Alberta cabinet ministers vow municipal conduct reforms, recovery communities at conference

Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver said the government will be strengthening municipal codes of conduct to make it easier to punish unethical politicians. “We have been listening to politicians on this issue,” said McIver at a Friday panel at the Alberta Municipalities Spring 2024 Municipal Leaders Caucus. “And you were right on the nature of these issues.” A few years ago, McIver told Alberta Municipalities Municipal Leaders Caucus attendees about reforming codes of conduct and they booed him. Even though he was booed first, he said he will always listen to municipal politicians’ concerns. While he would reform codes of conduct, he said he is unsure about establishing an independent integrity commissioner. However, he said he would bring up the idea because municipal politicians have asked about it. Right now, he said Alberta has many ethical municipal politicians. When it comes to codes of conduct, he said they “need these things to be used to deal with the exceptions when people actually behave badly and not as a weapon just because two councillors or a councillor and a mayor really disagree.” McIver said changes will be made to this legislation soon. Under the changes, he predicted they will make it better, take away the weaponization of them and provide a way to have the minority of bad politicians held accountable. He acknowledged most of the bad politicians were likely not in the room. If the good politicians want to see changes on this front, he said they should speak with him. Alberta Mental Health and Addictions Minister Dan Williams became emotional when speaking about the increase in funding his ministry has received since 2019. “This government takes incredibly seriously this crisis around addiction and this crisis people face in their homes with mental health challenges,” said Williams. “On this piece, particularly around overdoses, the metric we need to look at is are we getting people treatment.” Williams pointed out addiction ends in one of two ways. The first way is pain, misery and death. However, the second way is treatment, recovery and a second lease on life. While overdose deaths are preventable, he said safe consumption sites on every street corner are not the path forward. The Alberta government has opened two out of 11 recovery communities. It has created 10,000 mental health and addiction treatment spaces per year since 2019. By opening recovery communities, he said they will provide people with a high quality of care. If people want this quality of care in British Columbia, they have to go to a private operator and spend $10,000 to $20,000 per month for it. In Alberta, recovery communities are free. He joked about how he was “getting as close as I can to breaking infrastructure laws to build these things as quickly as possible.” Williams concluded by saying Grande Prairie will have an announcement soon. He said the government is stepping up to help indigenous communities combat addictions.

Alberta cabinet ministers vow municipal conduct reforms, recovery communities at conference

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