INNISFAIL – The provincial government wants to repeal municipalities’ code of conduct bylaws but Innisfail's mayor wants them replaced with new rules that are out of councils' hands and away from chief administrative officers.
On April 8, Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver introduced Bill 50, the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, that calls for a number of legislative changes, most notably the elimination of mandatory municipal codes of conduct that was first introduced by the province in 2015.
The province is also looking into formalizing rules around party finances in local elections and creating guidelines around under what conditions it can use to amend or repeal a municipal bylaw.
The Town of Innisfail approved its Council Code of Conduct Bylaw in 2018.
McIvor said at a press conference on April 8 that there has been an issue of weaponization with the mandatory bylaw with some municipal elected official has become targets.
"Most municipalities get along just fine and behave well and serve their citizens without a whole bunch of interpersonal drama," said McIver at the news conference on April 8.
"But there's been more than enough instances of people using the bylaws as weapons, weaponizing them, if you will, and they're trying to silence people that disagree with them that are on council."
Barclay believes Innisfail’s Council Code of Conduct Bylaw has worked well for the town over the past seven years as its goal was to keep elected officials accountable.
“We should have a code of conduct bylaw because people need to be held to account, and there needs to be expectations of behaviour,” said Barclay.
However, the mayor also believes the bylaw has a had its drawbacks.
“We had a third party who did the investigations but even so it's still uncomfortable because it's council that needs to decide whether to move forward, and then it's council that needs to decide on sanctions,” said Barclay. “Getting that out of council's hands and away from our CAO I think is a good move, and I just hope that there is something that the province puts in place and not removing it completely.
“I can't say I'm disappointed right now because I don't know what it's being replaced with,” added the mayor. “I would be disappointed if it's replaced with absolutely nothing but I'm hopeful it will be replaced with something better and more of an independent process away from local government councils when it comes to code of conduct issues.”
McIver did say at the press conference he’s proposing an external third party and its his preference to consult with municipalities on establishing common practices for municipal councils and an independent ethics commissioner to address ethics matters involving electing council members.
