Alberta’s Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver says he doesn’t have the authority to take away controversial Calgary Coun. Sean Chu amid allegations of inappropriate contact with a minor.
In an announcement despatched out late Friday afternoon, McIver mentioned he requested for professional recommendation on what choices he had as a minister below the Municipal Authorities Act to take away a duly elected member of a municipal council.
The Calgary-based legislation agency Brownlee LLP was employed because the exterior agency to evaluation the act.
“Whereas the minister of municipal affairs has supervisory jurisdiction over municipalities, the minister doesn’t have authority to easily take away a councillor from workplace below the laws, notably for occasions that passed off earlier than a councillor was elected,” the information launch acknowledged.
If McIver did need to dismiss Chu, there could be seven prerequisite steps that might have to be met below the act.
Although, the inquiry states dismissal of a councillor by the minister is an “extraordinary train of authority that shouldn’t be pursued calmly.”
The letter mentioned the minister might nonetheless order an inquiry or inspection right into a councillor’s conduct; nonetheless, because of the conduct at challenge pre-dating the councillor’s most up-to-date oath of workplace, the legislation agency states, “the minister just isn’t ready to intervene with a view to dismissing a democratically elected councillor.”
“If the minister determined to intervene in such circumstances, there’s a robust danger that such a call could be topic to a profitable software for judicial evaluation as an act outdoors of the minister’s authority,” the letter mentioned.
Chu got here below hearth following a CBC story published on Oct. 15 — the Friday earlier than municipal election day — alleging impropriety with a minor whereas he was a Calgary Police Service officer in 1997.
At an Oct. 21 press convention concerning the allegations, Chu confirmed that he supposed to make this time period — his third — his final, a promise from a discover of movement he endorsed final time period.
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