Like many Albertans, County of Barrhead reeve Doug Drozd was disappointed when he heard about several elected officials, including half a dozen United Conservative Party MLAs, flouting federal and provincial health recommendations to avoid unnecessary travel, especially of the international variety.
On New Year's Day, premier Jason Kenney called a press conference to address the news that Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard and five other UCP MLAs — Tanya Fir, Jeremy Nixon, Pat Rehn, Jason Stephan and Tany Yao — travelled outside the country in recent weeks for warm-weather vacations. Kenney's chief of staff Jamie Huckabay also travelled to the United Kingdom over the holiday break.
Since the news first broke it has been discovered that issues manager Matt Wolfe and Energy Minister Sonya Savage travelled to Saskatchewan and B.C., respectively. Wolfe was staying with his parents, while Savage's office says the minister travelled to B.C. to deal with a maintenance issue at her property outside of Kelowna.
During his New Year's Day press conference, Kenney said he would not sanction the MLAs and other UCP staffers, stating he had not been clear enough about the need to avoid travel.
Three days later, Kenney he announced via Facebook the resignations of Allard and Huckabay and stripped the original five other MLAs of their ministerial or cabinet committee roles.
However, as disappointed as Drozd was in the individuals for not adhering to public health recommendations, he was equally concerned with what Allard's departure could mean for municipalities.
"I am saddened to see [Tracy Allard] leave Municipal Affairs. I think she was a very intelligent, capable minister and I was looking forward to great things from her in the future," he said, adding Allard was instrumental in helping address rural municipalities concerns about potential changes to the linear assessment property tax model. If the change had gone forward, it would have seen municipalities lose a significant portion of their taxation revenue.
Veteran MLA Rick McIver has been named interim Municipal Affairs minister.
Although Drozd was pleased that McIver would be filling Allard's role, he said all indications are that he is taking over Municipal Affairs as an interim measure.
He added the ministry has had a history of instability going through several minister changes.
"With the UCP and previous to that the NDP and the [Progressive Conservatives], it is the most turned over office in government," Drozd said, adding that although the ministry is not considered to be one of the more glamourous portfolios it the one that has the most direct impact on municipalities.
In recent years, the Town of Barrhead and the County of Barrhead have had more dealings with the ministry due to a conflict over recreation operation funding. The conflict was resolved when the ministry ordered binding arbitration resulting in a 10-year recreational services agreement.
More recently, Municipal Affairs has been in the news locally after both Barrhead municipalities ratified their prospective Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework (ICF) agreements and Intermunicipal Development Plans (IDP) with each other.
In June, Whitecourt council asked Municipal Affairs and the premier to consider amalgamating or merging select municipalities creating larger regional centres.
Luckily Drozd said while the ministry's senior minister has seen a lot of turnovers, there has been a lot of stability at the senior manager or bureaucratic levels.
He also noted that Paul Wynnyk, the deputy minister, will also add stability and familiarity to the portfolio. He was appointed in October 2019.
Drozd was asked if he was tempted to comment on the actions of the MLAs or the premier's response as some of his municipal counterparts.
On Jan. 2, Town of Westlock mayor Ralph Leriger tweeted his disappointment of the MLA and political staffer's actions, ending his message by calling for the premier's resignation via the hashtag #ResignKenney. The Town of Slave Lake mayor and council also posted an open letter that can be seen through the municipality's website asking their MLA Pat Rehn to resign citing several reasons why they have lost confidence in his ability to represent them, including multiple trips out of the country during the pandemic.
Drozd did not comment on the MLAs other than to say that they were "smart and capable people who made a mistake and are now suffering the consequences from it" and that hopefully, they have learned from the experience.
He added as a municipal politician, who is also a citizen, it can be difficult to decide on what to comment on, especially via social media, saying they have as much right to comment on something as long as it abides by the Councillor Code of Conduct.
"As the reeve and the official spokesperson of the County of Barrhead, when representing the municipality, I would be sure that I had the support of council," Drozd said. "As an individual, I can weigh-in on anything I feel strongly about, but that being said, on my own social media platforms I limit myself to those that impact the municipality and I do my best to stay positive."
The Leader also reached out to Town of Barrhead mayor Dave McKenzie but he did not respond before our deadline.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
