'Relevant': Edmonton to make city council's financial disclosures public

Article content

Information about Edmonton city council members’ financials meant to reveal and prevent potential conflicts of interest will be made public annually starting next year.

City council voted unanimously without debate last week to update Edmonton’s current disclosure bylaw, changes administrative staff said in a report that support “the city’s commitment to openness, transparency and accountability, while protecting the privacy of non-elected parties.” New rules come into effect January 1, 2025. The city manager will publish council’s financials no later than the last business day of February every year. Councillors’ financial disclosures have been public in Calgary for at least 10 years. Provincial and federal politicians are also required to disclose similar information.

Article content

Council members have been disclosing their financial interests internally to the city manager since at least 2014. City employees could access them, but not the public. But that will soon change — starting next year the public will be able to see names of private companies where council members are a director, officer or shareholder; names of public companies where they have shares and at least 10 per cent of voting rights; names of partnerships or firms where they hold membership; and names of any employers.

The names of council’s immediate family members and romantic partners will continue to be shared with the city manager but not made public.

Campaign disclosures, gifts and benefits disclosures, and council expense reports are available on the city’s website.

Increasing transparency

When asked why he thinks city council passed the bylaw, Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said it’s because Edmontonians expect transparency.

“I think making sure that we continue to disclose our conflicts or private interests to increase that transparency to Edmontonians, it’s important that we continue to follow the rules. It’s very important — Edmontonians expect (that) from us. That’s why we have to continue to look at how we can increase transparency.”

Article content

Article content

Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford said she voted “yes” because it gives the public information while also clarifying what must be kept confidential, such as her children’s names.

“I think it’s a good balance between not having the information that is sensitive (published) … but also making sure people can see whether there are any conflicts or not,” she said.

Ward Karhiio Coun. Keren Tang said the former bylaw was out of date and this is about increasing transparency. “I think the goal of this is to make it a little bit easier (to access).”

Ward pihêsiwin Coun. Tim Cartmell said councillors have been disclosing their interests to the city manager since was elected and he thinks the bylaw is reasonable.

“I’ve never had any objection to it, and this is just a continuation of that same practice,” he said. “I have nothing to hide.

“If someone didn’t want to make a disclosure, I guess I would be curious as to why. I have no trouble with the bylaw, no objection to the bylaw, and I’m happy to disclose which companies that I have an influence on and explain why.”

Public, then private, and public again

Article content

Postmedia asked the city twice previously for copies of council’s annual disclosure forms but the request was denied both in 2021 and again earlier this year. Despite similar information being public in Calgary for at least a decade, and long required for provincial and federal politicians, Postmedia was told earlier this year to file a freedom of information request to access this information about Edmonton city council.

Some councillors who spoke with Postmedia didn’t realize these disclosures weren’t already public.

Tang thought the documents could be viewed at city hall.

Cartmell thought they were online. This was the case in the past, but not since council hired an ethics commissioner and integrity commissioner in late 2018.

Previously available disclosures for 2017 and 2018 were visible online last week, but were removed after the city was asked about them. Those forms included the names of current and former councillors’ family members. Calgary’s public forms do not include family members’ names.

Disclose property owned too, says political scientist

Article content

Political scientist Michael DeMoor, professor at King’s University of Edmonton, said these disclosures are an important public accountability mechanism.

“The fundamental reason to make these things public is the public doesn’t have to simply trust the ethics commissioner to monitor these. The public can do it themselves,” he said. “It’s not just important to avoid conflicts of interest, it’s also important to be seen avoiding them.

“You should know who your representatives are, you should have some idea what their interests are and their values.”

But DeMoor noticed Calgary does something else Edmonton isn’t doing: disclosing neighbourhoods where a councillor owns property. Some Calgary councillors even noted if the property was a rental.

If Calgary can do it, he thinks Edmonton should do the same.

“I think it’s potentially relevant information to voters whether their councillor holds significant interests in, say, the real estate market,” he said.

DeMoor knows there is a risk some people look at the disclosures and see conflicts that don’t exist and “grab onto it in a conspiratorial way.” But overall he thinks it’s information that serves the public.

Article content

“Owning a home is normal, even owning a rental property is not unusual necessarily. Owning stock in a corporation is normal … it’s not a thing that would be surprising,” he said. “Sometimes it can provide ammunition for people making assumptions or insinuations, but on the whole I think that is actually relevant information when you’re interpreting how your city councillor is speaking and voting on an issue.”

He’s curious about the rationale for not disclosing these documents to begin with.

Postmedia asked the city clerk’s office why disclosures were private after 2018 but they did not directly answer the question.

Janice Schroeder, communications director for the city manager’s office, said the bylaw was updated because of changes to Local Authorities Election Act.

lboothby@postmedia.com

@laurby

ks /]

Article content