Legal, yes. But is George Pirie’s campaign to be the MPP for Timmins a conflict of interest with his position as Mayor of Timmins? No, says city clerk Steph Palmateer.
He acknowledges, however, that an issue at a council meeting could turn out to be a conflict.
“He (Pirie) would then follow the municipal conflict of interest legislation,” Palmateer explains, “and he would have to declare his pecuniary interest and then not take part in the discussion or influence the vote in any way.”
He adds that if City Hall gets material that’s intended for the Pirie campaign, it’ll hand it over to the campaign.
“We’ve already made that distinction. We understand he has a team in place. So if it comes to us inadvertently, we’ll redirect it to his team so that they can handle it.”