Noah Papatsie, Kyle Sheppard win vacant Iqaluit council seats

Kyle Sheppard won 216 votes, more than any other candidate, in the April 7 byelection to fill two seats on Iqaluit City Council. (HANDOUT PHOTO)

Noah Papatsie has returned to Iqaluit City Council after serving as a city councillor from 2013 to 2015. He took 183 votes in the April 7 byelection, finishing second, which means he will fill one of two vacant council seats. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

Iqaluit municipal voters elected two new city councillors April 10 to expand the number of city councillors from six to eight, following a by-election to fill two vacant seats.

Former city councillor Noah Papatsie, who served from 2013 to 2015, finished second with 183 votes, and Kyle Sheppard, who topped the ballot with 216 votes, will be sworn into office in about 14 days, the city confirmed to Nunatsiaq News.

This is the second time that Papatsie won a city council seat through a by-election. He beat out Stephen Mansell during a narrow race in a byelection held in 2013 to replace the late Jimmy Kilabuk.

While in office, Papatsie was forced to make a public apology after being sent home from Ottawa by former mayor Mary Wilman in 2015, after he ingested a combination of medication and alcohol that left him unable to attend a Federal Municipalities of Canada conference in Edmonton.

Papatsie ran for mayor of Iqaluit during the 2015 municipal election, but lost to the current mayor, Madeleine Redfern.

Kyle Sheppard is a former hamlet councillor from Rankin Inlet,who recently moved to Iqaluit and ran on a platform that included promises of reform to Iqaluit’s land development policies.

Third-place candidate Sutheat Tim provided the closest competition for Papatsie and Sheppard, losing by 36 votes.

Candidates Jean-Luc Nevin, Dushyenth Ganesan and Stephen Austin Leyden rounded out the bottom half of the all-male ticket.

Papatsie and Sheppard fill two seats vacated by former councillors Gideonie Joamie and Megan Pizzo-Lyall.

Iqaluit’s current city council has been chronically under-capacity for most of its mandate since Coun. Joamie resigned from his seat last May—six months after he was sworn in.

Congrats to Kyle Sheppard & Noah Papatsie. I look forward to working with both of you. Thx to all for who ran for council & those who voted. https://t.co/DNub5KtgEc

— Madeleine Redfern (@MayorMadeleine) April 11, 2017

The official results, according to a release by the city, are as follows:

Kyle Sheppard: 216;

Noah Papatsie: 183;

Sutheat Tim: 148;

Stephen Leyden: 105;

Jean-Luc Nevin: 89; and,

Dushyenth Ganesan: 76.

Voter turnout for the Iqaluit by-election is not yet available. As of late evening April 10, we had not yet received an estimate of the total number of electors or total ballots cast.