ABC Party majority council votes to scrap Vancouver's single-use cup fee

Two people are seen enjoying beverages outside a Vancouver Starbucks. On Feb. 15, 2023 city council voted in favour of scrapping a single-use cup fee that was introduced last January. (CTV)

Just over a year after a single-use cup fee was implemented in Vancouver, the city’s council passed a motion to get rid of it.

The by-law, which required businesses to charge 25 cents for throw-away cups, was implemented in an effort to reduce waste.

However, some councillors—like ABC Party’s Rebecca Bligh, who brought forward the motion to scrap the fee—say it was flawed from the start.

“We had heard overwhelmingly from residents in Vancouver and businesses saying this cup fee is worsening affordability and not changing consumer behaviour,” said Bligh.

It was the second time Bligh tried to trash the motion, but this time she had the backing of an ABC majority council.

"Vancouver, in a massive country, thinking that they're winning climate war because they've got a 25-cent cup fee is insanity, it's actually insanity,” she said.

Another issue with the bylaw was that the city could not legally collect the fee under the Vancouver Charter, meaning businesses got to keep all the profit with no requirements for how that money was spent.

However, some who work in the restaurant industry say cup fee wasn’t as ideal as advertised.

Mark Von Schellwitz, vice president of Restaurants Canada’s western division, says it left restaurants dealing with annoyed customers

"All the members we talked to basically said ‘Look we'll easily forget that 25 cents not to have the regulatory burden and in order to not have that push back from consumers,’” he said.

Green Party councillor Pete Fry voted in favour of the original bylaw.

He says scrapping it would be a big step backward, arguing that the city pays a significant amount to dispose of cups, which ultimately costs taxpayers.

“What a missed opportunity it is, and where the money is going to actually come from to pay for all these single-use disposable items is from our pockets. Either paying at the till, or paying at the tax bill—we’re still paying for all these single-use items.”

According to the latest city data, 80 million single-use cups ended up in the landfill in 2018 alone.

The bylaw will now be removed as soon as possible, and no later than June 1.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Regan Hasegawa