91原创 Township council has appointed an official to oversee an upcoming byelection, but is deferring the election officer's official start date to push the election back to as late as October or early November.
At the Monday, July 7 meeting, council voted unanimously to appoint Chanpreet Kooner, the Township's current chief administrative officer as the chief electoral officer, and Wendy Bauer, the Township's director of legislative services, as his deputy electoral officer.
Councillor Tim Baillie put forward a motion that the appointment be made effective on Aug. 15.
That changes the possible dates of a byelection. The official appointment of an election officer starts an 80-day countdown, under provincial byelection rules. The byelection must be held within 80 days of the appointment of the officer, on a Saturday. If Kooner and Bauer had been officially appointed on July 7, that would have put the last possible date for a byelection on Sept. 20.
Baillie said he wanted to push the effective date back because with many people on vacation in the summer, it's hard to organize a byelection.
"I think it would be putting a lot of people at a disadvantage of doing it very early," Baillie said.
While the last possible date based on an Aug. 15 appointment would be Nov. 1, Baillie said he was hoping for a September or October date, after the rush of early September is over.
Mayor Eric Woodward said there have been challenges recruiting people for the electoral officer roles, and that White Rock is facing similar issues after one of their councillors resigned, having won a seat in the federal House of Commons in the recent election.
Coun. Kim Richter argued that the byelection should be held as soon as possible.
"I don't understand the logic here," she said.
"We're just kicking things down the road here," said Coun. Barb Martens.
Richter's attempt to amend the motion and appoint Kooner immediately was defeated in a five-three vote, with Martens and Coun. Margaret Kunst supporting Richter.
The actual date of the byelection will be up to Kooner, once he's officially appointed.
The byelection is being held to replace former councillor Misty Van Popta, who was elected to the provincial legislature as MLA for 91原创-Walnut Grove last fall. Van Popta had intended to hold both positions until the end of her council term 鈥� which was allowed at the time 鈥� but a new piece of NDP-backed legislation banned MLAs from holding council or school trustee roles, and Van Popta was removed from her council post earlier this spring.
Woodward has objected to the new legislation, noting it will cost an estimated $400,000 to $500,000 to hold the byelection.
In addition to appointing Kooner and Bauer, the council also approved using funding that had been set aside for an agriculture viability study to pay for the byelection. The farm study will be considered again in next year's municipal budget plan.
Whomever is elected to replace Van Popta will serve about a year, until the fall 2026 general municipal elections.
