Sole acclaimed member to appoint Apex school body

The only person nominated to the seven-member Apex District Education Authority, Samantha Barnes, will be responsible for appointing people to fill six remaining vacancies on the committee.

Even after a one-week extension to the nomination period, which expired this past Monday, Barnes was the only person named as a candidate for the Apex school body.

This means she not only wins the position by acclamation, but under the Local Authorities Elections Act, she also bears the burden of appointing people to fill all the other vacant positions.

The act says: “the local authority, composed of the candidates declared elected and any other members of the local authority, shall appoint a sufficient number of persons as members of the local authority to fill any remaining vacant positions.”

Kirt Ejesiak, the returning officer for Iqaluit’s Oct. 16 municipal election, said he doesn’t know of any situation in the past where only one acclaimed member has appointed all other members of a local public body.

Ejesiak said that after the remaining six members are appointed, they must work out staggered one- or two-year terms among themselves.

That’s because the Local Authorities Elections Act states that by-elections must be held, starting in one year, to confirm appointed members and give voters a chance to actually elect people.

The Iqaluit District Education Authority will not see an election this fall either.

After the one-week extension period, seven people were nominated to fill seven vacant seats, which means they will all be acclaimed.

After the terms of the outgoing IDEA members expires, the new IDEA will consist of: Mehrun Forth, Lori Idlout, Wilfrid Jephson, Scott Johnson, Christa Kunuk, Andrew Tagak Sr., and Elayne Wyatt.

This means the only Iqaluit school committee to require an election on Oct. 16 is the Commission scolaire francophone du Nunavut, where seven nominated candidates will contest five positions.

The seven candidates are: Jeffrey Barkley, Jane Cooper, Rosemarie David, Marco Dussault, Jacques Fortier, Jacinthe Giroux, Carolyn Mallory, and Anthony Vieni.

There are only 61 names on the voters’ list for the Commission scolaire, made up of people whose children attend l’Ecole des Trois Soleils.