Summary#

Edmonton City Council defeated a motion to have City staff prepare amendments to Revised Charter Bylaw 20117, the Single-use Item Reduction Bylaw. The motion would have exempted pick-up and drive-through restaurants from charging the required minimum fee for each shopping bag; it would not itself have changed the bylaw. The report’s stated goal is to reduce waste, and it recommended keeping the current rules.

• The vote was 6 to 7. Councillors A. Stevenson, A. Salvador, E. Rutherford, A. Paquette, M. Janz, A. Knack and J. Wright voted against the motion.
• The motion was moved by J. Morgan and seconded by M. Elliott. Because it was defeated, staff were not directed by this motion to prepare the exemption amendments.
• The report says regulated single-use items disposed of at home fell 30 per cent per person from the 2022–2023 baseline. It also reports that paper and plastic takeout containers not regulated by the bylaw rose 108 per cent.
• At Utility Committee, a broader proposed exemption for businesses with restaurant or food-service licences was not put to a vote. It was not approved.

What it means for you#

• Restaurants: This Council decision does not create an exemption for pick-up or drive-through orders. The report describes the existing rules as requiring a minimum fee for each shopping bag. The motion would only have directed staff to prepare amendments, not changed the rule immediately.
• Customers: The defeated motion does not remove the applicable bag fee for pick-up or drive-through orders.
• Residents: The report discusses waste sorting and single-use-item results, but the defeated motion does not change household waste collection or sorting rules.
• Limits of the record: The supplied materials do not include the full text of Bylaw 20117, so its current requirements cannot be independently checked against the bylaw itself.

Money#

The report says no new funding was requested; it does not give a cost estimate for the defeated motion or any future exemption.

• The report says businesses retain 100 per cent of bag fees collected.
• City staff say the reusable-foodware pilot grant is funded through the Waste Services Utility budget and is tied to the Waste Reduction Roadmap ’30 project. No grant amount is stated.
• The restaurant survey found that some respondents said they paid more per bag than the required fee, while others said fees covered some or all costs or generated a profit.

What is unclear#

• Council did not approve the proposed exemption, and the materials do not show that the bylaw was changed by another decision.
• The committee’s broader proposed exemption was not put to a vote; the materials do not say whether it will return to Council.
• The report does not estimate what an exemption would mean for bag use, waste, business costs or fee revenue retained by businesses.
• The restaurant survey had 196 respondents, about 6 per cent of Edmonton restaurant or food-service businesses. The materials do not establish how well their views represent all such businesses.

Case for#

• A possible argument for the exemption is that pick-up and drive-through businesses may face particular customer-service and ordering challenges. In the City survey, 58 per cent of respondents reported complaints from customers picking up orders, and 37 per cent reported complaints from online delivery customers.
• Survey respondents also cited more takeout and delivery orders as a barrier to reducing single-use items. That provides a reason to consider whether the same bag-fee rule works well for these types of orders.
• Some businesses reported that bag fees did not cover their bag costs. The survey found 33 per cent said they paid more per bag than the required charge for new paper bags.

Case against#

• City staff recommended keeping the current fee rules. They said exemptions for drive-throughs or delivery could create loopholes, make customer experiences inconsistent and slow reductions in single-use items.
• The report says regulated single-use items disposed of at home fell 30 per cent per person, exceeding the plan’s 20 per cent reduction goal. City staff view the existing approach as contributing to that progress.
• The proposed motion covered pick-up and drive-through restaurants, but the materials do not explain how an exemption would be defined or enforced. The seven councillors named above voted against it.