When an opponent starts misrepresenting the facts, it’s a sign of being desperate. We’re happy though to clarify a few questions for voters.
Before October 21, voters need to ask themselves: if a candidate is misrepresenting the truth, will they be able to represent me on Council?
1. Did John recuse himself from voting on the sprawl subsidy? Is John conflicted when issues about developers come before Council?
No. John voted on this issue. The Minutes of Council are here. It’s item 6.6 on the Agenda. The vote was 13-2, and John voted in favour of reducing the subsidy in half.
John isn’t a developer. He isn’t conflicted, and he votes on these issues.
2. Is John in the pocket of developers?
The record shows this isn’t true. If it was true, John wouldn’t have voted in favour of Plan It Calgary. If it was true, John wouldn’t have supported the Mustard Seed development in the Beltline.
3. Does John support secondary suites?
Yes. In fact, John has supported secondary suites every time an application has come before Council.
He also brought forward in July 2013 an emergency notice of motion before Council regarding secondary suites. You can see the Minutes from that meeting here.
4. Does John represent Ward 8 if he recuses himself from votes?
John recused himself from 18 votes out of approximately 3,669 in the last term. So 0.49%.
He did it because he received the legal opinion from the Law Department at the City of Calgary. You can see it here. Calgary needs members of Council who respect the Municipal Government Act and understand that they should not vote when there is a conflict of interest.
John had a conflict because he began the process to build a secondary suite himself. It was to be over his garage. You can see a picture of the plan here. He was soliciting feedback from his neighbours and realized he did not have the support of his neighbours to proceed.
5. Will John still have a conflict of interest regarding secondary suites during the next term?
No. John now won’t be proceeding with building the secondary suite. He no longer has a conflict and looks forward to voting on this issue during the next election.