Former Councillor Wendy Bosch’s resignation prompted some conversation in City Hall on Monday night.
Given her departure, council was forced to rearrange a few responsibilities previously held by the councillor such as the Deputy Mayor schedule, and the committees she chaired.
Additionally, the question of a by-election was brought up; however, it was quickly shut down due to a number of factors. To start, City of Grande Prairie CAO Shane Bourke explains a by-election is simply not required as Bosch’s resignation was received after January 1st.
“The Municipal Government Act is very clear when there are requirements for municipalities to trigger by-elections upon resignation, or someone not being able to continue with their duties,” he says. “In this case, there are very clear rules around if it’s after January 1st in an election year, that councils are not required to, councils may still choose if they decide to, but in this case, the rules were very clear.”
Bourke adds that the city is already deep into planning the upcoming general election, and as a result, whoever is elected to replace Bosch would need to run again in just a few months.
“It would take approximately three months for us to complete the startup, as well as getting a new candidate elected and sworn in, as well as the approximately $150K that it would take for us to run a by-election, in a year where we’re already running a general election,” he says. “We’re well in preparations for the general election- the new requirements for registry, paper ballots, and manual counting, so we’re confident we’ll have that ready to go for the general election.”
“Moving that timeline up would’ve created new challenges and just some uncertainty.”
Now, eight councillors remain, opening up the possibility of a tie; however, Bourke explains- “If it’s a tie, it does not move forward, so we do need the requirement of a clear majority going forward.”
The 2025 Municipal Election is scheduled for October 20th.
