The Owl flagged the violation to the City Clerk who investigated right away.

Medicine Hat City Council broke provincial laws at their very first operational meeting. Some might write this off as a rookie mistake, but they kept doing it. The Owl has identified multiple potential MGA violations since this council was elected.

Previous Experience Appeared to Be No Help

Three council members have previous council experience, one is a lawyer who is skilled in reading legal documents. His expertise is in criminal law, not municipal. Before Mayor Clark was elected, she worked for the city in their legal department.

The Municipal Inspection Report said the City was being run in an improper, irregular, and improvident manner. This is not the sort of thing that happens overnight.

At the August 21 2023 Shitshow Showdown, Mayor Clark said that bypassing the MGA and city bylaws was a serious issue. She stressed that decisions made without proper authority are "null and void." She even got a legal opinion to back that up.

The MGA Violation: What Happened

The Nov 17 2025 public agenda said there would be two items discussed behind closed doors. But the minutes show a third item was added.

The problem?

*Screengrab City of Medicine Hat Youtube Nov 17 2025*

They never voted on it in public. They just added it once the doors were closed. They had the opportunity to do it when the agenda was approved.

Indeed, Councillor Phaff did make a motion to amend the agenda, to move up the closed portion of the meeting. The third item could have been added at that time but that did not happen.

Section 201.1 of the Municipal Government Act says

(3) When a meeting is closed to the public, no resolution or bylaw may be passed at the meeting, except a resolution to revert to a meeting of a council or council committee held in public.

This means councils cannot make decisions behind closed doors. The only thing a council can vote on in a closed session is to open the meeting back up to the public. They cannot decide to add/subtract agenda items, they cannot decide to address them at a later time, they cannot decide to do anything without voting in open council.

City Clerk Was Not Here When This Happened

Our new City Clerk, Amanda Peterson, started her employment with the City of Medicine Hat in June 2026. When The Owl flagged the violation, she investigated and confirmed the council got it wrong last November.

Peterson told The Owl -

…Upon review, we acknowledge that Section 197(4) of the Municipal Government Act requires Council to approve by resolution any portion of a meeting that is to be held in closed session and the basis on which, under an exception to disclosure of the Access to Information Act, the part of the meeting is to be closed. In addition, Section 6.10 of Procedure Bylaw 4725 states that “the agenda and any amendments to it must be confirmed by majority vote at the start of the meeting.”

In this instance, the item you referenced, Procedure Bylaw Amendments, was added to the Closed Session agenda at the commencement of the closed meeting and was approved by Council through a majority vote in accordance with Section 6.10 of Procedure Bylaw 4725. As such, the agenda amendment was considered and authorized by Council prior to discussion of the matter.

We recognize, however, that this agenda amendment was approved during the Closed Session, rather than being identified and approved at the adoption of the agenda during the open portion of the meeting. While Council did provide approval by majority vote at the beginning of the Closed Session, we understand how this approach may give rise to concerns regarding transparency. In retrospect, the addition of this item should have been identified as a proposed amendment to the Closed Session agenda during the adoption of the agenda in Open Session.

Moving forward, Administration will take steps to ensure that agenda amendments relating to Closed Session matters are addressed in a manner that more clearly reflects the intent of both the Municipal Government Act and Procedure Bylaw 4725, thereby enhancing transparency and reducing the potential for similar concerns in the future.

Who Is Responsible For Following the MGA?

The City Clerk often advises council on procedure, but council makes the final decisions - and they are responsible for following the law.

Because this happened behind closed doors, we do not know what (or if) the city clerk (or the Acting City Manager / City Clerk) advised council on this matter. There were plenty of people in the room who knew better.

So what was that secret third item?

Changes to the rules council follows for its own meetings.

They broke the rules to change the rules.

Why Does This Matter?

It is the law.
They had training about the law. Council members had 12 hours of mandatory training on Oct 23/24 2025. More info about the Elected Officials Training Program.‍ ‍ ‍
It erodes trust. When people (or potential investors) see Medicine Hat City Council breaking the rules, they lose faith in the system.
The public is shut out. No transparency exists when decisions are made behind closed doors.
Accountability is impossible. The public does not know who made the motion, who seconded it, or how each councillor voted.
They kept doing it. This was not a one-time mistake.

Has This Happened Before?

The Owl checked that too.

Yes it has. But not to the same degree, it is not even close.

What Council Told Us

The Owl contacted every single councillor to ask about it.

We asked:

You all completed mandatory training following the October 2025 election. Did that training cover the requirement that the only vote permitted in a closed session is to reopen the meeting to the public?
The City Clerk has now confirmed the November 17 process was wrong. What do you say to residents who are concerned that their council broke the rules so early in their term?
The public does not know who made the motion to add the third item, who seconded it, or how each councillor voted. When will this information be released?

As of Tuesday at noon, not one of them has responded.

Not one.

They were all in that room. They all knew what happened. And now they are staying quiet.

More to Come:

These are the subjects we will be covering over the next few weeks.

How many times this council continued to violate the MGA - and in what ways.

How many times this council violated their own procedure bylaw and in what ways.

How this council has spent more time behind closed doors.

How this council has discussed more items behind closed doors.

What items fell off the agendas and have not yet seen the light of day.

What items likely did not qualify to be discussed behind closed doors.

Stay Tuned - this will be released to subscribers first.

You can subscribe here.

City Clerk Confirms Current Council Broke the Law in First Meeting