Let’s address that code of conduct void, rural leader tells province
What’s next for codes of conduct? It’s a question rural municipalities want the province to answer. Alamy stock photo
Published on Sep 08, 2025 at 12:13
By George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Unresolved issues surround a new provincial act that eliminates council codes of conduct, the president of the association representing rural municipalities said in advance of the fall sitting of the Alberta legislature.
Kara Westerlund, a Brazeau County councillor and the president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta, said amendments made through Bill 50 require ongoing talks between the RMA and the government.
“There’s been some consultation, but we strongly believe that there needs to be more, especially around the dramatic changes in Bill 50 and the direction it seems to be going in,” said Westerlund, who lives in the county about 130 kilometres southwest of Edmonton
She added that the province was not necessarily wrong in ditching the old codes of conduct. Reviews of the move among member municipalities were a “mixed bag.”
But high on the RMA list of needs from the province is the filling of a void the elimination created, Westerlund said, perhaps with an independent ombudsperson all municipalities can turn to.
Bill 50 received royal assent on May 15 as the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendments Act 2025. Among its amendments to three existing acts, the new law eliminates mandatory codes of conduct for municipal councillors and forbids councils from implementing their own.
It also altered the roles of chief administrative officers and other official administrators employed by municipalities. It changed rules surrounding intermunicipal relationships and updated protections for new home buyers. And it clarified and updated local election rules while improving voter accessibility for people with disabilities and people displaced by wildfires.
The province said codes of conduct were sometimes weaponized for political purposes or to muzzle councillors with unpopular opinions.
Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams told The Macleod Gazette he’s investigating mechanisms councils can use to “solve their problems locally when untoward or unethical behaviours are happening amongst council members.”
Whatever that mechanism is, it won’t be a potential instrument for engaging in political attacks and stifling opposition, the minister said.
“If there’s a council or council member out there waiting for a new code of conduct that will allow them to censor someone else’s legitimate political speech, then they’re going to be holding their breath a very long time,” Williams said.
He did not commit to creating a provincial ombudsperson-like position.
The member for Peace River, Williams took over the municipal affairs portfolio in May. He was shuffled from mental health and addiction to fill a spot left open by the assembly’s election of Ric McIver as speaker.
Westerlund wants the province to make sure that any replacement for the codes does not perpetuate two big problems: local legal costs and the tricky role chief administrative officers were asked to play.
Many municipalities faced “massive legal bills, because they were technically fighting both sides of a disagreement.”
Her own municipality, Brazeau County, absorbed costs in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars dealing with some of these issues that never came to fruition.”
Then there’s chief administrative officers being placed in the crossfire of their employers. CAOs report to their councils, and only their councils hire and fire them.
“When you have the CAO in charge of investigations — and I’m (using) sarcasm here — what could possibly go wrong with that?” said Westerlund. “I was going to say it’s awkward, but it’s not even that. It’s an absolutely awful situation they were being placed in.”
Back when Bill 50 was introduced, the then-minister expressed a similar sentiment.
“The poor CAO depends upon the council to keep their job. It’s just not fair to have that person forced to referee things among their bosses,” Ric McIver said in early April. “So I think it’s an obvious area of fairness.”
McIver also said then that the act allows for the creation of an independent ethics commissioner to deal with council conduct.
The RMA, which represents 69 counties, municipal districts and other unurbanized municipalities, holds its fall convention Nov. 17-20 at the Edmonton Convention Centre. The current provincial legislative session is set to resume Oct. 27.