Municipalities want province to create independent integrity office

Brett McKay,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Alberta’s municipal leaders say code of conduct investigations put councillors in a difficult position with peers and the public, and they are asking the province to establish an Independent Office of Integrity to take over the responsibility.

Since 2018, Alberta has required municipal councils to have code of conduct bylaws. Local administrations are currently responsible for hiring and co-ordinating third-party investigators, a process they say can divide councils and burden taxpayers with additional expenses.

At the Alberta Municipalities convention in Red Deer last week, members voted to advocate to the province to establish a central office to investigate code of conduct breaches and recommend disciplinary actions.

“Anybody that has had one of these code of conduct (investigations) happen in their municipality knows full well it creates conflict, they are costly to deal with, they create anxiety among council, and it can be weaponized,” Rocky Mountain House Councillor Len Phillips said when introducing the resolution at the convention on Sept. 26.

While councillors can’t be fired by a municipality, they can be removed from committees and barred from some meetings. Councillors who have faced code of conduct charges say the process is open to misuse.

In May, Cochrane town council imposed sanctions on councillor Marni Fedeyko for allegedly violating confidentiality sections of the town’s code of conduct, even though the investigator hired by council found the allegations to be unsubstantiated.

Sanctions imposed on the mayor of Medicine Hat and a Wheatland County councillor were overruled by the Alberta Court of King’s Bench this year, with judges concluding in both cases the council’s decisions were unreasonable.

Lac La Biche County Councillor Lorin Tkachuck said having an independent integrity office would allow the various municipal bylaws to be enforced consistently and fairly throughout the province and help clarify ambiguous aspects of municipal governance documents.

“Every person is dealing with code of conduct complaints differently. Internally on council, I know it’s difficult when you have to judge your peers on a complaint that may come in. I think having somebody that is trained and is going to be doing it with continuity across the board is definitely a benefit,” Tkachuck said.

“It creates animosity on council when a code of conduct comes through and you have to lay a judgment one way or the other. Or it can affect the public’s view on council if they feel a code of conduct wasn’t acted upon as strictly as they would have liked to see it.”

Coralee Schindel, deputy mayor of the Village of Hussar, spoke in favour of the resolution during the Alberta Municipalities convention in Red Deer, noting that it can be intimidating for residents in small towns to bring complaints to council.

“Our community has mentioned that they feel they cannot step forward and even lodge complaints when they have them being that they feel there will be repercussions for that individual in a small community,” Schindel said.

Having an independent integrity office handle the complaints would help restore constituents confidence in administrators and council, she said.

Brett McKay,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
St. Albert Gazette