Bring the Dasani back. Or Evian. Or Our Compliments.

The latest battleground for Calgary city council will be stocking the city council fridges with bottled water, with a Notice of Motion set for technical review at the May 5 Executive Committee Meeting.

The motion from Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston takes direct aim at a 2019 Motion Arising from then-councillor Jeromy Farkas. That motion came after a scoping report was delivered by city administration on reducing waste from single-use plastic items (ironically, one that the former Coun. Farkas opposed.)

Coun. Johnston said that he believed the 2019 effort to ban bottled water in council and committee meetings was performative.

“It was a performative measure by a performative councillor at the time to reduce where the cameras point and what plastic bottles look like in front of cameras. That’s all it was,” he said.

“They stock water bottles everywhere else in the administration, except for where the cameras point.”

Johnston said city council should either get rid of them all – including juice containers, soda cans and others – or let all of them in.

“It doesn’t make sense. They can be recycled. Everything can be recycled when it comes to beverage containers,” he said.

Back in 2019, Coun. Farkas said that he felt the city’s single-use items scoping report fell short in acknowledging the city’s sway as a purchaser of bottled water products and its ability to lead by example in reducing the use.

The then-councillor, as a Coke Zero drinker, said that he wouldn’t be affected as he brought his own beverages from home.

“It’s important for us to lead by example. I look forward to the city, and particularly council, taking a strong leadership position on this issue,” Farkas said in the 2019 debate.

“We need to show what we can do if we want a say on how citizens and businesses should make decisions.”

That motion arising, which was seconded by Ward 7 Coun. Druh Farrell, passed 8-7 back in 2019.

Bottled water: A familiar debate

While that initial scoping report led to the creation of Calgary’s single-use items ban, that plan was later scrapped by city council in 2024.

Back in 2019, Ward 12 Coun. Shane Keating brought up a similar concept as Johnston: The idea of singling out one particular recyclable container instead of the host of others.

“I would like the mover to explain what the difference is between any of the other refundable containers we have, whether it’s soft drinks, water, juice, or anything, compared to bottled water,” Keating said.

“I don’t get the differentiation between why we’re banning bottled water and nothing else.”

It was then-Mayor Naheed Nenshi who responded by saying that none of the other items came out of city hall taps.

“That particular product (water) is exceptionally easy to replace, and in fact, because it comes out of the tap for pennies a glass, less than pennies, tenths of pennies a glass,” Nenshi said back in 2019.

Coun. Farrell doubled down on the water accessibility, saying there had been many attempts to restrict bottled water access for councillors.

“At one point it was to do with cost, but we have a refrigerated tap of purified water in the back. We have the best tap water in North America. We used to have glasses in council chambers,” she said.

On Wednesday, after the continuation of Tuesday’s Regular Meeting of Council, now-Mayor Farkas responded to Johnston’s proposed Notice of Motion.

Farkas called it a blast from the past. It was the first cross-partisan motion between him and Coun. Farrell. He said he didn’t want to spend much time on it now.

“We should not be spending our time on bringing in fancy water bottle service for city councillors,” Farkas said.

“Look, if I have to, I will buy everybody a reusable water bottle, and we can fill up at the tap, just like everybody else.”

The mayor then used the analogy that if you were on the Board of Directors for Coca-Cola, you wouldn’t stock Pepsi in the company fridge.

“The water that we produce is clean. It’s tastes amazing, and a lot of attention has been put on it, but I stand by our product,” he said.

“ We make the best water here at the City of Calgary. We’ve had some hiccups with our pipes, obviously, but it doesn’t make sense for us to go out and buy bottled water when it literally comes out of our taps.”