Calgary Bears: Your green cart is a death sentence

[CALGARY, AB] — Spring is here, and so are the bears. Ward 6 Councillor John Pantazopoulos is sounding the alarm this week, reminding Calgarians that warmer temperatures don't just bring longer days — they bring wildlife back into our neighbourhoods, and the stakes are real.

Why Your Green Cart Could Be the Problem

Bears are opportunistic. A unsecured bin, a fruit tree, an uncleaned BBQ — that's a free meal, and once a bear finds one, it stops being afraid of your street. Pantazopoulos posted the warning Tuesday, noting that attracting wildlife into neighbourhoods poses a risk to both humans and the animals themselves.

Calgary learned this the hard way. In October 2022, a black bear sow and three cubs were euthanized after repeatedly raiding waste bins in Discovery Ridge. Four bears died because of unsecured garbage. That incident directly prompted City Council to unanimously pass waste bylaw amendments in September 2023.

The Rules in Your Neighbourhood (and the Fine If You Ignore Them)

Under those bylaw changes, the City can designate temporary "wildlife-affected areas" with strict rules: black bins can't go out before 5 a.m. and must be retrieved by 7 p.m. on collection days. Outside those windows, they must be stored in a secured enclosure. City of Calgary Waste and Recycling Services enforces this — and the math on non-compliance is straightforward. Proposed fines range from $250 to $1,000 per violation.

That's not a slap on the wrist. That's a car payment.

While the City Tightens Rules, the Province Is Loosening Others

Here's where it gets complicated. At the same moment Calgary is trying to reduce human-wildlife conflict, the province is moving in a different direction. Since June 2024, the Alberta government has amended the Wildlife Act to allow licensed hunters to kill "problem" grizzlies. August 2025 brought further changes: dogs can now be used to hunt black bears in select Wildlife Management Units, and baiting rules were relaxed. In late 2025, Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen stated the government is considering lifting Alberta's grizzly bear hunting ban — in place since 2006 — citing a surge in attacks.

The numbers do back up that concern. Grizzly bear attacks in Canada hit 11 between 2020 and 2025 — more than double any previous full decade on record.

The Population Problem Nobody Has Good Data On

Before you feel comfortable about any of this, consider: the most recent publicly available grizzly bear population estimate for Alberta is from 2021, putting the count between 865 and 973 individuals. That's a five-year-old snapshot being used to make decisions in 2026. Meanwhile, the provincial Hunting and Angling program budget is being cut from a 2025-26 forecast of $16.711 million down to $12.807 million for 2026-27 — a reduction of nearly $4 million at the exact moment wildlife management is becoming more complex, not less.

Bears are being spotted in Calgary-area neighbourhoods they haven't inhabited in over a century. Urban expansion keeps pushing the boundary further into their territory. And Alberta Fish and Wildlife remains the frontline agency responding to dangerous wildlife sightings — with a shrinking budget to work with.

What You Can Actually Do This Weekend

The City's guidance is clear and costs you nothing: secure your bins, clean your grill, take down bird feeders for the season, and pick up fallen fruit from your yard. These aren't suggestions — they're the difference between a bear passing through and a bear that has to be put down.

Four animals paid with their lives in Discovery Ridge because of a garbage can. The city wrote a bylaw about it. The province is rewriting the rules on what happens after. Right now, the cheapest and most effective tool in this whole system is a bungee cord on your green cart.