if they’d collated any data on waste reduction related to the bylaw. He said he’d heard anecdotally from citizens and businesses that the bylaw, which has remained in place since the repeal process began, that it was working. Admin said that they have heard anecdotally from citizens and businesses, but haven’t collected
Sharon Howland, leader, program management with Waste and Recycling Services, said that they’ve heard from all stakeholders on both sides of the issue. She did recount one example of a local liquor store that was using 2,000 plastic bags per week and is now using 100 paper bags for customers.
“His customers, in the period since January 16, realized that they could indeed carry their bottle of wine or six-pack to the car without a bag,” she said.
Administration said that feedback from citizens has died down significantly. They believe that’s largely due to it going through the repeal process.
City signalled to Calgarians it would be repealed: Coun. Mian
In moving the motion to repeal, Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian said she was disappointed council couldn’t have chosen the iterative path for this bylaw. She referred to her prior amendment where takeout services would be exempt that failed at council.
“But like I said, I think there are multiple ways to bring about change and given what we’ve communicated to the public, I think that we are in a position now where we are going to be starting again,” she said.
She called for political leadership from some of her colleagues – particularly those calling for the repeal – to move this forward. Coun. Mian said it shouldn’t just be left up to administration.
Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer, who voted for the repeal, said this is still an egg that needed to be cracked.
“What we’re talking about is convenience and at times convenience is quite costly. The more that we shape our lives around shaving times off commutes, making sure that we don’t have to use foresight on various habits throughout the day actually have a tangible downstream impact to ourselves and to our children and future generations,” he said.
“Where we failed probably was around the impacts of things like frontline service workers. We probably failed to really fully consider the timing and the ancillary factors that feed into all of these larger conversations about how we move a society forward.”
Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp said that Calgarians spoke out clearly on the topic.
“They don’t support the bylaw that’s in place. They’re not convinced and neither am I that this bylaw is actually accomplishing what it was supposed to do,” she said.
“We get things wrong once in a while. We’re human. But we do need to admit that something isn’t working when Calgarians are clearly telling us it isn’t.”
Mayor Jyoti Gondek said that while the bylaw is no longer in effect, Calgary businesses can still charge for the bags and still make single-use items available by request only. She said it will be interesting to see how citizens change and adapt to the need to curb waste.
“I think the bigger dynamic here is that we exist in a world where people are trying to do their very best to mitigate any damage that we may be creating to the planet. People are trying to reduce waste and they’re doing so in their own ways,” she said.
One of the most important lessons for the City, according to the mayor, was that communication with citizens is evolving.
“I think administration has already said that there could have been a greater engagement process and we could have spoken with Calgarians earlier on about what was to be expected,” Mayor Gondek said.
“So I think we continue to evolve and learn. We don’t always get things right. This was a great example, and so we will do better next time.”
