Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver wished former Calgary city councillor Richard Pootmans the best after he resigned from city council. While McIver did not have any direct knowledge on why Pootmans made this decision, he said he has “served Calgarians and by extension Albertans to the best of his ability over several years on municipal council, and I know as well as anybody does that comes with some personal sacrifice.” “So I think I would like to join other people in thanking Richard Pootmans for his service to the people of Calgary and wish him all the best in whatever comes next,” said McIver at a Wednesday press scrum. Pootmans stepped down from Calgary city council effective immediately on Tuesday..Calgary Ward 6 councillor Richard Pootmans stepping down immediately.City of Calgary Chief Administrative Officer David Duckworth confirmed his resignation after a closed-door meeting of city councillors, who said his decision was for family and personal reasons without elaborating.Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said city council was processing the news and thanked him for his 10 years of service on it. McIver followed up by saying when he was on Calgary city council and it had to deal with vacancies, councillors would get together and share the workload. “Usually one or two other councillors will get together and kind of take primary responsibility,” he said. “I suspect the Calgary council will responsibly make some decision as a team on that, and the people from Ward Six will get representation.” Of course, he said Gondek represents all Calgarians, so they will always have her representation. McIver reprised his Dr. No ways from his time on Calgary city council and shot down the possibility of municipalities letting non-Canadian permanent residents vote in their elections in April..Ric 'Dr. No' McIver says Alberta government will not approve of non-Canadians voting in civic elections .“Only citizens of Canada can vote in municipal elections,” he said. “That will not be changing.”
