City councillor to apologize after not properly disclosing property

A veteran city councillor said he "screwed up" and will apologize to Calgarians for failing to report his interest in a property in his ward.

The city's integrity commissioner, Ellen-Anne O'Donnell, investigated following a 2021 complaint about Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra's investment in a property. 

She determined Carra violated council's code of conduct for failing to add that property to his publicly available disclosure form which must be filed by all council members.

In a report dated June 20, 2022, O'Donnell said there were five occasions between 2016 and 2021 that Carra should have updated his disclosure form but he failed to do so. 

That update only happened in spring 2022 when Carra and his wife bought the whole lot and the title changed hands.

Council voted in early July to sanction Carra, requesting that he apologize to Calgarians and that he take both ethics and records management training.

Carra told the commissioner that he had a handshake agreement with a businessman for the riverfront property at 66 New Street S.E. and made a $300,000 down payment.

The landowner planned to tear down the 1970s duplex on the property, subdivide the parcel and build two new houses — one of which Carra and his wife would purchase.

CBC News first reported on Carra's property interest in 2016 but he did not mention at that time that he paid a $300,000 down payment. 

When asked why he failed to document the transaction as required, Carra took full responsibility.

"I screwed up," he said of his failure to report the property on his disclosure form. "I absolutely should have. I'm literally kicking myself that I didn't."

Council members are required to fill out that form within 30 days of an election and within 30 days of any changes to their holdings.

"The only answer I can give is that clearly my intention was not to hide my ownership in this," said Carra.

In fact, Carra had declared his interest in the property during council meetings, in media interviews as well as during a hearing by Alberta's Land and Property Rights Tribunal.