You only need 5 City Councilors to control the votes at City Hall.
If you look at 5 of the elected Councilors last election, two donors continue to show up on every single one:
Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL); and
Red Deer & District Labour Council (AFL-light)
These two groups are the puppet masters of Red Deer politics.
Just how much did these two contribute to sitting Councilors?
Lynne Mulder – 83% of cash donations
Dianne Wyntjes – 36% of cash donations
Ken Johnston – 23% of cash donations
Lawrence Lee – 16% of cash donations
Paul Harris – 10% of cash donations
http://www.reddeer.ca/city-government/election/election-campaign-contributions-and-expenses/
We find it interesting that 5 out of 8 sitting City Councilors received enough of a percentage of contributions to their campaigns that would normally be considered a conflict of interest in any other profession.
The Municipal Government Act of Alberta says quite plainly that you have a conflict of interest where something could monetarily affect you.
Seeing as these candidates can only finance up to $10,000 out of their own pocket if they don’t get donors, it looks pretty clear that their loyalty to a group that finances their re-election can be easily bought.
Need more proof? Look no further than more recently in the 2015 provincial election.
The Red Deer & District Labour Council’s former President is Red Deer South NDP MLA Barb Miller.
How else could an unknown Safeway cashier/safety inspector beat a well-known Dean of the Donald School of Business, and Director of Servus Credit Union, Darcy Mykytyshyn?
The Red Deer MLAs are so unknown, that the Red Deer North NDP MLA Kim Schreiner’s Wikipedia page doesn’t even know her year of birth, just a guess.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Schreiner
According to their own financial disclosures both Barb Miller and Kim Schreiner were elected with zero donations to their campaign, not even from themselves, yet had thousands in expenses.
Schreiner: http://efpublic.elections.ab.ca/efFinancialStatement.cfm?ACID=17338
Miller: http://efpublic.elections.ab.ca/efFinancialStatement.cfm?ACID=17339
How could this be possible?
The provincial party picked up the tab, so the donors would not have to be disclosed on the local paperwork.
One look at the NDP Party contributions for the 2015 election and who do we find covering roughly 50% of the election costs in Red Deer but none other than our good friends, the Red Deer & District Labour Council. http://efpublic.elections.ab.ca/efFinancialStatement.cfm?ACID=17007
Next time you wonder why the City is spending more money or wasting more time on a project, ask yourself who gets to benefit the most from long delays that don't put shovels in the ground.
The contractors and hard working residents of Red Deer that will actually perform the building of the projects that benefit us? or is it the pencil pushing, union-protected members that get paid to shuffle paper and create more busywork without actually getting anything done?
