Achi news desk-
The Alberta government has introduced a bill that would give it sweeping powers over municipalities, including the right to fire councillors, overturn bylaws and postpone elections.
The proposed law would also allow political parties to run on municipal ballots in Edmonton and Calgary as soon as next year.
Urban Affairs Minister Ric McIver says the new powers are justified to ensure fair elections and accountability from urban leaders, and would only be used as a last resort.
“My most fervent wish is that this authority is never used. We don’t want to interfere in civic affairs,” McIver told reporters before the bill was introduced in the legislature on Thursday.
He said the criteria for removing councilors would be decided by Premier Danielle Smith’s cabinet on a case-by-case basis.
“I think the public would be very unforgiving of us if we made a decision to dismiss a duly elected councilor without good reason,” said McIver.
Previously, the provincial government’s authority over local bylaws was limited to land use and, more recently, public masking and vaccinations.
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McIver said the province needs the bill to ensure municipalities govern on matters within their jurisdiction.
The bill makes other changes. It would ban the use of electronic voting tables, forcing municipalities to count votes by hand, to better protect the integrity of the vote, McIver said.
“If we can reduce doubt in the public’s confidence about who is declared the winners, we think that rises above all other considerations.”
Municipalities have opposed the move to allow political parties on municipal slates. But McIver said the aim is to strengthen trust in local government.
In the past, Smith has taken aim at the state’s two largest cities, saying in February that single-use plastic bylaws showed city councils had gone off the partisan rails.
“Because they are becoming much more political and much more ideological, we probably need more transparency about that,” he said at the time.
Two weeks ago, Smith’s United Conservative Party government also introduced a bill that would give it the power to veto any agreement between the federal government and provincial entities, including municipalities and post-secondary schools.
& copy 2024 The Canadian Press
