EDMONTON — Association of Alberta Municipalities President Dylan Bressey defended local governments on Wednesday, saying that he does not think municipal governments in Alberta have a transparency problem. "Municipalities are the most open order of government," said Bressey to reporters at the municipalities association's convention. "We don't make a single decision without debating it in a public council meeting, where residents are welcome to attend and see the debate for themselves." .Premier Danielle Smith spoke at the convention on Wednesday, where she discussed changes the UCP government may make to the Municipal Government Act. The premier said some Albertans have raised concerns about municipal governments having closed-door policy discussions before voting on the matter publicly. Smith said provincial governments are often privately briefed on matters, but they rarely discuss them or pass motions behind closed doors. She suggested that her government may need to place similar regulations at the municipal level. "We want to make sure that you have the full information that you need, but that you're also conducting business in public because we have to do that too," Smith said. "We can't pass things secretly. We have to make sure that we're transparent about the things that we're doing." .The issue of transparent discussion at a municipal level gained headway in Alberta over recent weeks after Calgary city councillor Landon Johnson called for Minister of Municipal Affairs Dan Williams to review the council's use of closed meeting and confidentiality powers. Johnson wrote the letter to Williams after leaking a confidential document from a prior closed-door meeting that showed a potential 20% property tax increase to cover the $510 million in funding requests submitted to Calgary's city council. The Western Standard asked Bressey about Smith's comments regarding municipal transparency, and he resisted her assertion. "There are times where we need to go in camera to receive information that provincial legislation doesn't allow us to publicly share, but councils do use that in camera time judiciously and in ways that are both appropriate and legal," Bressey said. "So, I don't think we've got a transparency issue in this province." "We're an order of government where every decision gets made in a public meeting. I can't say that's the same for cabinet decisions at both the provincial and federal levels."
