Summary#
On October 6, 2026, Edmonton City Council defeated Councillor J. Morgan’s motion to have City staff prepare a bag-fee exemption for pick-up and drive-through restaurants. The proposal would have changed Revised Charter Bylaw 20117, the Single-use Item Reduction Bylaw, but it was defeated, so it did not direct staff to make that change. The broader goal in the City staff report was to reduce single-use items through the existing rules, education and outreach.
- The proposed exemption was limited to the requirement that pick-up and drive-through restaurants charge the minimum fee for each shopping bag.
- The vote was 6 to 7. Councillors A. Stevenson, A. Salvador, E. Rutherford, A. Paquette, M. Janz, J. Wright and A. Knack voted against the motion.
- The Utility Committee had no recommendation on the report. Its proposed restaurant exemptions were not put to a vote.
- The materials do not record a separate Council vote on the staff report or its recommendations.
What it means for you#
- Restaurants: The defeated motion did not change the bylaw. The City staff report describes the existing bag-fee rules as continuing, with no sector-specific exemption.
- Customers: The motion would not have exempted all restaurants or removed other bylaw requirements. It proposed an exemption only for the minimum bag fee at pick-up and drive-through restaurants.
- Residents: The report also covers waste sorting and single-use item trends, but the materials show no Council decision here changing those programs.
Money#
No new spending or cost estimate is stated for the defeated motion.
- City staff say businesses keep 100 per cent of the bag fees they collect; the City cannot collect them as revenue.
- The report says no new funding was requested for its existing waste and single-use item work. It does not give a cost for preparing the proposed amendments.
What is unclear#
- The supplied materials do not include the bylaw text, so the exact fee amount and detailed rules cannot be checked against the bylaw itself.
- The Council record provided does not show whether Council separately received or accepted the information report.
- Because the amendment motion was defeated, the materials do not set out implementation details for an exemption.
Case for#
- The City’s survey of 196 restaurant respondents found customer complaints were a common challenge: 58 per cent reported complaints from pick-up customers and 37 per cent from online delivery customers.
- Respondents also described extra difficulty for quick-service restaurants, where staff may have more face-to-face contact with customers.
- A possible argument for the exemption is that it could reduce those customer and operating difficulties for pick-up and drive-through restaurants.
Case against#
- City staff say exemptions for drive-through or delivery services could create loopholes, make customer experiences less consistent and slow single-use item reduction.
- The staff report says regulated single-use item disposal per person fell 30 per cent at home from the 2022–23 baseline; retail bag disposal fell 77 per cent at home and 96 per cent in public litter containers.
- The restaurant survey covered about 6 per cent of Edmonton restaurant and food-service businesses, so its findings may not represent every business.
- Seven councillors voted against the proposed exemption: A. Stevenson, A. Salvador, E. Rutherford, A. Paquette, M. Janz, J. Wright and A. Knack.