Council votes down shopping cart resolution

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on July 7, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

An effort by councillor John Middleton-Hope to get the wheels rolling on an initiative to deal with abandoned shopping carts failed to make it out the door Tuesday.
Council voted 5-4 against a resolution brought forward by the first-term councillor that would have directed administration to return to it through the Community Safety Standing Policy Committee a strategy to address the situation.
Middleton-Hope said shopping carts – often used by homeless to carry their belongings – are an issue in the city with them being abandoned on properties. He told council the impetus needs to be on businesses to prevent them from being taken off their properties to be dealt with by residents.
Middleton-Hope told council “having received numerous complaints from residents regarding abandoned shopping carts, use as carts as cartage transportation modes, has become an issue synonymous with homelessness. Scores of carts are being removed from businesses unlawfully, used and damaged and abandoned. This initiative does not seek to criminalize the removal carts or their possession. Having police chase after shopping cart thieves is a poor use of resources.
“The intent of this initiative to put the onus back on the businesses to secure their carts and provide process to recover costs for pickup and return of the majority of carts. A plan to encourage abnormal users to make use alternatives such as lockers, which have been long contemplated, is also part of this strategy as well. It’s fine to say that there is a partial mechanism in place, the reality is that it is either not being well-utilized, its not well known or it’s not functioning the way we think it,” said the councillor.
“If you speak with people who are impacted by shopping carts in front of their driveways, in their parking spaces, on their properties, on a regular basis, they’ve called 311, they’ve requested assistance,” added the councillor.

“The shopping cart owners say they will get to them; it’s not a high priority for them, even though there is a value associated with these shopping carts – it is not a high priority for most of the businesses…at the end of the day, these shopping carts are an annoyance, they impact the quality of life of several members of our community and I think we have the responsibility to take some form of action which is to direct administration to look into this further to find out what is working, what is not working and correct it,” he said.
However, several councillors disagreed it is a problem in the city and questioned whether it’s fair to penalize businesses for theft from their properties.
Councillor Jeff Carlson said he hasn’t heard the same concerns as Middleton-Hope adding “the owners of the carts are responsible for them, there is a service, there is an active cart pickup service. I think that what I heard today is we’re trying to address a problem that really doesn’t exist.”
He added ” I think the solution is already there. Call a cart pickup company, call a company owner and say your cart’s on my property – come pick it up.”
Councillor Rajko Dodic supported the motion because he said the first clause in the motion did speak to talking to businesses which need to take responsibility for their carts ending up where they shouldn’t be. He added there is an easy fix such as making carts accessible only by inserting a coin into a device on the cart, like some businesses have.
“The first thing is sort of educating the owner – you have to take responsibility but if you ignore that responsibility and it turns out that we have to respond to complaints from citizens to deal with these carts to be cleaned, stored and returned then they might potentially have to pay those costs instead of taxpayers who had nothing to do with those carts ending up where they are.
“If we look at shopping carts what do we look at next,?” asked deputy mayor Jenn Schmidt-Rempel.
Schmidt-Rempel added ” the work here is already being done. We’re already investigating the lockers and the potential for those, 311 has an answer to anyone who calls, there is a company here picking carts up and returning them.
“And I really have an issue charging businesses for the return of their stolen or recovered properties. To me without consulting with those businesses, to give them an opportunity to find a solution, it seems unfair,” said the deputy mayor adding she agrees with Dodic that businesses should take responsibility for their property.
“But do we start charging residents for the return of their property next? Of their stolen property? Are we charging a kid to have his bike returned to him? I don’t think we will,” she said.

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