Edmonton moves to ban convenience stores from selling knives

Article content

Edmonton is moving towards banning convenience stores from selling knives over time, but no extra money is set aside to enforce the new rules.

City council unanimously agreed Wednesday the municipality should create a bylaw making it illegal for convenience stores to sell knives that aren’t used as cutlery. Municipal workers are tasked with pulling together the finer details and will bring a bylaw to city council to vote on in the coming months.

Article content

Christy Morin, executive director of Arts on the Ave, is excited by the decision Wednesday. There was a “cry for help,” she said, from communities across the city including Alberta Avenue stemming from fears of increased knife violence in the city.

“We couldn’t have heard better news today,” she told reporters at city hall. “What a win. I know that the community is really elated.”

Rolling out the new rules would be staggered across Edmonton’s estimated 500 to 600 convenience stores even after a bylaw passes. Shops will be put into the new category when owners renew their business licences. Some won’t expire for two years.

But Morin is happy. It’s a change she and others have wanted for about 15 years — waiting a few more to see the full rollout is OK with her.

Allan Bolstad, civics director for Alberta Avenue Community League, is also excited. He’s grateful council and city administration are willing to try something new for municipalities in Canada.

“The change starts today in terms of what council did, the message it sends to the community,” he said. “We’re going to see the change in our community. We’re so grateful for that.”

Article content

Article content

Some shops around Alberta Avenue have already stopped selling knives. But Bolstad said it was initially difficult to get that voluntary buy-in early on, even in some cases when there were stabbings nearby.

That’s why, he said, it’s important the city steps in.

“When you look at these particular knives, you realize that they’re designed to hurt and kill people. There’s no other purpose for them,” he told reporters. “This is a very dangerous situation that we have currently in our community that needs to be addressed, first and foremost for the safety of local residents, but also just the image of the area.

“It had to change, and we weren’t getting anywhere by ourselves, and so we needed some support.”

Ward Métis Coun. Ashley Salvador said the community has been asking for this change for a long time. She regularly hears concerns from the public about how easy it is to buy knives, even near schools.

“I think today represents an opportunity to get creative with the tools that we have at the municipal level to directly address the concerns that we’re hearing around knife violence and crime in our communities,” she said during a break in the meeting.

Article content

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said the bylaw will “make it difficult for people to acquire (knives) in that impulsive way when they have a fight with someone.”

“Making it difficult for people to access those knives will help make our community safe.”

Research from the University of Alberta’s injury prevention centre shows the rate of people getting emergency hospital care after being stabbed rose 0.8 per cent every year in the Edmonton Zone each of the last 10 years while the overall trend for Alberta dropped 0.7 per cent each year.

Enforcement limited

Some members of council spoke about how such rules will give bylaw and police officers another enforcement “tool” to deal with rising rates of knife violence.

But city staff warned council on Wednesday that without additional funding the city doesn’t have the resources to proactively enforce a new bylaw.

Lila Peter, director of city development approvals and inspections, told council without adding funding city administration is “limited in what it can achieve.”

“If a complaint were to be received by our enforcement teams, the business could be flagged for further assessment when the licence is due for renewal but enforcement would not be prioritized among the many enforcement files,” she said.

Article content

City staff initially pitched a more comprehensive approach, including education, proactive outreach to businesses, and more enforcement at a cost of $940,000 over multiple years.

Council will vote whether to approve a scaled-back version of this approach at the fall budget cycle for about $188,000 over two years.

Members of the Edmonton Police Service told council they don’t plan on proactively enforcing the bylaw, and they’re looking to the city to use its bylaw officers to enforce bylaws.

Supt. Keith Johnson told reporters EPS supports the idea of a bylaw and anything that increases public safety.

“Our primary focus has always been criminal intervention, but we would like to see the city peace officers and business licensing process take the lead on that particular part of the enforcement,” he said. “Once it reaches something that requires a criminal investigation we of course initiate that, as we do now.”

[email protected]

@laurby

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.

Article content