Coun. Andre Chabot said that Friday morning alone, he was greeted by 50 emails on Calgary’s single-use items bylaw.
Virtually all were asking the city to reconsider it. Now some city councillors are pushing to do the same.
The City of Calgary’s single-use items bylaw went into effect on Jan. 16 and requires that businesses charge a fee to provide bags for purchased items. They are also not to provide items like straws unless customers ask for them.
Councillors have told LWC that they’ve been “bombarded” with correspondence about the new bylaw. Though much of it, they say, is formulaic, generated through the mobilization of such groups as Common Sense Calgary.
Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness said that she also opened her email Friday morning and had one email that wasn’t related to the single-use items bylaw. She said she warned councillors of this outcome nearly a year ago when she opposed its application.
Now, she’s putting together a plan to have the bylaw reconsidered. She’s awaiting an update on the bylaw from admin this week before determining a course of action for February. (Update: Coun. Wyness will be bringing a repeal of the bylaw for consideration to the Jan. 30 regular meeting of council, as per a post to X.)
“It’s now the bylaw that I have pretty much told the cautionary tale of what we are seeing that council has chosen not to listen to Calgarians on, and that seems to be the trend of our council lately,” Wyness told LWC.
“We need to start listening to Calgarians and to the challenges that they’re facing and connect the dots, to how we are governing to make positive change in our community rather than add more stress and affordability to the affordability crisis of our city.”
The City of Calgary said that calls to 311 are at the expected volumes with both businesses and Calgarians calling in for resources, questions and to express support or disapproval. They couldn’t provide a breakdown, nor volume of calls on the issue.
“We don’t track calls/emails regarding the breakdown of support/disapproval – rather we are looking for overall trends and themes to adjust messaging, communication and education approach,” read an email from the City of Calgary, in response to questions from LWC.
“Businesses and Calgarians had an opportunity to provide feedback at various stages between 2018-2023 through several engagement phases before going to Council and becoming a bylaw.”
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Rhetoric to inflame
Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner said she’s been targeted by a coordinated email campaign meant to incite people to action.
“We see this on all issues. You see it on the arena. You see it on the budget – both sides,” she said.
“You get these email campaigns, ’email your councillor, tell them you don’t like it,’ here’s a bunch of misinformation.”
Still, Penner said the City probably does need to do more and better communication on the issue, particularly for businesses. Particularly communication around basic things like communication around shopping bags and bags for a Tim Hortons donut, she said.
“There is absolutely some confusion and yeah, I think that we probably need to go back and do some free education especially for businesses so that they can support the communication to residents,” Penner said.
The City of Calgary said it is continuing to communicate with residents and business owners on the topic.
“Calgarians have some misconceptions about the bylaw, confusion between The City bylaw and Federal regulations and to express their concerns,” they wrote in an email response.
“Conversations usually end with a much clearer understanding of the purpose of the bylaw, what Calgarians are being asked to do to reduce single-use items waste and the requirements for businesses.”
To address some of this, the City of Calgary also posted a lengthy thread to the X platform (formerly Twitter).
For his part, Chabot said he would wholeheartedly support a repeal of the bylaw.
“I don’t see the value in it,” he said.
“I don’t see the positive outcomes that were expected.”
Change takes time: City of Calgary
The City of Calgary, in their email response to questions, said that it’s important to remember that habit change takes time.
“We’ve seen similar hesitations when we have rolled out other new waste initiatives,” they wrote.
“We had anticipated this and our business and Calgarian communications and education started in summer 2023 to ensure that they were aware of the bylaw requirements, how they should be applied, and what support was available to them from The City. This will continue into 2024.”
Penner said the purpose of the bylaw is to help Calgarians be a little more cognizant of consumptive behaviours – ones that have an environmental impact.
“Consumptive behaviour, there is a cost associated with it, and this is what we’ve agreed that the cost is and we are all collectively going to pick up this cost,” she said.
“If you don’t want to pay that cost, if you don’t want to pay 15 cents for a bag, then bring your own bag. Bringing your own bag is not new. That practice has been around for 10-plus years or more.”
LWC examined the City of Calgary’s waste composition from 2019 (no newer data, and this was done before the takeout push during Covid-19). Many of the items targeted under the single-use items bylaw accounted for a fraction of waste from Calgary single-family homes. The data doesn’t include commercial waste or waste from multi-family bins. Note: This is a measure of WEIGHT, not VOLUME.
Questions about this were posed to the City of Calgary and we will add their response once it’s received.
On the cost side, Wyness said you can’t look at it in singularity. It needs to be looked at collectively with other cost of living increases that Calgarians have faced.
“It can be manageable for a large majority of people, but when you look at it in the big picture connected to everything else a family faces, it adds up,” Wyness said.
“I think that's where we have to start connecting the dots.”
Further, on the reusable bag side, Wyness said it’s one thing to bring it into a grocery store or other location, but reusable, potentially health-hazardous bags could be making their way into food prep areas.
On the City’s FAQ for businesses, reusable bags can be refused if there’s concern about cleanliness or health.
The City of Calgary’s website provides more information on the topic.
The City of Calgary also said they would be doing a waste composition study to determine if the bylaw has had an impact on reducing single-use item waste.
