The Elliot Lake city councillor who topped the polls in the 2018 municipal election, Luc Cyr, says he likely will not run again.
Citing changing family and work responsibilities, the two-term councillor and deputy city mayor told ElliotLakeToday it's not his final answer, but a run for another four-year council term this year doesn't seem to be in the cards right now.
"At this current time, I am fairly decided to not run in the next municipal elections,” Cyr said.
"The last seven-and-a-half years of my time on council has been a difficult one, especially for my family and my working career, so those two critical areas of my life need to return to be my main priority and focus for the next few years,” he added.
"My family, who includes my beautiful special needs daughter, require more of my time during these challenging times and they have sacrificed enough during these past two consecutive terms," he added.
Cyr discussed a number of topics related to the election, including electronic and mail-in voting, both voting options he doesn’t advocate.
"I have many concerns regarding e-voting or vote by mail,” Cyr said.
"Voting should only be done in a manner that is safe from fraud, cheating or free from tampering,” Cyr added.
"We must improve access to voting but we must also ensure the legitimacy, transparency, legality and fairness of each and every vote.
He cited the last Canadian federal election, saying Elections Canada found tens of thousands of uncounted ballots and that this undermines public confidence in the systems in place.
Largely because of this and other incidents involving mail-in or electronic voting irregularities in Canada and the United States, some people have lost confidence that elections are free and fair from tampering, he went on.
Asked what qualities and personal attributes voters should look for when choosing members for the next council in the October election, Cyr cited strong public service character among other things.
"Candidates should have a strong public service character and value public input or opinions to help them in consideration of their decisions,” Cyr said.
"I do believe however they should be able to follow their conscience and adhere to what they believe is right for their community because of the sometimes wide variety of opinions offered to them,” he added.
"Candidates should be accessible to their constituents as much as possible and for that reason, social media can be a useful tool for this, however, it must be utilized with caution.”
With some new faces potentially joining council, Cyr said training for the roles is “sufficient” though improvements could be made.
"I feel the training is sufficient as we all have a multitude of training sessions in critical areas of the councillor’s role as well as many provincial conferences to help,” Cyr said.
"I do believe there can be many improvements in online resource tools provided to municipal councils provided by the province to help give better access to members of councils of better tools for doing research of provincial acts, regulations and policies to better streamline and create more consistent professional formation for all members of council,” Cyr also said.
He also said he feels that “committees of the whole create a better environment for discussing and choosing what business matters, policies and procedures go before council.”
"But that decision was defeated by this current council,” Cyr added. “It is for future councils to decide what formats they wish to utilize for their group.
"As far as remuneration, that is a difficult item for councils to discuss as no voters like to read of their politicians giving themselves financial raises which elevate their pays.”
Cyr added that he believes “the current system is unfair to persons who are working other employments. It can be a significant challenge for a member of council to work full-time, raise a family and be an effective member of council.
"Perhaps fewer members of council but each being a full-time role would be more suitable to give citizens and candidates to really commit full-time to their roles to benefit the community."
While council's honorarium rates have not been reviewed since 2017, Cyr said "I think it is a better and fairer process for the outgoing councils to discuss remuneration for the first year rather than an incoming council in their first year which has too much public pressure to not permit adequate increases.”
"To be and remain on council is considerable pressure on one’s time and family and many families are broken as a result of the burden shouldered upon them from those same time commitments,” Cyr also said. “It isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly by anyone running “
Asked about serving on council during the COVID-19 pandemic, the veteran Councillor said it wasn’t easy.
"COVID-19 has been an incredibly difficult time for all levels of governments I believe,” Cyr said. “It has however demonstrated some significant technologies such as Zoom that can serve and benefit future councils and governments which can help save citizens tax dollars on unnecessary travel costs and gatherings that are significant expenses on taxpayers.”
"My biggest concerns throughout the pandemic have been the significant overreaches by multiple levels of government, which have taken broad new powers never before exercised in history with the sole intent on legally forcibly enforcing a one-sided point of view which now enables easier repeals and vulnerabilities to our rights and freedoms as never before,” Cyr also said.
He went on to say that there has been too much disrespect for differing opinions and stifling of debate or discussion throughout this pandemic.
"If one doesn’t harbour the 'accepted views' then insults, censorship, threats and coercive behaviours attempt to enforce compliance," he said. "We are literally just about in a police state with mandated patterns of thought.”
The deadline for filing nomination papers is Aug. 29, 2022. For full details on the process, click here.