The chairman of a Canadian city's police commission will remain a member of the body and continue to govern despite plans to move to Europe, stating that he will fulfill his responsibilities from abroad.
"I have resided in Edmonton, and Alberta, for a very long time and my ties to this community do not simply disappear when I step onto an airplane," chairman John McDougall said about his decision.
"I am also not the first Edmonton police commission member who doesn't reside in the city of Edmonton, so this does not come without precedent," he continued.
McDougall has been a member of the commission for seven years. While his time as chairman of the body ends at the end of this month, his term as a commission member ends in 2026, meaning he has two more years to serve in that position before he can fully retire.
He intends to fulfill his role from afar.
"I suspect that I will probably remain here. If there is a need to go back, I will," he said in a Zoom interview with the Edmonton Journal while in Portugal. "This is not unusual, to conduct business by Zoom. It started with COVID, and the majority of organizations now have a hybrid program ... I don't think the geographical difference is big."
McDougall has resided in the Canadian city for 12 years, having been appointed to the police commission by the provincial government instead of the city council. He believes that his extensive experience with the city's local landscape will make it easy for him to do his job overseas.
"I have a long history, not only with Edmonton but with the commission and with the communities that I'm part of, and that does not end just because I get on an airplane," he said. "I'm not doing this to make money. I'm not in this for anything other than the fact that I believe in the work."
"I still have connections in the city. I still have part of my community in the city. ... The fact that my feet are not geographically placed there, I don't think in the short term, presents any problems," he said.
"The internet: it works in Portugal. Secondly, we (commissioners) are a very communicative group ... we are not isolated islands, we are an island together that work together, share information together, to ensure that we all have the right information to make decisions," he concluded.
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