Image: Screenshot, Chilliwack City Council meeting on Sept. 20 / Councillor Chris Kloot has asked City staff to conduct a review of the bylaw that allows fast food restaurants to charge customers 15 cents for paper bags.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Single-use fee

Councillor Chris Kloot asks City staff to review single-use paper bag fee of 15 cents being charged to fast food customers in Chilliwack

Sep 21, 2022 | 10:08 AM

CHILLIWACK — At the tail end of Tuesday afternoon’s Chilliwack City Council meeting, Councillor Chris Kloot asked City of Chilliwack staff to review the 15-cent paper bag fee currently being charged to fast food customers at Chilliwack drive-through restaurants.

“We know it’s about changing behaviours, but you can’t bring your own bag to a fast food restaurant, and paper bags are recyclable,” Kloot said. “I think it’s good business practice to periodically review some of the bylaws and policies that we’ve brought in. The 15-cent fee isn’t coming back to the City of Chilliwack, it’s going back to the different operators. I just think it’d be prudent to have a look, to see if there’s potential options to potentially improve the bylaw that’s in place.”

Mayor Ken Popove echoed Kloot’s sentiments by saying, “Your timing is bang on to have a look at how things are going.”

Councillor Bud Mercer said he had similar concerns with the bag fee. “If I understood correctly, the information that I got, that it’s a provincial regulation that if you ban plastic bags, there must be a fee imposed for the fast food bags.”

Councillor Jason Lum called it “customer gouging” in some cases.

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“I think our bylaw does set a minimum charge on paper bags, but I don’t think we necessarily prescribed that they must be charged at the window,” Lum said. “The costs of those paper bags are already included in the price of that meal you’re purchasing, just like when you buy a cup of coffee. The cost is being included and factored in. I think we need to call this what it is, and that is looking at gouging a consumer for an extra thing you’re allowed to charge them. Maybe what’s happening here is there’s just some misunderstanding between some of the retailers that are out there. Maybe we have an opportunity to go out and do a little bit more consultation and education with them. I am firmly opposed to exempting a section of small businesses who, whether you like it or not, the material generated at the store end up in waterways, end up polluting, end up being discarded improperly around the city and end up causing an issue.”

Image: Screenshot, Chilliwack City Council meeting on Sept. 20 / Councillor Jason Lum called the practice of charging customers 15 cents for a paper bag gouging in some cases, but opposes a blanket exemption on small businesses due to the amount of waste they contribute from their products.

Councillor Kloot clarified that he was primarily concerned with paper bags.

“This motion is just fairly general just to look at what we’re doing right, or whether there could be improvements, or whether there are gaps that haven’t been identified,” Kloot said. “It’s more the paper bags, which are recyclable. To be clear, we’re slightly ahead of the curve of the provincial and the federal governments here. All I’m asking is that we have a review and look at what’s working and potentially might not be working.”

by Mike Vanden Bosch

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Councillor Chris Kloot asks City staff to review single-use paper bag fee of 15 cents being charged to fast food customers in Chilliwack

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