Returning Officer Powers to Enforce Eligibility of Municipal Candidates

Returning Officer powers to enforce eligibility of municipal candidates.

Candidates must meet the following requirements to be eligible to run as a candidate: LAEA s.21(1):

• A Canadian citizen
• 18 years of age or older on Election Day, and
• Must be a resident of the ward or the electoral division in which you intend to run for the six consecutive months immediately preceding nomination day.

Ineligibility for Nomination

No one is eligible to become a candidate under any of the following circumstances:

• if you are the auditor of the local jurisdiction; LAEA s.22(1)
• if your property taxes are more than $50 in arrears (excluding indebtedness on current taxes, and indebtedness for arrears of taxes for which the person has entered into a consolidation agreement with the municipality); LAEA s.22(1)
• if you are in default for any other debt to the local jurisdiction equal to or exceeding $500 for more than 90 days; LAEA s.22(1)
• if within the previous 10 years, you have been convicted of an offense under the Local Authorities Election Act, the Election Act, Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act, or the Canada Elections Act; LAEA s.22(1)
• if on nomination day you are employed by the Office of the Ombudsman (unless you take a leave of absence); LAEA s.22(1)
• if you are a judge, Member of the Senate or House of Commons of Canada, or Member of the Legislative Assembly; MGA s.174(1)(c) or
• if you have been convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment for 5 or more years, or of an offence under Section 123, 124 or 125 of the Criminal Code of Canada (an offense related to municipal corruption, influencing a municipal official, or financial abuse of an elected office) MGA s.174(1)(e).

A person will be ineligible for nomination if they have failed to comply with the campaign finance and disclosure requirements of the LAEA s.22(1.2) and:

• the secretary or CAO transmitted or presented a report in respect to that person, and
• the court did not dispense with or extend the time for compliance.

A person is deemed to be ineligible under these circumstances for either an eight-year period following the day that a report was transmitted by the secretary, or a three-year period following the day the disclosure statement was filed with the municipality (whichever period expires first).

If you are a municipal employee and you wish to run for local office you must take a leave of absence without pay as outlined in the LAEA. This point does not apply if you perform duties for a jurisdiction in a volunteer capacity. You may notify your employer on or after January 1 in the election year (on or after the day council passes a resolution setting election day) but before the last working day prior to nomination day. Any employee who requests a leave of absence without pay in accordance with those conditions must be granted that leave. LAEA s.22(5) s.22(5.1)

*Source A Candidate’s Guide: Running for Elected Office | Municipal Affairs, ©2025 Government of Alberta | March 2025

Under the current legislation and nomination process, the candidate signs a declaration that they meet all the above criteria. The CAO or returning officer have limited grounds to deny a candidate from filing their nomination papers, all of which are administrative in nature (such as incomplete forms).  Currently, the CAO or returning officer has no authority to verify the eligibility of a candidate. In addition, the CAO or returning officer is not authorized to collect information such as indebtedness to the municipality as this would be a breach of privacy because the information is not being used for the purpose it was originally collected for. The returning officer may raise awareness of the ineligibility of the candidate, if suspected, however they have no power to reject the nomination.

Benefits and drawbacks of giving the returning officer the ability to address candidate eligibility

Benefits

• Verifying eligibility requirements would be straightforward and objective.
• Ineligible candidates would not be allowed to be nominated and run for office.
• Changes would avoid undue campaign costs for the potential candidate.
• Changes would allow a potential candidate to address any issues of ineligibility such as indebtedness.
• Changes would remove the possibility of an ineligible candidate being elected and council or an elector forced to submit an application of disqualification to the courts or complaint to Elections Alberta to remove the candidate from council.
• Changes would also remove the associated costs of potential court proceedings for disqualification and a potential by-election if they were disqualified.
• There would be greater accountability to the electorate regarding the eligibility of candidates.

Drawbacks

• Returning officers would need to have the ability to check all the various aspects of eligibility.
• It would take slightly more time and resources to process candidate nominations.
• There would be more risk and liability for returning officers and the municipality in checking eligibility.
• Some smaller municipalities may not be able to hire a returning officer that would have the competency to check the eligibility of candidates.

Legislation could be amended to allow municipalities with limited resources the ability to opt out of the requirement to check eligibility and revert to requiring the candidates swearing that they are eligible.

There are far more benefits than drawbacks to changing this legislation and overall would result in a more accountable, fair and transparent system that functions for all municipalities in Alberta.