“Weaponized” codes of conduct to get the axe: MLA Hunter

Posted on May 1, 2025 by Ryan Dahlman

By Trevor Busch
Commentator/Courier
editor@tabertimes.com

With the province responding to what it terms the “weaponized” use of municipal Codes of Conduct, upcoming changes to the Municipal Government Act will eliminate this process of accountability.

Amendments to be made through the Municipal Statutes Amendment Act are intended “to modernize and streamline municipal processes in the Local Authorities Election Act, the Municipal Government Act (MGA) and the New Buyer Protection Act.”

Not only excising the requirement for formal codes of conduct, the change will also prevent municipal councils from developing their own codes.

“The problem that we saw is that some – and not all, but some – of them were weaponizing the Code of Conduct regulations, and they were picking out people they didn’t like, counsellors they didn’t like,” said Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter in his explanation of the reason for the change. “That doesn’t happen often, but it was happening, and so we thought it’s important to remind people that these are duly elected individuals and that the public are the ones who should be able to take them out, not other disgruntled council members. And so that’s the reason why we made the change. The vast majority of Councils work very well. People are professional. They treat each other with respect and civility. But there have been enough experiences or enough examples of councils going after individual counsellors that we had to make this change.”

Although the province and Hunter were careful not to single out any individual municipal councils that have engaged in this kind of behaviour, it would be hard to conclude that the recent example of the City of Medicine Hat involved in a very public dispute between the mayor and council was not on Edmonton’s radar.

 “The mechanism that we have, if the public is not happy about a counsellor, then there is recall legislation that we brought forward, and so that is the mechanism that the public will have the ability to say, ‘No, we’re not happy with what you’re doing’,” said Hunter. “Obviously the ministry is going to be working with these councils that are struggling, and they work with the Ministry on a regular basis, so they will be doing that and hopefully it can be worked out in that way. Rather than this – it’s been very public, these councils going after individual councillors.”

Citing “mistrust, dysfunction and failure to serve Albertans” as key impacts from “weaponizing” codes of conduct, Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver is also examining the creation of an independent ethics commissioner for municipalities.

“So then you have kind of an arm’s length independent ethics person that if you’ve got a grievance, you can take it to that person,” said Hunter. “And they can arbitrate, and help move them in the right direction, which is back to civil discourse, professional discourse. That’s really what the goal is, right? You can have a disagreement, but we can agree to disagree. Adults do that on a regular basis. The problem is that there has been a lack of civility in some of these councils, and politics in general is moving towards that. And so we do not want to have legislation weaponized against people that maybe a group of people don’t like, that’s really what this is all about.”

Another amendment under the provincial legislation is intended to strengthen protection for builders and buyers of new homes. The province says the act would safeguard the investments in homes by enhancing protections to ensure those homes are built to meet safety and construction standards.

One aspect of his government’s approach to home regulations doesn’t sit well with Hunter, who feels market forces should always dictate the need. 

“So the new home warranty, they tweaked that. I will be completely honest with you, I’m not a big fan of the new home warranty program. If people want to buy a home, they make buying decisions – a big, big buying decision. But some people are like, ‘you know, price is going to matter to me. I want I want price and quality’. But you know, price is really the most important thing – I’m spending $400,000 – $600,000 on this thing. I want warranty. And so what we’re doing is we’re saying that if a company, or if a person wants to build a place like an owner-builder, then they don’t want to pay the new home warranty and go through that red tape, they cannot sell that house that they built for 10 years. Anyways, I’ve kind of gone back and forth with the minister on this one, I’m not in favour of the new home warranty. If people are interested in having a warranty, then businesses will provide that – we don’t have to mandate that from the provincial government.”

Also advocating a market approach to identifying so-called “bad actors” throughout the home building industry, Hunter says those doing poor or shady work gain a reputation for that pretty quickly.

“We said you have to have this new home warranty, which most people that I talk to say they’re very upset with. Now, with the changes he’s made is that he’s saying that companies that are bad actors will have to prove that they know the trade. So I don’t know how that’s all going to roll out; it will roll out more in regulations. I think it’s going the other direction – again, if people are bad actors, they’re usually taken out of the market quite quickly. If there’s a person who’s a bad actor – I think the best way to determine who’s a bad actor is let the market decide, right? Just like we do with every other thing that we sell. If you’re a bad actor, you don’t get to sell you stuff.”