A city councillor wants to scrap Calgary’s foxtail barley bylaw clause due to a lack of enforcement and questions of functionality, less than three years after it was passed.

Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness is seeking to repeal a 2023 bylaw amendment that requires properties to keep foxtail barley below eight centimetres or face a $500 fine. In a Notice of Motion being brought to the April 14 Executive Committee meeting, Coun. Wyness is calling for Section 7.2.j to be removed from the Community Standards Bylaw.

The motion details that the bylaw has done little in addressing foxtail barley concerns since its implementation. According to the motion, Calgary saw more than 12,000 complaints related to long grass and weeds in 2025, with 1,533 specifically tied to foxtail barley. Despite that, only one ticket has been issued under the bylaw since it was introduced. 

For Coun. Wyness, that raises questions about whether the bylaw is doing anything beyond creating confusion. 

“We’re not even utilizing this bylaw on the books,” she said.

“It’s just sitting there for optics and not actually being enforced,” she said.

The motion also highlights that the bylaw puts the burden on Calgarians instead of the city, which creates frustration in constituents, said Coun. Wyness.

“In practice, the City has not been held to the same standards as private citizens relating to the management of foxtail barley,” the motion stated. 

“These misaligned rules and practices are unfair and not reasonable.”

The bylaw states that it doesn’t apply to land under the control and direction of Calgary Parks or Calgary Roads, including boulevards close to major roadways. According to the City of Calgary’s website, foxtail barley thrives most in disturbed soil with low nutrients and high salt content, such as construction sites and roadsides. 

That exemption is at the heart of Coun. Wyness’s concern.

“It’s a bylaw that seems more hypocritical when the city is the greatest offender of the bylaw when it comes to allowing foxtail to grow on their property,” she said.

Why is this plant such a concern?

Coun. Wyness pointed to how the city manages its own land as part of the problem. Current mowing practices can spread foxtail barley seeds, she said, particularly when clippings are not bagged or when mowers blow cut foxtail barley onto citizens’ property. 

“My residents get extremely concerned that they may be fined by a bylaw when the reason the foxtail grew on the property was that we blew foxtail from city property onto theirs,” she said. 

Foxtail barley is a native grass, and while not a listed species in the Alberta Weed Control Act, Calgarians have raised concerns about its safety for pets. While it plays a role in prairie ecosystems, it can pose risks to animals when its barbed seeds become embedded in fur or inhaled.

Its control on city lands could also be costly for taxpayers. The motion states that managing foxtail barley to meet bylaw standards would cost $2 million annually, plus an additional $200,000 for vacant city lots. That would be on top of an increase in allocation of resources, such as increased inspections and quality control measures. 

Instead of penalizing Calgarians, Wyness said she wants the city to focus on improving its own practices, including more frequent mowing and bagging clippings. 

“We have to start doing behaviour changes or management strategy changes where it grows the most,” she said.

If approved, the motion, which asks for bylaw amendments to come to a future Community Development Committee, would have to be approved at a full meeting of Calgary city council.