EMBRUN – Russell Township Council held a special virtual meeting on Mon., April 15, the primary reason being to confirm the vacancy of the mayor’s seat because of the resignation of Mayor Pierre Leroux.

The meeting was chaired by Councillor Jamie Laurin in the capacity of acting mayor. The agenda contained one item that would be dealt with in open council and that was the declaration of a vacant seat on municipal council-Report CSAS-CL-2024-02. The synopsis of the report was that Council receive report CSAS-CL-2024-02 dated April 15, 2024, and as recommended, that the office of the Mayor of the Township of Russell, be declared vacant as of Friday, April 19, 2024; and that Council provide a direction to the Clerk for Council’s consideration at the next Regular Council Meeting of April 29, 2024, on how Council wish to fill the vacant seat in the near future.

CAO Richard Godin spoke first about the report.  “We received the official documentation last week. So, this here is a procedural meeting as per the Municipal Act, we are to hold a meeting to declare the seat as vacant,” said Godin. “So, the clerk has prepared a report to make that declaration and to also present counsel with a bit of information as far as what our options are.”

The Clerk, Joanne Camire-Laflamme, then proceeded to advise Council of the process that needed to be followed. “We received the resignation from the mayor, effective April 19. And as mentioned in the report, I will give a quick, quick summary of what is indicated in the report,” said Camire-Laflamme. “As per the Act, the Municipal Act, council has two options which is to appoint a person to fill the vacancy or to pass a bylaw requiring a by-election to be held to fill the vacancy. So really, those are the two choices that need to be done by counsel and that needs to be done within 60 days from today where we are declaring the seat vacant, so that would be June 7, if we count 60 days after that.

Depending on what option Council decides to go with, they would then be faced with additional choices. If they choose to select someone through nominating or appointing someone, they would have four options that would apply, which is to either advertise for expressions of interest, appoint someone, consider eligible candidates, or consider the next person in line. If they choose not to appoint someone to fill the position, then they would have to have to pass a bylaw within 60 days to hold a by-election.

“After that there is more terms for the by-election that is as per the Municipal Elections Act,” continued  Camire-Laflamme, “Which says within another 30 to 60 days, we have to have the byelection in place. So that’s the option and we’re looking for direction from Council at the next meeting to know which way council would like to proceed so I can prepare the documents or bring the resolutions or bylaws forward for councils’ consideration.

Essentially, for tonight we are just declaring the seat vacant,” said Acting Mayor Laurin. “Council has been presented with the options which are to appoint somebody or to hold a by-election and that decision we have up to 60 days, but I think we will come back on the 29th (of April) with a direction for staff at that meeting and we can move forward from there.

The next regular meeting of Council will be on April 29 at 6:00 p.m.