Edmonton explores changes to public spaces bylaw, as advocates argue it ‘criminalizes poverty’

The City of Edmonton is looking into changing its public spaces bylaw.

The existing bylaw, which came into effect last year, added fines for things like spitting or using drugs in public, panhandling by roads, pitching a tent, or loitering on transit.

At city hall, many city administrators said the bylaw is working as intended.

Some members of the public who attended a council meeting Monday disagreed. They say the rules hurt homeless Edmontonians more than others.

“I did call it an anti-poor bylaw because it really targets and criminalizes poverty, and I just had to come as someone who’s been working with the impoverished and the homeless for well over 15 years now,” said Daniel Johnstone, an anti-poverty activist widely known as Can Man Dan.

“I was literally begging council today to make those changes because we really need change right now.”

Also speaking to city council, Judith Gale said it was “unconscionable that we do this to the very vulnerable people of our city.”

“The police leave the people sleeping alone on the concrete, but if they put up a tent or if they put up a blanket as a makeshift tent, or even if they use a walker and put their jacket over their walker and crawl under their walker, that’s an encampment,” she said.

Recently released city data showed a spike in trespassing tickets to people with no fixed address on public transit, including during the winter.

There were more than 18,000 warnings handed out between May 2025 and May 2026 – a 350 per cent increase. Tickets more than doubled, to 563.

Erin Rutherford, councillor for Ward Anirniq, told CityNews she does not think the bylaw is working.

“Because we were very clear on not wanting to disproportionately impact folks that are unhoused,” Rutherford said. “We heard the idea of maybe do we need an extreme weather overlay. Administration says no, they’ll already do that, but we heard that a lot of those tickets were issued during extreme weather events.”

City shelters were more than 90 per cent full last winter, and over 100 per cent occupied on 12 freezing nights, according to data obtained by the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association.

CityNews asked Edmontonians how they feel when they’re out in public spaces – if they feel safer than last year – and the results were mixed.

“No, not at all,” one person said.

“Yeah, I mean, definitely I would say yes,” said another.

“No, I think it’s probably about the same,” said a third.

–With files from Lauren Boothby