Moose Jaw city council holds special meeting to address resignation of mayor

The citizens of Moose Jaw will have two upcoming elections this year after Fraser Tolmie resigned as the mayor on Tuesday.

Tolmie had to resign since he is the federal Conservative candidate for the Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan constituency.

He lost his title as mayor at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

“I’m proud of our community. I’m proud of people being able to put down their own personal ambitions and to be able to work together and to make life better for others within the city,” Tolmie said.

“I’m proud of our council, I’m proud of our achievements and proud of our administration. We’ve been extremely focused these last number of years to clean up our city, to address infrastructure challenges, to take things head-on, provide solutions and that’s essential in a community.”

Moose Jaw city council called a special meeting for Tuesday night to decide how to fill the vacated position.

At Tuesday’s meeting, city council elected councillor Dawn Luhning as acting mayor. She will serve as mayor until a by-election is held and a new mayor is sworn in.

“I’m excited about the coming months and weeks for this council and excited to see who the community pulls for as the new mayor,” Tolmie said.

Tolmie adds he’s confident councillor Luhning will do an excellent job as interim mayor, especially since she has the most experience, serving the longest on city council out of all six councillors.

As stated in The Local Government Election Act, “civic elections are to be held every four (4) years on the second Wednesday of November.

“If a vacancy occurs between election dates, the Act provides for the holding of a by-election. The by-election must be held within six months of the vacancy occurring unless the vacancy occurs after Jan. 1, during a general election year.”

Although, with an ongoing pandemic and two subsequent elections, city officials are concerned about voter fatigue.

“I think we do have to do a bit of an extra job once the federal election is done, to remind people that the municipal election..by-election is still happening,” said Jim Puffalt, Moose Jaw’s City Manager, after the special council meeting on Tuesday.

“You know here’s your candidates, here’s your voting areas and all of the details about it will have to be out,” he added.

The city’s last municipal election in 2020 saw a voter turnout rate of only 22 per cent and that election was just three weeks after residents headed to the polls for a provincial one.

Puffalt says council will be waiting until the federal election wraps before starting the process for the municipal by-election.

“We’ve taken a look and there’s a report coming next council meeting on Monday to give the terms specifically, it looks like early November, again municipal elections we do try to stay out of a federal election,” Puffalt said.

More information regarding the by-election will be presented at the next city council meeting on Aug. 23.

Tolmie has been the mayor of Moose Jaw since 2016. He was first elected to Moose Jaw city council in 2009.

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