Calgary's new single-use items bylaw sparks calls for repeal

Debate is growing about Calgary's new single-use items bylaw. The bylaw came into effect on Jan. 16 and requires businesses to charge minimum fees to provide bags — and to not provide foodware, straws and other items unless customers ask for them.

Some city councillors say the law needs to be changed or scrapped, and Premier Danielle Smith has waded in on the topic, criticizing the new rules in a Calgary Herald column, in which she encouraged residents to "call your councillor and call your mayor and tell them what you think."

The intent of the new rules is to reduce the amount of waste going into city landfills. Right now, there are 15 million single-use items heading to the dump every week, according to the city.

Coun. Andre Chabot opposed the bylaw when it was passed last year and he's hearing a lot of complaints about how it's working.

"Just this morning alone, I received over 50 emails asking us to repeal the bylaw," Chabot told CBC News on Friday.

"Mostly I've heard from folks saying they think it's ridiculous that they have to ask for a napkin or that they have to ask for a spoon, or that they have to ask for a straw."

The Ward 10 councillor says the whole idea of diverting waste is lost in this bylaw, since so many of the items targeted would have gone into green bins, not landfills.

"The whole thing needs to be looked at and potentially either amended or scrapped altogether."

Coun. Jennifer Wyness, who represents Ward 2, agrees. She says she will bring forward a motion to scrap the bylaw at a February council meeting.

"We are hearing that this bylaw lacks logic, that it has made it more unaffordable to live in the city … that people don't understand what we're trying to accomplish here, and they're extremely frustrated at our council for not listening to Calgarians," Wyness said in an interview Friday. 

She said the additional costs associated with the bylaw are particularly hard-hitting for seniors and people on fixed incomes.

"I've heard from seniors that can no longer take their grandkids to fast-food restaurants, and they're devastated because that was something they enjoyed doing," she told CBC News.

"We've set a bunch of anger loose in our city."

Another city councillor, however, believes the anger is being manipulated.