Power grab allowed under law, women’s group says

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/04/2022 (1290 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A women’s political action group is calling on the province to make changes to the Municipal Act, arguing it has been “weaponized” to take power away from mayors and reeves.

Let Women Lead is launching a petition which suggests it makes little sense to tell women to run for high-profile roles in October’s elections when the heads of Manitoba municipalities are “under attack.”

In a news release, the group said male councillors have removed the power of “predominantly female” heads of council in a “bylaw coup” trend, citing Teulon and the rural municipalities of Armstrong and St. Andrews as examples.

Let Women Lead’s launch of a petition that demands amendments coincides with the Association of Manitoba Municipalities’ women in municipal government breakfast Thursday.

Premier Heather Stefanson and female cabinet ministers are scheduled to attend the breakfast, which is part of the association’s spring convention at the Keystone Centre in Brandon.

The event is meant to encourage women to run for council roles in the upcoming municipal elections.

Let Women Lead said the Municipal Act doesn’t allow councillors to overrule the statute and remove a mayor or reeve’s powers by passing bylaws with a majority vote, despite recent examples.

The group said there is a loophole thanks to Section 83(2), which states a head of council has a duty to preside at a council meeting except where a procedures bylaw or any act “otherwise provides.”

The exception is being broadly interpreted to suggest a procedures bylaw can limit, change or eliminate a mayor or reeve’s duties, said Let Women Lead.

“When you have the ability to change the (procedural bylaw) to strip a mayor or reeve of their duty, that changes the dynamic of democracy or the democratic process,” Cindy Kellendonk, a former councillor with the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet, told the Free Press. “It’s not just women. This could happen to anybody, regardless of gender.”

Joy Sul took her case to court after councillors passed a bylaw in December 2019 which stripped some of her responsibilities as mayor of St. Andrews.

Last year, she lost her court battle to have the bylaw struck down. A notice of appeal was filed in September 2021.

Let Women Lead said a Court of Queen’s Bench judge agreed the Municipal Act was worded in a way in which it could be used to “disempower a mayor and disenfranchise voters.”

The group wants the province to close the “unintended loophole” and eliminate confusion by amending the act.

Otherwise, women will be put off from running for council seats if fellow council members are able to stage a “bylaw coup” instead of working out disagreements, said Let Women Lead.

“The voters elect the mayor or reeve. Some councillors may not support or like the mayor elected by the public, but they should not be allowed to misuse the act to substitute their own choice for head of council over the expressed wishes of the voters,” group member and Selkirk resident Lois Wales said in the news release.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching