Calgary’s mayor said that budget deliberations being done behind closed doors isn’t anything citizens should worry about, as he received a post-budget-leak response from Alberta’s Minister of Municipal Affairs.

Minister Dan William penned a response letter to Mayor Jeromy Farkas, after the latter had sent a council-approved letter with concerns about a budget document leak by Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston.

Johnston had said at the time, as Calgary city councillors discussed different budget scenarios, that he didn’t want to be complicit in hiding things from ratepayers.

The minister’s letter, dated Oct. 19, acknowledged the ability of a municipal council to go into closed session, and that matters discussed in private are to remain confidential until they’re made public.

“This obligation supports the ability of the municipal councils to appropriately consider sensitive issues related to legal considerations, personnel, public safety, and other confidential matters,” the letter read.

Williams’ letter noted an upcoming framework for councillor accountability but also concerns that have been raised about the appropriate use of closed-session meetings, including within the City of Calgary.

“Closed sessions should be used only when the subject matter falls within the applicable exceptions to disclosure set out by ATIA, while decision-making must continue to occur in public unless otherwise authorized by legislation,” his letter read.

“Budget deliberation is not in and of itself an enumerated exception and should generally occur in public session.”

Mayor Farkas said he appreciated Minister Williams’ point about budget decisions not being made in closed session. He said it’s quite a bit different than what provincial and federal governments do – make decisions in secret and then publish those decisions.

“Whereas right now, the laws that exist does not allow council to adopt a budget behind closed doors [sic],” he said.

“So, again, this is not an issue that anybody should be worried about when it comes to municipalities; we simply receive, say, expert advice from some of our third partners, who sometimes provide us information contingent on it not being disclosed.”

Calgary city councillors will get a look at city administration’s proposed budget within a couple of weeks, and it will later be made public, followed by a public hearing and budget deliberations in late November.

Nothing within a budget should be private: Johnston

Coun. Johnston, for his part, said that he doesn’t think there was anything divulged that was personal private information, or compromised any aspect of public safety.

He said that oftentimes council members don’t even get a full report on some topics, with information having been redacted in some cases.

“I had more access, sometimes it feels like, to city documents as a citizen than I do as elected official. And that’s across the board. That’s from day one until now,” he said.

“We have to fight months, and sometimes… it’s honestly been 10 months trying to get some basic budget documents from the CFO.”

He’d like to see much tighter parameters on what can be redacted on reports, along with the rules around what should be made public. He also thinks that if it has to do with tax dollars, it should be available to citizens.

“This council fears the public. This administration fears the public,” he said.

“We found through the independent water report there’s no one accountable to anything in this administration.”

Mayor Farkas said he was heartened to hear from the minister that a councillor accountability framework would be in place soon.

“The fact that he’s recognized the importance of us respecting personal privacy, as well as respecting confidentiality of law enforcement, addresses my concerns,” Farkas said.

“And even further than that, he’s indicated as of January 1st, there will be a mechanism to ensure that Calgarians who may feel that their private information has been improperly disclosed by an elected official have the ability to hold that elected official to account.”

Johnston was glad to see the minister responded at all.

“But I mean, if he’s going to enforce any rule, he’s going to have to do it for every single councillor that’s ever leaked anything this term,” Johnston said.

“And I mean, you can just watch some of the council meetings. A lot of other councillors have brought up that documents have been released a lot with actual personal information on them, whereas mine was just a basic budget document that was never supposed to be in camera. So, I’m hoping what happened will spur change, and I’m hoping (Minister) Dan Williams will be part of that change.”