Municipality plans byelection after multiple resignations

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This article was published 16/07/2019 (2251 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Residents of the Municipality of Norfolk Treherne are headed to the polls for a byelection on Sept. 4 after four of the municipality’s seven council members resigned in June.

Former councillors Perry Delf, Dale Timmerman, Steve Nicholsonand James Knockaert resigned days after municipal council voted 4-3 on June 13 to fire the rural municipality’s chief administration officer, Jackie Jenkinson.

Reeve Will Eert said he couldn’t disclose more details on why Jenkinson was let go but said one of the councillors who left resigned for personal reasons.

“My opinion is that they quit because they wanted to bring down our local government. There’s a minimum number of councillors required to fill a local government, quorum, and my belief is that they thought if they quit we would get below minimum number and in that case, council is dissolved. … That’s what it looks like to me.”

The municipality’s council has kept meeting, though, as Manitoba Department of Municipal Affairs ruled that the remaining members, two councillors and a reeve, meets quorum.

Since the resignations, all of the municipal office staff have gone on leave, creating more issues for Norfolk Treherne. Eert said they have been fulfilling services as best as possible and the municipality has hired Roger Bouvier as an interim CAO.

One of his jobs will be to find a new person to fill the role.

Coun. Robert Davy, who is still a municipal councillor, deferred comment to Eert. Coun. Larry Marlatt, the other councillor who stayed on, deferred comment to Bouvier. Bouvier could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Steve Nicholson, one of the councillors who resigned, said he could not comment on the reason he left council until later this week. He said he still had to meet with people regarding what happened. Delf and Knockaert could not be reached on Monday.

Since the Town of Treherne was amalgamated with the surrounding area in 2014, Eert said there has been tension in the local government, especially after the 2018 municipal election. He said he believes it is a result of most Treherne-based councillors voted out in the last election.

“I see what’s going on as a fight now as a power struggle between the town of Treherne and the rest of the municipality. They want us out, they want their own people in there and that’s how it is. That’s what I see.”

The tension is not good for the municipality, Eert said, and hopefully, the local government can move forward after the September byelections. Some have personally attacked council members, which Eert said is “counterproductive.”

“Part of being in a democracy is you get to be critical of your government,” Eert said. “The question is when does it go from being critical of your government to being personal harassment and individual attacks? I think it’s important to realize that parliamentary privilege does not extend to municipal council meetings.”

Some residents of the community are calling on Eert, Davy and Marlatt to also resign so the government body can have a fresh start. On Monday afternoon, Eert said he had no plans of stepping down from his position as reeve.

“To me, the dishonourable thing to do is to bow to pressure from a small group of unhappy people and resign. The honourable thing is that the people identify that we live in a democracy. … They can come and do a civil delegation, express their feelings, we listen to them and we think about it,” he said.

“There’s a lot of upset people in this community, and people have been saying that this needs to stop. It does need to stop, but they’re the ones that need to stop.”

Until a new council is elected interim hours at the municipal office are from Tuesday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Nominations for new council members are open from July 24-30.

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