Connect with us
[the_ad id="89560"]

Alberta

Edmonton bylaw banning styrofoam and single use cups from restaurants in effect July 1

Published

3 minute read

Single-use item bylaw to support waste reduction in effect July 1

Edmonton’s single-use item reduction bylaw takes effect on July 1, starting businesses—and city residents—on a road to less waste and litter.
“Looking locally, you can already find countless examples of businesses who are reducing single-use items well before the bylaw is in place,” said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi. “We’re excited to support the efforts of these leaders, and make an even greater environmental impact.”
The bylaw applies to most organizations that are required to hold a business licence or civic event permit issued by the City of Edmonton. It regulates four types of single-use items that can easily be replaced with reusable options or avoided altogether:
  • Shopping bags: Single-use plastic shopping bags (including biodegradable and compostable plastic shopping bags) can no longer be distributed, and businesses must charge at least 15 cents for a paper shopping bag and at least $1 for a new reusable shopping bag.
  • Foam (“Styrofoam”) plates, cups and containers: These items can no longer be used.
  • Single-use cups: Restaurants must serve dine-in drink orders in reusable cups and have a written policy for accepting reusable customer cups.
  • Accessories (like utensils, straws, pre-packaged condiments and napkins): These items will only be available by request or self-serve.
“The bylaw builds on the efforts many businesses and residents are already making to reduce waste,” said Denis Jubinville, Branch Manager, Waste Services. “All these positive choices add up and contribute to cleaner parks and public spaces.”
An estimated 450 million single-use items are thrown in the garbage each year in Edmonton. These items make up about 10,000 tonnes of garbage—the weight of more than 700 city buses. Reducing single-use items means less litter and less waste in the landfill. It also means fewer emissions will be required to produce, ship and dispose of these items.
“The bylaw will help encourage businesses and customers to stop and consider if the item is actually necessary,” said Jubinville. “We have worked hard to take a balanced approach that allows single-use items like cups and bags to be available for those who need them.”
The bylaw complements the federal restrictions on certain types of single-use plastics, including plastic shopping bags and Styrofoam, both of which will be banned this year. While the federal regulations specifically address plastic items, the City’s bylaw focuses on waste reduction, rather than simply replacing plastics with other types of materials.
More information and support tools are available at edmonton.ca/SingleUse. City Waste Education Outreach staff will also be visiting many businesses to answer questions and help them adapt to the bylaw.

Alberta

Alberta judge sides with LGBT activists, allows ‘gender transitions’ for kids to continue

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

‘I think the court was in error,’ Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said. ‘There will be irreparable harm to children who get sterilized.’

LGBT activists have won an injunction that prevents the Alberta government from restricting “gender transitions” for children.

On June 27, Alberta King’s Court Justice Allison Kuntz granted a temporary injunction against legislation that prohibited minors under the age of 16 from undergoing irreversible sex-change surgeries or taking puberty blockers.

“The evidence shows that singling out health care for gender diverse youth and making it subject to government control will cause irreparable harm to gender diverse youth by reinforcing the discrimination and prejudice that they are already subjected to,” Kuntz claimed in her judgment.

Kuntz further said that the legislation poses serious Charter issues which need to be worked through in court before the legislation could be enforced. Court dates for the arguments have yet to be set.

READ: Support for traditional family values surges in Alberta

Alberta’s new legislation, which was passed in December, amends the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

The legislation would also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 years of age and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Just days after the legislation was passed, an LGBT activist group called Egale Canada, along with many other LGBT organizations, filed an injunction to block the bill.

In her ruling, Kuntz argued that Alberta’s legislation “will signal that there is something wrong with or suspect about having a gender identity that is different than the sex you were assigned at birth.”

However, the province of Alberta argued that these damages are speculative and the process of gender-transitioning children is not supported by scientific evidence.

“I think the court was in error,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on her Saturday radio show. “That’s part of the reason why we’re taking it to court. The court had said there will be irreparable harm if the law goes ahead. I feel the reverse. I feel there will be irreparable harm to children who get sterilized at the age of 10 years old – and so we want those kids to have their day in court.”

READ: Canadian doctors claim ‘Charter right’ to mutilate gender-confused children in Alberta

Overwhelming evidence shows that persons who undergo so-called “gender transitioning” procedures are more likely to commit suicide than those who are not given such irreversible surgeries. In addition to catering to a false reality that one’s sex can be changed, trans surgeries and drugs have been linked to permanent physical and psychological damage, including cardiovascular diseases, loss of bone density, cancer, strokes and blood clots, and infertility.

Meanwhile, a recent study on the side effects of “sex change” surgeries discovered that 81 percent of those who have undergone them in the past five years reported experiencing pain simply from normal movements in the weeks and months that followed, among many other negative side effects.

Continue Reading

Alberta

Alberta Independence Seekers Take First Step: Citizen Initiative Application Approved, Notice of Initiative Petition Issued

Published on

Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer, Gordon McClure, has issued a Notice of Initiative Petition.

This confirms a Citizen Initiative application has been received and the Chief Electoral Officer has determined the requirements of section 2(3) of the Citizen Initiative Act have been met.

Approved Initiative Petition Information

The approved citizen initiative application is for a policy proposal with the following proposed question:

Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?

The Notice of Initiative Petition, application, and statement provided by the proponent are available on Elections Alberta’s website on the Current Initiatives Petition page.

As the application was received and approved prior to coming into force of Bill 54: Election Statutes Amendment Act, the Citizen Initiative process will follow requirements set out in the Citizen Initiative Act as of June 30, 2025.

Next Steps

  1. The proponent must appoint a chief financial officer within 30 days (by July 30, 2025).
  2. Once the 30-day publication period is complete and a chief financial officer has been appointed, Elections Alberta will:
  1. issue the citizen initiative petition,
  2. publish a notice on the Current Initiatives Petition page of our website indicating the petition has been issued, specifying the signing period dates, and the number of signatures required for a successful petition, and
  3. issue the citizen initiative petition signature sheets and witness affidavits. Signatures collected on other forms will not be accepted.

More information on the process, the status of the citizen initiative petition, financing rules, third party advertising rules, and frequently asked questions may be found on the Elections Alberta website.

Elections Alberta is an independent, non-partisan office of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta responsible for administering provincial elections, by-elections, and referendums.

Continue Reading

Trending

X