Calgary set to introduce process for recall petitions

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Calgary is set to introduce a process for handling petitions to recall city politicians, but one political scientist says its details are so strict that a successful campaign would be nearly impossible.

The local policy, up for discussion at city hall Tuesday, fulfils requirements set out by the UCP government’s Recall Act. That legislation gives constituents the power to boot their MLA, city council member or school trustee from office if they meet several lofty thresholds.

The city’s overview of their process says a petitioner must submit a notice of recall petition to Elections Calgary, after which they’ll have 60 days to gather signatures of eligible electors.

A successful petition needs at least 40 per cent of the population to provide handwritten signatures. Those signatures must each be witnessed, including a signed affidavit, to be verified by elections officials. If the petition is deemed sufficient, the mayor would be asked to call a special council meeting at which the elected official in question would be recalled.

The provincial legislation also dictates the recall process can’t take place within 18 months of the official taking office, or in the six months preceding an election. For the current council, the city says recall petitions would be permitted between April 22, 2023 and Dec. 31, 2024.

The cost to the city of handling recall petitions will range between $19,000 and $400,000, according to council documents, with the exact costs depending on how many petitions are received.

Recall process ‘prohibitively difficult’: political scientist

It’s a process that may be prohibitively difficult, said Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams, who said it’s hard to imagine a realistic scenario where constituents succeed in recalling their councillor through a petition.

“They’ve put in place a populist democratic measure that very likely is going to be impossible to actually implement. It’s window dressing … It’s so high a threshold that it will all but preclude recalls from taking place,” Williams said.

“And most wards didn’t even have that many people elect the person in the first place. So unless there’s something fairly substantial motivating people, it’s certainly an organizational challenge.”

In Calgary’s 2021 election, not a single ward saw 40 per cent of its population cast a ballot.

To make matters more difficult, petitioners must gain signatures from 40 per cent of the ward’s total population, but only eligible electors can give valid signatures. That means the threshold for a successful petition is effectively much higher than 40 per cent. Preliminary data from the city shows a minimum of 53 per cent of electors would need to sign a recall petition for it to be successful, with numbers varying ward-by-ward — in Ward 5, the requirement amounts to an eye-popping 99 per cent of electors.

Chu most likely to face recall campaign: Williams

It’s possible some Calgary councillors could be the target of a recall petition, Williams said, saying Ward 4 Coun. Sean Chu is most likely to face a campaign.

Chu was narrowly elected to council in 2021 in the midst of allegations he had sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl in 1997 while he was in his 30s and working as a police officer, sparking calls for his resignation from the majority of his council colleagues. A Calgary police commission review found police erred in their handling of that investigation.

The councillor faced further calls to step down last year after he admitted to taking a photo of Mayor Jyoti Gondek’s vehicle licence plate and sharing the image with a member of the public.

“There is a certain proportion of the electorate who does want to see Chu gone, but the reality is that there’s some who still support him. To get to 40 per cent in 60 days, it’s an onerous threshold,” Williams said.

It’s possible a politician facing a credible recall petition would opt to resign rather than let the process play out fully, Williams said. That’s what took place in British Columbia in 1999, when beleaguered MLA Paul Reitsma stepped down shortly after campaigners submitted their petition to Elections B.C.

Council’s discussion of the recall petition protocol is slated to take place Tuesday.

jherring@postmedia.com

Twitter: @jasonfherring