DANIELLE SMITH v. LUNATIC “UPZONERS”
Thankfully, Danielle Smith got the message from her constituents. Bill 18 and Bill 20, expressly clarifying the power of the province to remove mayors and councils acting contrary to the public will and the public interest is an excellent step in the right direction. Looney left mayors and councilors need to be reminded that the Premier of Alberta, not the World Economic Forum, leads the elected government of Alberta.
Unelected civic bureaucrats also need to be told that the WEF and their neo-feudal, 15 minute city, high density, containment zones have no place in urban planning in Alberta.
It is clear from the public hearings and the written submissions on the Trudeau-Gondek “upzoning” scheme that the vast majority of Calgarians are opposed to the plan. Given the support for the Trudeau-Gondek scheme from foreign students, BC residents, and other paid actors who have little or nothing thoughtful to say, it’s no wonder that Gondek and her communist cabal want to extend the municipal voting franchise to non-citizen “residents”. Only the ill-informed with no long history of living and investing in Calgary neighborhoods could support a plan that seems entirely premised on sticking it to the “comfortably housed”.
From a purely legal perspective, municipal governments have no real constitutional status. Municipal governments only exist and take form under the provincial Municipal Government Act. Ignoring the electoral backlash, it would be within the jurisdiction of a Provincial Government to legislate elected Mayors and Councilors out of existence and replace them with provincially appointed mayors and councils. As we saw recently with Chestermere, the Minister of Municipal Affairs has the authority to remove mayors and councilors if they are deemed to be acting contrary to the public interest. Regardless of whatever side of the Chestermere issue you may be on, the simple fact of the matter is that the authority to remove Mayors and Councils exists under the current legislation. All Bill 18 does is provide a more robust and transparent framework as to how that power can be exercised.
Danielle Smith needs to be lauded and praised for taking the step of clarifying how this power will be exercised. The Nenshis and Gondeks of the world need to be told without equivocation that control of a municipal government does not give you the authority to impose soviet style planning decisions on Albertans without the provincial government removing you from office.
All of that being said, Mayors and Councils need to be reminded that they only exercise delegated provincial authority under the Municipal Government Act. When they pretend that they are a unique constitutional order of government equal in authority to the Province they are completely out of their lane from a legal perspective. Jyoti Gondek completely exceeded her authority when she entered into an agreement with the benighted Justin Trudeau to destroy beloved Calgary neighborhoods on the basis of a $200,000,000 plus bribe from Trudeau. The Trudeau-Gondek deal will require the province to incur massive costs beyond the $200,000,000 to give effect to all of the infrastructure upgrades that will be required to bring “upzoning” to fruition against the overwhelming wishes of Calgarians. It is for this reason that Gondek and her communist cabal on the city council need to be removed from office.
Federal-Provincial agreements are NOT within the purview of Mayors, municipal councilors or unelected municipal bureaucrats. Agreements with the Federal Government pertaining to the expenditure of public funds are within the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the Government of Alberta.
Jyoti Gondek needs to be reminded in the context of the authority that she and her council have that their authority in relation to the province is not one of equality or even a circumstance where a constitutional “division of powers” exists. The relationship from a legal perspective is much more analogous to a “student council” and a high school principal. The principal delegates authority to the student council to organize dances and school clean-up campaigns but the student council has no real authority to affect the lives of students that isn’t expressly delegated to it by the principal.
Bill 18 and Bill 20 is a good first step. Premier Smith needs to continue to pass legislation to roll back the power of the administrative state. It is time for Premier Smith to pass an amendment to the Alberta Interpretation Act making it clear that property rights in Alberta are substantive and not merely “procedural”. Judges need to be reminded that power over “property and civil rights in a province” is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the province of Alberta under s. 92(13) of the Constitution Act 1867. Premier Smith needs to continue to make it clear through legislation that Federal interference with property rights in Alberta, be it firearms, gas- or diesel-powered cars, trucks, or the very zoning of our homes will not be tolerated.
Jeffrey R.W. Rath B.A. (Hons.), LL.B. (Hons.)
Foothills, Alberta
May 10th, 2024