Envision Edmonton accuses city of trying to 'weasel' out of plebiscite

Council voted 10-3 on Wednesday afternoon against putting the airport question on the upcoming civic election ballot. The vote happened hours after Edmonton's City Clerk, Alayne Sinclair, declared that a petition by Envision Edmonton to force a plebiscite on the closure of the city centre airport is invalid.

The city had the option of putting the question on the ballot as a non-binding plebiscite, but council voted against the option, to prevent confusion and possible financial liabilities.

"This has been a divisive issue in our city for years," Mayor Stephen Mandel said Wednesday. "We need to make a decision that's best for Edmontonians, not just for a few people."

Envision Edmonton spokesperson Charles Allard is disputing the city's decision to call the petition invalid. Allard says the city's decision to throw out thousands of names on the petition on "unproven technicalities" is unfair. Allard went on to accuse the mayor of having city hall staff "weasel their way out of putting [the petition] on a plebiscite".

The city clerk says the petition needed to be signed by 78,244 registered voters. The petition that was presented to the city had over 100,000 names, but only 73,657 of them were valid. In order for the plebiscite to go ahead, at least 10% of the city's population had to sign the petition.

Envision Edmonton claims that volunteers went through the petition prior to submitting it to the city and removed 10,000 out of the 100,000 signatures collected that they believed could be challenged by the city. The city says appropriate steps were taken when eliminating signatures from the petition.

“We gave this petition a complete and reasonable review,” Alayne Sinclair said in a news release. “I respect that many volunteers put a great deal of time into this petition, and our staff worked very hard to give it the consideration it is due.”

The city says 80 staff members worked two shifts a day, and put in more than 3,700 hours to complete the review of the petition in time to get it on the ballot on October 18th if necessary. The city had 30 days to validate the petition, but the process was completed in less than a month.

In addition to the lack of valid names, the city says the petition was not brought within the 60 days of councils decision to close the airport. The petition should have been filed by September 7, 2009, according to the city clerk, and it was filed on August 26, 2010.