Calgary can't campaign against separation—but councillors can
City legal advice finds municipal resources can't fund a referendum stance, though individual councillors may advocate their own positions.
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The City of Calgary can't use municipal resources to campaign for Alberta to remain in Canada, but councillors can take personal positions on the issue—city legal advice delivered to council Tuesday showed.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas asked administration during question period about the city's legal authority to deploy resources or partner with groups like Calgary Economic Development to research the impacts of separation and publicly advocate for Alberta remaining a Canadian province. An Alberta referendum this October will ask voters if the province should pursue a binding vote on separation.
Lynne Davies, the city's legal director, said the city can commission research on secession's potential impacts without violating provincial election law. But publishing those findings in a way that promotes or opposes a referendum outcome treads into murkier legal territory. "While good-faith economic analysis does not in itself promote or oppose an outcome, it may do so implicitly and it's not clear from the legislation as to whether this would contravene those rules," Davies told council.
On direct public advocacy, the picture is clearer: under the province's Elections Finance and Contributions Disclosure Act, the city cannot register as a third-party advertiser and therefore cannot spend more than $1,000 to promote a formal stance on the referendum.
Individual councillors, though, face no such restriction and can campaign either for or against a referendum outcome. Davies added that council could pass a resolution expressing support or opposition to the referendum question, likely within the rules as an exercise of the city's inherent power and a valid municipal purpose.
Farkas has been vocal about the economic risks he believes separation poses to Calgary. He said the municipality should be allowed to take a firmer stance against separation, citing what he alleges is foreign interference funding the pro-separation campaign. "Given the economic carnage that separation would incur on the city of Calgary specifically, we have a duty and responsibility to act," he told reporters after the meeting.
