BANFF – Councillor Peter Poole avoided serious repercussions on his breach of privacy legislation.
During a meeting behind closed doors on Monday (May 13), council reviewed the first-term councillor’s mistake in using a resident’s email he obtained through his position as an elected official.
Poole fought to have the entire matter dealt with in public, and following lengthy in-camera discussions, council publicly made a decision to make the expectations even clearer for councillors when receiving confidential information.
“I believe that the wording we currently have when we a have a confidential matter come before us is already very strong,” said Mayor Karen Sorensen.
“But going over suggestions with administration as to how these matters be dealt with, I thought this was the most appropriate fit to assure that this doesn’t happen again.”
One of the issues centred on Poole sharing Town of Banff news to an email list he had assembled that included an address of a resident who had applied for a position with a Town committee.
When he learned he had breached the resident’s privacy under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act, he immediately apologized and he took the person’s name and email off his list.
“I understand that that is incorrect and I won’t do that again,” said Poole.
“Since using that email incorrectly I apologized to that person directly, and further, I promptly took the online course about protecting citizen’s private contact information.”
In addition, Poole was under scrutiny for an incident in which a Town of Banff employee indicated they felt the councillor was giving direction. Details on this incident are not known and remain confidential.
In his role as a volunteer with a community group, Coun. Poole said he offered his “unsolicited opinion” to a town employee.
“From the perspective of the Town of Banff employee, speaking about a municipal matter with a citizen might just be a conversation; however, when it’s a town councillor that conversation might feel like direction or even pressure,” he said.
“I apologize to said Town of Banff employee and will make every effort to restrict my communication to such employees and direct my communication through the channel of the town manager.”
Poole went on to apologize to his council colleagues for dragging them into this and any “dismay” he has caused.
Coun. Grant Canning said he’s happy the issue has now been dealt with, noting he believes FOIP issues are particularly serious.
“At the end of the day, the seven of us are keepers of the public trust and it’s erosion of that trust that is most concerning to me,” he said.
Corrie DiManno voiced support for the course of action being taken by council. An appropriate response on Poole’s FOIP breach will also be drafted for the resident involved.
“I want the public, our community and the affected person of the FOIP breach to know that we take this very seriously,” she said.
“While I do appreciate Coun. Poole’s efforts to apologize to the affected person and to all of council, we also have to really affirm to the public that we can be trustworthy and that we will protect their information.”
Poole has called on the Town to draw up a code of conduct bylaw for council as required under the Municipal Government Act. Work on this already started before the recent conduct issues.
“A lack of a code of conduct bylaw is not any excuse for my having misused that email of the resident,” he said.
“The forthcoming code of conduct bylaw may go some way to clarify those ‘electric fences’ we, as councillors, are not supposed to cross.”
In an emailed statement, Municipal Affairs Minister Kacee Madu said it’s important for people to know that all elected officials are held to a certain standard in how they work and how they interact with one another, staff and the residents they serve.
She said municipalities are required to have a council code of conduct in place.
“These codes would include direction on things like confidential information, improper use of influence and disrespectful interactions with the public or staff,” she said. “The code of conduct bylaw can also include sanctioning councillors.”
