City council has called a special meeting for tonight at 5:30 p.m. to decide how to fill the vacated position of mayor after Fraser Tolmie announced his resignation.
Tolmie — who is the Conservative Party of Canada candidate for the Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan constituency — will resign effective 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 18.
The federal election is Monday, Sept. 20.
“I was given the confidence of the people in two elections and it has been my honour and privilege to serve the City of Moose Jaw as mayor since Oct. 31, 2016,” he wrote in an email on Aug. 16 to acting city clerk Tracy Wittke and city manager Jim Puffalt. “Please accept this as my resignation.”
Tolmie’s resignation will likely prevent him from attending the Monday, Aug. 23 meeting as mayor, where it was expected that he would be thanked for his time on council.
A report to council from the city clerk’s office explained how The Cities Act and The Local Government Election Act, 2015 manage municipal general elections. A byelection will need to be called to fill the vacancy that Tolmie’s resignation has created.
The Local Government Election Act, 2015 says civic elections should be held every four years on the second Wednesday in November. If a vacancy occurs before then, a byelection must be held within six months unless the vacancy occurs after Jan. 1 during a general election year.
A member elected during the byelection to fill the vacancy would hold office for the remainder of the unexpired term of the person he or she replaced. This means whoever replaces Tolmie would still have more than three years to serve since the last municipal election was in November 2020.
The city clerk’s office plans to bring forward a detailed election report to the Aug. 23 regular council meeting, which will outline the protocols and processes necessary for a byelection. Council would then be required to set the byelection at that meeting.
Meanwhile, The Cities Act allows for council to appoint a councillor as acting mayor if the mayor and deputy mayor cannot perform their duties or if both positions are vacant, a council report said. Since council appoints a deputy mayor on a two-month rotating basis, council could continue with that schedule and have that person be acting mayor.
Council’s other option is to appoint one interim acting mayor until a byelection is completed and the successful candidate is sworn in as mayor. That councillor who was acting mayor would then revert to councillor.
Once council determines the direction of the acting mayor role, the city clerk’s office will prepare a report about the Board of Police Commissioners for the interim appointee since the mayor is the chair of that board.
The Moose Jaw Express will have another story from tonight’s meeting.
