City councillor wants province to legalize private e-scooter use by end of 2023

Until he was told Monday while using it to commute to work, Juan Dominguez was unaware the e-scooter he purchased recently is illegal to ride.

“I didn’t know that,” Dominguez said while stopped at Const. Ezio Faraone Park, located on the north end of Edmonton's High Level Bridge.

Privately owned e-scooters are not regulated in Alberta and are therefore not allowed to be used on roads or sidewalks, according to the province’s ministry of transportation.

E-scooters that are available for rent, however, are allowed to be used in Edmonton and Calgary because ride-share companies that offer them received an exemption. There are two companies that offer e-scooters for rent in Edmonton, Lime and Bird, both which started operating in the city in 2019.

“When we allowed ride sharing for e-scooters, we had to get an exemption from the province to allow e-scooter companies to be able to operate,” said Andrew Knack, city councillor for Ward Nakota Isga. “I think this is just something where the legislation was built at a time where that wasn’t contemplated.”

Dominguez bought his e-scooter four or five days ago as an alternative to taking the bus.

“It actually saves me a lot of time,” he said of the e-scooter, which takes him to his job in 20 minutes instead of the hour it used to take by bus.

He said he doesn’t expect to be stopped by police for using his now-daily transportation, which he says has a top speed of 30 km/hour.

“We’re really not doing anything wrong unless we’re doing something illegal, of course,” he said “Other than that, I don’t think (drawing police attention) is going to happen.”

Knack said he would like to see the province change legislation by the end of the year to allow people to legally operate their own e-scooters. He added he expects a speed-limit will be placed on them once they are legalized.

“To me, this feels like more of a red tape reduction situation than any type of significant policy debate,” he said. “I don’t foresee a scenario where you’ll start introducing licence plates or anything like that. I think it’s just about updating our existing bylaw to say 'let's allow private e-scooters at the same time.'”

The province is expected to review the legislation this fall.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach