The City of Calgary announced a new rebate program to encourage rain barrel use for the summer months.
With the Calgary area water crisis last year and a current below-average snowpack in mind, the city estimates that a single rain barrel can hold up to 208L and can be filled with rainwater 20 times a summer.
“We learned a lot from last year, which is going to be pivotal, and the increase of the number of barrels means that more people are going to have them going into the summer. If we have any kind of issues like (last year), people will already be primed,” said Lex van der Raadt, Executive Director of Green Calgary.
Calgarians who purchase rain barrels sold in Calgary after March 31 can apply to receive a rebate of up to $50 on up to two rain barrels per household. The city is offering 3,000 rebates total.
“Moving to a rebate program will help support Calgarians in a time of affordability, to support local businesses to be able to either purchase a rain barrel from Green Calgary directly and obtain the rebate, but as well as purchase a rain barrel from any local retailer and also qualify for that rebate,” said Nicole Newton, Manager, Natural Environment and Adaptation with the City of Calgary.
Any rain barrels purchased after April 1 and used in Calgary are eligible for the rebate. The rebate program will begin accepting submissions April 1.
Green Calgary rain barrels will be up for pre-order on the Green Calgary website April 1. Barrels will also be sold at select retail locations throughout the months of April-June, beginning April 19 at IKEA.
The Barrel YYC program repurposes barrels from the food industry. Barrels come from Cook Canada and Mexico and are cleaned and refurbished before being re-sold.
“We don’t want to use ones that had any sort of chemicals in them, because that’s just too much risk for people, we’re using stuff that only had food products, in this case, concentrate syrups,” said van der Raadt.
Rain barrels give Calgarians another water source during potential city-wide water restrictions
The Goodwill Impact Centre in southeast Calgary has begun to refurbish the barrels in partnership with Green Calgary and the City of Calgary
“The barrel man that we’re working with decided they couldn’t meet the same sort of production anymore, we said, ‘teach us how to make them your way, and we’ll work with Goodwill to do that,’” said van der Raadt.
The switch to Goodwill will decrease the total number of refurbished barrels.
“Because we are taking over production, we are going to have less produced in total than we had last year,” said van der Raadt.
The total number of barrels for sale is unknown, though the rebate is limited to the first 3,000 barrels.
Throughout the Calgary water restrictions in 2024, outdoor water use was limited to certain times and days of the week.
“If there was another water emergency, or if we start to experience hot and dry days, rain barrels are a great way for people to capture water as it’s available from the sky, it’s free,” said Newton
van der Raadt said that rainwater is natural, chemical free and typically a better temperature for plants compared to tap water.
“I think water restrictions are top of mind for Calgarians. Having a rain barrel is a way to be able to sustain your plants and garden, trees and shrubs,” Newton said.
