Alberta moves to restrict public boards' power to police trustees, councilors

Alberta is looking to reduce the self-policing powers of elected public school boards and municipal councils. The changes are included in two bills put forward by Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative government.

In one bill, Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver proposes pulling local council's codes of conduct and also ending any related ongoing complaints or sanctions that aren't before the courts.

McIver says in some cases, codes of conduct have been weaponized to silence dissent on municipal councils.

In the second bill, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides proposes banning school boards from disqualifying or removing a trustee over code of conduct breaches.

If his bill passes, boards can still have codes of conduct and punish trustees who break them, but a trustee can only be removed through a recall vote.