Calgary's single use bylaw has been repealed by Calgary city council in a 12-3 vote on Tuesday. Councillors voting yes were McLean, Wyness, Chu, Spencer, Wong, Daliwahl, Sharp, Chabot and Demong. Mayor Jyoti Gondek also voted in favour of repeal.Councillors Carra, Penner, Walcott voted to keep the bylaw."Calgarians spoke loud and clear, they don't support the bylaw. They're not convinced and neither am I , that this bylaw is actually accomplishing what it was designed to do. We get things wrong once in a while but we do need to admit when something isn't working when Calgarians are truly telling us this isn't," Sharp said.The single-use bylaw came into force on January 16, requiring grocery stores, restaurants and other food vendors and retail outlets to impose a minimum 15-cent surcharge on customers for a paper bag or $1 for a new reusable cloth bag at the point of sale. The rates were scheduled to increase to 25 cents and two dollars, respectively, in 2025. Additionally, if customers wanted other single-use items, such as napkins or plastic cutlery and other foodware items, the customer had to request these items. When the bylaw came into force, Calgarians gathered in force to let council know about their displeasure. On January 20, a vote was taken in council and passed by a 10-5 vote, to hold public hearings on repealing the bylaw. In a podcast after that vote Cllr. Dan McLean was asked by the host why the big turnaround by council. “So they could get re-elected,” said McLean. Prior to council’s vote on Tuesday, MacLean said in council, “People are just getting really tired of politicians and experts telling the uneducated masses what to do, and (that) we know best and if you don’t like it, that’s too bad.” “We know the vast majority of Calgarians do not like this single-use items bylaw, for many reasons. They think it’s overreaching; they think it’s ridiculous. Yes, we all care about the environment, and we can all take steps to do what we can. I will be voting to repeal this bag bylaw and I encourage my colleagues to do the same and let the people know we’ve been listening to them and they’ve been heard.” In a statement, the city advises, "effective immediately, businesses will no longer be required to charge a minimum fee for new paper and reusable shopping bags and provide shopping bags or foodware accessories by request only.""Calgarians can expect that some businesses may apply a fee to shopping bags, or ask if they require any foodware accessories before providing them."The city's statement also also advises, "council’s vote only impacts The City of Calgary bylaw. The Government of Canada's single-use plastics prohibition regulations still applies, which impacts business use of plastic shopping bags, cutlery and straws."The bylaw will likely be back in some other form. According to a city document, “Council could direct administration to prepare a new bylaw that considers the challenging aspects of the previous single-use items charter bylaw and report back, on a timeline to be determined, with a revised bylaw.” Speculation in council chambers was a revised bylaw could be ready within 60 to 90 days, or 12 months from now .
