Edmonton council is being forced to break the law

Last week, Danielle Smith ordered council to repeal its zoning bylaw and go back to the old rules.

That's a framework that hadn't had an overhaul since the 1960s. She gave them three months.

How exactly are they supposed to do that? Nobody knows. That includes, apparently, the province.

Mayor Andrew Knack says city staff asked for the directive in writing, with details. On Friday they were told it could take another three weeks. That's a quarter of the deadline gone just waiting for the province to explain what it ordered.

Once again, the UCP announced first and didn't stop to think it through.

By law, there has to be a hearing

But there's a legal problem.

Under the Municipal Government Act, council can't change a land use bylaw without holding a public hearing first.

Calling it a repeal doesn't get you out of it either. A bylaw has to be repealed the same way it was passed, hearing and all.

By law, they have to listen

A public hearing isn't a box to tick. In 1990, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that people at a hearing have to be "heard by members of Council who are capable of being persuaded."

Old St. Boniface Residents Assn. Inc. v. Winnipeg (City), [1990] 3 S.C.R. 1170

The Court put it plainly. The Legislature "could not have intended to have a hearing before a body who has already made a decision which is irreversible."

That's the open-mind rule. Councillors can walk in with opinions. They can't walk in with the vote already decided.

The trap

Smith has said Edmonton must hold a public hearing, listen to everyone, and then vote the way she already decided they have to.

Follow the directive, and you've broken the open-mind rule. Ignore it, and you've broken the province's directive. That's the trap Knack says the province has sprung on council. (Ignoring it carries a price too: councillors who defy a ministerial order can be removed from office.)

Knack is taking it to a special council meeting on Friday, and is working on a motion to ask the courts to settle it.

The UCP way

But hey, it's just a couple of laws put in place to protect citizens. What's a bit of undermining democracy between friends?

If the law gets in the way, just ignore it. They've done it before.

It's the UCP way.