Iqaluit councillors seek applicants
to fill vacant seat
Application deadline is May 22
Iqaluit city councillors vote Tuesday to invite residents to submit applications to fill a vacant council seat. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
The process to fill the vacancy on Iqaluit city council is underway after councillors unanimously approved a motion Tuesday to launch a call for candidates.
“I do think it is important that we fill that seat before summer,” Deputy Mayor Kimberly Smith said, during Tuesday’s council meeting.
“With a lot of us leaving to go out on the land or on holiday, I think it’s going to be more difficult for us to meet quorum over the summer.”
The vacancy was created when former councillor Sam Tilley resigned in March.
Nunavut municipalities do not hold byelections to fill vacant council seats. Instead, the Nunavut Elections Act allows them to either choose from candidates who were not elected in the last election or to make a call for applicants.
Eligible applicants will be invited to make a presentation to council. Then sitting councillors will vote for their preferred pick in secret ballots.
Tilley himself was first selected to join city council after responding to a call for applicants in 2022. He was then elected in the October 2023 municipal election.
The city will put out the call for applicants “soon” with a cut-off on May 22, Mayor Solomon Awa said.
The selection date is scheduled for June 23.
“It is a lot of work. Make sure you, you think about it,” Smith said to those thinking of putting their name forward.
“But please, if you’re interested, come up and talk to us, ask us about our experience. All of us, I think would be more than happy to speak to you.”
The Council’s last pick worked out so well that Council’s Governance and Priorities Committee recommended abolishing the Council’s Public Safety Committee that she Chaired, but then Council decided to keep it.
A lot of work for these Councillors, Chairing Committees to recommend abolishing their own Committees and then voting on keeping the Committees. Keep up the good work.
who was the last pick youre referring to?
What’s wrong with a byelection?
There is no legal authority requiring or allowing a by-election to fill a municipal council vacancy in Nunavut. Under Nunavut law, municipalities (including city, town, and hamlet councils) are governed primarily by the Nunavut Elections Act and the Cities, Towns and Villages Act / Hamlets Act.
The Elections Act sets out general election procedures, it does not allow for municipal by-elections to fill council vacancies mid-term.
The Act states that Council fills the vacancy by appointment, either by calling for applications from the public or by selecting the unelected candidate who received the next highest number of votes in the last election.
CBC was able to include this detail in there News Article and Northbeat broadcast. Maybe Nunatsiaq can start to dig a bit deeper when researching its stories.