Yellowknife pool referendum was above board, city says

Yellowknife's referendum on whether the city should borrow $10 million to build a new aquatic centre might feel like ancient history, but for one Yellowknifer questions remain about how the city handled the campaign.

On Nov. 23, 2021 Yellowknifers voted in favour of borrowing the money. Tim Thurley, a former political campaign manager, member's assistant on Parliament Hill and volunteer political candidate scrutineer, maintains that city staff breached the city's ethical code of conduct for employees during the referendum campaign.

According to Section 11 of that code, public employees are barred from "activities which strongly promote one side, or person in a campaign for election."

Thurley says that the city's communications materials — including mail-out flyers and postings to social media — endorsed a "yes" vote. 

That, Thurley maintains, amounted to the city using public resources to campaign for one side.

"Since that platform is a public platform and it's supposed to be a neutral platform, both sides of the referendum need to have access to it," Thurley said, referring to city of Yellowknife communications. 

"What they can't do is then use their resources to push an ad campaign to try and swing the vote. That's where it becomes sort of a partisan interference and that's not okay and that's what prevents it from being a free election." 

Days before the referendum vote in November, Thurley wrote a letter to the city manager outlining his allegations, and filed a complaint with the city clerk.

On Jan. 4 he received a response. In a letter, acting city manager Kerry Thistle said the city investigated Thurley's complaint. Thistle did not address any specifics of the city's code of conduct for employees, but wrote "we reviewed all of the information and documents gathered in the investigation and have concluded that the actions complained of did not breach applicable city of Yellowknife policies." 

Thurley followed up on an invitation in that letter to bring any further questions or concerns forward, but said he received no response.

Thurley said he was in favour of the yes vote, but added that what he sees as the city's "administrative interference" in the referendum "brings into question the fairness and integrity of our electoral process."

"I think city employees are good people and they're trying their best and sometimes policies and procedures can fall a little bit by the wayside when people think they're doing the right thing, but it's really important that we have them," he said.

Anthony Sayers is an associate professor of  political science at the University of Calgary, and the author of the Canadian Elections Database — which records results from all federal, provincial and territorial elections since Confederation. 

He said it's unclear if the city breached its ethics policy.