Premier Smith weighs in on Calgary City Council’s closed meetings
Posted Sep 14, 2026 8:31 am.
Confidential, in-camera municipal meetings attracted the attention of Alberta’s Premier, following a leak from Calgary city councillor Landon Johnston of confidential budget documents.
Johnston calls the leak in the public’s best interest, and has requested the province review the city’s use of in-camera meetings.
A special council meeting was called by Mayor Jeromy Farkas to seek legal advice on how to respond to the breach by Johnston.
Council briefly discussed whether Johnston could be barred from future in‑camera sessions involving confidential material, but City Solicitor Jill Floen said the province has repealed or prohibited the authority of council to control the conduct of its members.
Premier Danielle Smith addressed the confidential meetings on her radio talk show Saturday, calling it bad practice.
“Where the real debate is happening in camera so everybody can get their stories straight and figure out where everybody else is going to vote to engineer a certain outcome, and then when they go public, all the debate has taken place behind closed doors.”
Smith made a comparison to behaviour by Alberta MLAs.
“When we go into the legislature, and everyone’s debating bills, you’d be hard pressed to find a time that we ever went in camera, it’s just not something you do when you have your entire body together.”
Premier Smith gave a possible alternative.
“Pre-briefing sessions where administration is able to tell all of the council members what they’re considering, but then when they open up their official meetings there’s never an in-camera session.”
