Council will determine Councillor Krista Balsom’s fate on Tuesday after a third party report found she violated the Municipal Government Act (MGA).
CBC News is reporting that Balsom didn’t disclose all of her business contracts to the RMWB’s legal department. They say they knew about one potential conflict of interest and if they knew about the others, she wouldn’t have been approved to vote on specific budget matters.
Balsom owns and operates Balsom Communications that does work for multiple entities in the region.
She could be disqualified from council or face a reduction of pay.
CBC News said the new information became known after they obtained the report through a freedom of information request.
Balsom released a statement on Friday saying that she believed she had followed the best legal advice available to her.
“I, in no way intentionally breached the MGA or did so in a malicious way. I made the decision to vote on these matters, like my previous vote on the RMWB budget, based on what I believed was the appropriate legal advice.”
CBC said that Balsom’s other business contracts include the Regional Recreation Corporation of Wood Buffalo, the Wood Buffalo Library and the Arts Council of Wood Buffalo.
She later voted to allocate money to these groups during the 2018 budget process.
An anonymous whistleblower complaint launched the third party investigation.
