Last evening, Elliot Lake city council voted 4-2, to choose Option 1 as the method for filling the vacant councillor’s seat. The seat was declared vacant following Andrew Wannan’s appointment from councillor to mayor, Feb. 12.
Option 1 limits the eligible candidates to “a candidate from the 2022 Municipal Election.”
During the debate, the weight of the decision could be heard in the councillor’s voices.
As head of council, it was Mayor Wannan’s option to speak first to the issue first and last.
“It's been an interesting sort of term for us," Wannan said. "The election was completed and your council was elected - a full seven-member council based on the democratic process of voting.”
“So at that point, some could view that the vote was done, and in democracy, we are moving forward as your leaders to make the decisions.”
“My personal opinion, I think it's valuable to pick a person that is the best choice for Elliott Lake and for me, that would be opening up the process to full application.”
Speaking next, Counc. Charles Flintoff said, “This council doesn't need to just go to this list because that's the way all the previous councils have always done it. If we'd based all our decision-making on it's always been done that way, then we wouldn't have accomplished all the things that we have done so far in this term.”
“We shouldn't just say, we just have to go to the list, because it's always been done that way. That's the status quo way. … It's a democratic vote up here and we can all give our input on this. Personally, I like to factor the open call for applications, also including the people on the list.”
Counc. Norman Mann said he's more than comfortable selecting one of the eligible individuals from the list of candidates from the 2022 election.
"I indicated that at the last meeting and I'm still comfortable.”
“Obviously, we're probably not all going to agree on this, and it's actually kind of nice to have the debate because most of the time we are all on the same page when we are voting. So, it is nice to have a little bit of a wholesome debate on this, but that's where my comfort still remains at this point.”
“My opinion is to go to the candidates list." said Counc. Luc Morrissette. If somebody else wanted to run for council, they had a choice and they could have run and be part of the solution for this vacant seat.”
“Going with the open call, we may just pick somebody that was not- who did not run before. So, in my opinion, I think we should go with the list.”
Counc. Merrill Seidel said, "Well, I see merit in both ways. I look at the eligible list of [candidates] for the 2022 election, and I cannot see why we cannot appoint from that list.”
Couns. Rick Bull agreed, saying, “I, too, see the merits in both sides of the argument- or deliberation, and I think we should go with the list and pick somebody from that list.”
Making the motion, Councillor Norman Mann, said, “Just so we’re not sitting here all night, I’ll move Option 1, that we select from the eligible list of candidates from the 2022 municipal election. Have the name brought forward at the last meeting in March. I so move.”
The motion was seconded by Councillor Rick Bull.
Voting in favour of the motion were Councillors Bull, Mann, Seidel, and Morrissette. Opposed were Mayor Wannan and Couns. Flintoff.
According to the wording of the option and the motion, any eligible 2022 candidate may be considered.
Candidates in the 2022 election included councillor candidates and mayoral candidates. None of the councillors questioned whether mayoral candidates are also being considered.
A page with a chart of councillor candidates and their present eligibility was included with the agenda package however the mayoral candidates chart was not included.