CANMORE – Canmore’s elected officials hope to task an independent third party when it comes to reviewing complaints against themselves under new code of conduct legislation.
Municipal clerk Cheryl Hyde presented the code of conduct bylaw to council at its April 3 meeting for approval, and it passed all three required readings unanimously.
The requirement for a code of conduct bylaw is the result of changes to the Municipal Government Act that came into effect in 2017, and must be in place for municipalities by July 23, 2018.
Hyde said Canmore is one of the only communities in the province proposing to use an independent third party to investigate complaints made under the new legislation.
“This is a brand new thing for municipalities, so there is no best practice yet,” Hyde said. “We did look at a few different things. We are recommending council use a model where the investigator would be a third-party individual.
“It could be a person or company that would be experienced in mediation and understand how to read a bylaw.”
She said administration felt in terms of having an impartial investigation, a third party was the best way to achieve that. The process set out in the bylaw would require mediation and would use punishment as a last resort.
“The more that can be resolved through mediation the better,” Hyde said. “I think it is really important the process is as public as possible, while still protecting people’s personal information.”
Another area the legislation attempts to give clarity around are conflict of interest rules. Hyde said the MGA is very specific around what an elected official can and cannot declare a pecuniary conflict of interest over and it must financially benefit them, or a family member, directly.
However, she noted if the situation does meet those requirements, a councillor must still vote, even if there is a perceived conflict of interest in general.
For example, she noted in the past there have been concerns around an elected official belonging to a non-profit organization like Rotary, and that group is receiving grant funds. There were concerns around Mayor John Borrowman voting to approve the development of artsPlace because of his background as a local artist.
Hyde said a councillor is still legally required to vote on the motion, as the rules around a pecuniary conflict are not met in that instance.
“The Municipal Government Act is very specific when it comes to this requirement,” she said, “which leaves it to use when deciding on what are conflicts that are not pecuniary.”
The new bylaw sets out that a councillor may take the opportunity to address the issue of a perceived conflict of interest before voting on a motion.
“It is kind of a made in Canmore approach,” she said. “I have not seen it addressed in too many bylaws out there.
“The intent is for council to speak to something that is not covered in the MGA.”
The MGA is very specific in requiring councillors to vote on all motions except where the definition of pecuniary conflict is met. That means elected officials legally cannot abstain from a vote just because there is a perception they might have a competing interest.
Borrowman used Canmore Community Housing Corporation as another example to illustrate the issue. Two members of council sit on its board of directors, but the corporation has in the past also applied for development approvals, like for the new CCHC perpetually affordable housing project in the Lion’s Park area.
He said some members of the community accused him and a fellow councillor of having a conflict of interest because they hold those board positions, when a conflict under the legislation “clearly does not exist.”
Canmore’s existing council governance and respectful workplace policies already address some of the topics set out in the new bylaw, but Borrowman said it is good to have a overarching code of conduct for elected officials, holding their behaviour to a higher standard.
“It adds that extra really significant level of transparency and accountability and of course to some extent I go into this with some trepidation because you don’t know how something is going to play out,” he said.
