REGINA — Minister of Government Relations Eric Schmalz is taking a cautious approach after the resignations of four councillors in the RM of Sherwood.
When asked for comment on why the councillors resigned, Schmalz said, “That’s something I wouldn’t really want to comment on.”
He also said this sort of thing is not uncommon, with councillors in other communities leaving midterm, whether for health or other reasons.
“Whenever there’s these type of incidents happen two, three times a year with different councils, for me to make comment on reasons why people would have resigned would be probably inappropriate at this time, given that those are decisions made by those individuals,” said Schmalz.
“We have good people serving, including those who recently resigned, who stepped forward to serve their community. And we encouraged those that would want to step forward and provide the local voice for the people they represent.”
As for the situation going forward for the RM council, Schmalz said the ministry is “going to be there to support the RM of Sherwood and the residents there to ensure that the services they need and require to live in their homes is available to them.”
There are a number of issues facing the RM council in the wake of the resignations, including a lack of quorum for voting at council meetings and a need to fill the positions as quickly as possible.
Schmalz said that reviewing the matter, “it’s obviously very fresh. We’ve had some limited interactions there, and we’re reviewing that as a ministry.”
“Obviously, it’s a procedural matter. There are methods and means and ways in which we are able to support them through the Municipalities Act, and yeah, we’re going to be doing that in a procedural way.”
One thing that could potentially happen is for the government to appoint people to fill vacancies on council. Schmalz said that in instances where municipalities lose quorum, Government Relations will appoint caretakers to ensure the processes of that municipality are carried on in the meantime.
“That’s part of the process,” Schmalz said. “It’s in the act that the government does appoint. It has happened in the past in the RM of Sherwood where the carriage of that RM needed to be continued through an appointment by government to ensure that those services were continued until such time that by-elections could take place. So that is likely going to be what happens.”
