Spring by-election planned for Nunavut’s capital

In-camera council discussion Jan. 10 results in unanimous decision to go to the polls

By LISA GREGOIRE

A by-election could cost as much as $90,000 but city councillors felt that with two vacancies, they needed to let voters decide who should join the team. (FILE PHOTO)


A by-election could cost as much as $90,000 but city councillors felt that with two vacancies, they needed to let voters decide who should join the team. (FILE PHOTO)

Iqaluit voters will go to the polls, likely within a couple of months, to elect two new city councillors.

The by-election was triggered by the Jan. 10 resignation of Coun. Megan Pizzo-Lyall who will be leaving the city to take on a new job.

When asked about what the city would do in light of her resignation during a break at the Jan. 10 city council meeting where Pizzo-Lyall made her announcement, Mayor Madeleine Redfern said that at a future council meeting “there will be a discussion about what to do.”

But it turns out councillors decided to discuss the matter during an in-camera session that night instead. In-camera means the discussion is not open to public or the media.

Redfern said the discussion about a potential by-election, lead by Deputy Mayor Romeyn Stevenson, wasn’t planned but occurred in conjunction with other in-camera matters.

She said councillors came out of their in-camera session to make a motion to hold a by-election and that the motion passed unanimously. Councillors then went back in-camera to discuss other matters.

“The decision to have that discussion just naturally flowed as a result of dealing with city business, and recognizing that the decision to have the by-election had to be done out of camera,” she said.

“It was just that there were several matters that were on for discussion and council decided to deal with that issue [of Pizzo-Lyall’s resignation] that night rather than deal with it at the next council meeting.”

Redfern said the in-camera discussion about the by-election was “not lengthy.” But that’s not what happened the last time someone resigned from council.

When Gideonie Joamie resigned in May 2016, just seven months into his term, councillors had a heated discussion that lasted for more than an hour.

Debate focused on whether to save the city money by appointing someone to fill the post and names of individuals were raised and discussed.

When asked about why councillors did not hold their Jan. 10 debate in public, Coun. Kuthula Matshazi said individuals were discussed and it was prudent to keep those discussions private.

He submitted a portion of the bylaw governing in-camera criteria for Iqaluit city council meetings. The bylaw says items that should be considered confidential include, “issues affecting the privacy of an individual, personnel matters, labour relations matters and legal advice to the Municipality.”

“I think the reason we went to in-camera… was to uphold the principle of privacy of individuals. There were names of residents that were mentioned within different scenarios,” he wrote in a message to Nunatsiaq News, making sure to add that he was speaking as an individual councillor and not on behalf of the whole council.

“Mentioning names of certain individuals who are likely to run, in a public debate, would either promote or undermine their chances of competing in the by-election.”

The mayor said a by-election could cost up to $90,000 but every year, council puts $30,000 into an election contingency fund so there is at least some money in the city’s current budget to cover the cost.

Redfern said council has instructed staff to set a by-election date as soon as possible with 22 months left in this current council’s term.

But because Elections Nunavut requires a certain amount of time for nominations and campaigning, it will be at least two months before an election can be held, Redfern said.

The city also has to decide whether to award the election contract to the company that ran the last election, in October 2015, or to put out a new request for proposals. If an RFP goes out, that could further delay an election, she said.

Share This Story

(0) Comments