Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is once again defending controversial legislation which would give the province sweeping powers over municipalities, this time, by saying it could be used to stop non-citizens from voting in Calgary.
The Alberta government introduced Bill 20, the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, which would give cabinet power to fire city councillors and overturn bylaws. The proposed legislation comes as Calgary City Council passed a motion to allow non-citizens to vote in municipal elections last week.
Smith said that in “rare circumstances” the province needs to take a second look at city decisions that are unconstitutional or fall outside a municipality’s responsibility.
“That is simply not appropriate nor within their authority,” Smith said of Calgary’s motion to allow non-citizens to vote.
“Bill 20 will provide the province with a tool to deal with these rare but serious examples of municipal overreach.”
Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver has already said he won’t change rules to allow non-citizens to vote, but Smith’s statement comes as the Alberta government is playing defence on the controversial bill.
At an unrelated press conference last week, Smith said municipalities receive their authority from the provincial level of government. As the federal government tries to bypass provincial authority, Alberta is using proposed Bill 2o to ensure that Ottawa talks with the province on plans for cities, she said.
“We are taking every mechanism that we need,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, McIver said amendments will be made and that he will work with municipalities to appease their concerns. He also said that cabinet would only fire a city councillor as a “last resort” and that changing city bylaws would “not be done lightly.”
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the proposed Bill 20 is unclear because it would allow the province to remove a city councillor if it’s in the “public interest.”
“It’s all unclear, it doesn’t mesh together well. And ‘public interest’ has to be defined very clearly,” Gondek told reporters last week.
