Undermining Local Democracy
Using the phrase ‘undermining local democracy‘ might seem like hyperbole but Bill 20, which was unveiled by the provincial government last week, clearly is designed to take power away from Albertans and centralize it within the provincial government.
Bill 20 is looking to amend the Local Authorities Election Act and the Municipal Government Act. Over the past year, it was rumored that the provincial government was wanting to more formally introduce political parties into local elections. While Bill 20 is making that change only in Calgary and Edmonton, there are many other changes that make local elections across Alberta less fair and transparent.
I’d like to first share a blog by Grande Prairie City Councillor Dylan Bressey: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and the Downright Miserable. His post provides a great summary of the proposed legislation and it’s a great starting point for those who aren’t yet familiar with Bill 20. In this blog I’m going to provide some additional context on some of the concerning changes.
The best place to start is to share the results of the provincial government’s own survey on this topic. I’d encourage you to read all the survey results but here’s one specific question that should be shared.
This clearly shows that Albertans do not want political parties in local elections and the provincial government’s survey results align with other surveys that have been done over the years.
The suggestion by the provincial government is that political parties are going to be ‘piloted’ in Calgary and Edmonton. When overhauling local democracy it seems odd to pilot such major changes in the province’s two largest cities. If you were truly doing a pilot, wouldn’t you try it in a city, town, county, village, and summer village to get a better understanding of how that change would work?
More importantly, piloting massive changes to how local democracy works is a clumsy approach to take. Why not instead take the approach that the City of Edmonton takes when making important decisions like changing ward boundaries: have an independent citizen commission created to engage Albertans and make recommendations.
Another change that Albertans have been clearly opposed to is the reintroduction of corporate and union donations into local elections. Provincial and federal elections do not allow corporations or unions to donate and they were finally banned in the 2021 municipal elections in Alberta. Unfortunately, Bill 20 looks to bring them back even though no one has been asking for that.
There are a few major issues with corporate and union donations.
They provide an advantage to incumbents. This is an important point especially if you don’t like me. It’s much easier to raise money as an incumbent and when a corporation or union can donate, it is even easier to get a lot of money in a short period of time. Here are some real examples:
2010: $64,622.60
2013: $81,294.53
2017: $70,566.39
2021: $37,954.36
That is the amount of money raised by the average winning campaign for Edmonton City Councillor (not Mayor) in each election.
There is a clear difference between 2021, when corporate and union donations were banned, and the other years. This isn't a surprise and it’s why Albertans don’t want big money in local politics.
The other major issue is the lack of transparency. The fact that donations are still not required to be disclosed prior election day is a massive transparency issue. In 2010, I was one of only three candidates to disclose who donated to my campaign prior to election day. Since that election, we have seen more and more candidates in Edmonton proactively take this step but it’s still not a requirement.
When you combine the lack of disclosure requirement with the reintroduction of corporate and union donations, it makes a bad situation worse. Numbered corporations often donate to candidates and while you can complete a corporate registry search, if the donations aren’t required to be disclosed prior to the election, there’s no way to know who is donating to candidates before you vote.
Even if some candidates proactively disclose their donations before election day, it’s not easy for the average Albertan to do a corporate registry search to get that information quickly enough. Therefore, we are left to rely on a depleted local media. Local media in Calgary and Edmonton might have enough resources to get that but if you are outside the two biggest cities, do you really think you’ll get that information in advance of when you vote?
I could write significantly more about this important issue but I’ll wrap up by focusing on the most important part: these changes go directly against what Albertans have been asking for. Albertans want more fair and transparent elections and yet these changes make elections less fair and transparent.
Organizations like Alberta Municipalities have actively reached out to Premier Smith and Minister McIver over the last year offering to work with them to help create legislation that increases transparency, fairness, and accountability. Instead of co-creating legislation that overhauls local democracy with Albertans, they have decided to force their solutions directly on Albertans.
If Bill 20 is approved, your voice will have diminished importance.
Bill 20 has not been approved yet and so you still can speak up to try and change this. I’ll leave you with the calls to action by Councillor Bressey in his blog post.
Contact your MLA, the Minister of Municipal Affairs, and the Premier’s Office to tell them you don’t support this legislation. Those online forms work, but a phone call is better. However, if you call and you get a real person, please remember: that person isn’t a decision maker. So tell them why you disagree with Bill 20 but please be kind to the person on the phone!
Don’t stand for it in the next municipal election. If Bill 20 passes, there are parts that you can stand against as a municipal voter. For example, you might consider asking candidates to refuse corporate and union donations, ask them to disclose their finances prior to the election so you know they did so, and refuse to vote for anyone who won’t commit to these requests. Finally, consider only voting for independent candidates so you know they won’t be answering to the political party they are a part of.
