Mountain View County should develop its own public interest disclosure legislation, sometimes known as whistleblower legislation, says Reeve Bruce Beattie.
The province has recently adopted updated whistleblower legislation, which provides some protection for employees who may report unlawful activities in government and public administration.
“I personally would like to see Mountain View County adopt a policy like this (province's new legislation),” said Beattie. “It would be very positive from a public perspective. I don't know if there are any whistleblowers around or any issues around that, but I think the legislation is critical to the functioning of a democracy.”
At its regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 2 the MVC policies and priorities committee received an update on the new provincial Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Act, known as the PIDA.
In a letter received by the committee, Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths said under the legislation, “public entities are expected to implement internal procedures to manage and investigate disclosures of wrongdoing and to ensure a safe environment for employees to bring forward matters in the public interest.”
“Although municipalities of Alberta are not entities under the PIDA, we believe your municipality would benefit from the legislation,” he said.
“At a minimum I urge you to adopt similar whistleblower policies that mirror the new provincial requirements. Implementing whistleblower protections will enhance the public's confidence in elected officials, public institutions and the staff delivering programs and services to Albertans.”
Committee member Al Kemmere, who is the MVC Division 7 councillor, said he would like to see the new council move ahead with whistleblower legislation for MVC.
“I support coming forward with some kind of structure around this,” said Kemmere. “It's good for the public being able to participate.”
He added that he would also like to see the county adopt a councillors' code of conduct and a CAO protocol.
The committee received Minister Griffith's update for information.
