(file photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

Carrot River byelection

Carrot River postpones mayoral byelection amid COVID-19

Mar 24, 2020 | 5:00 PM

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to another postponement in the northeast.

The Town of Carrot River’s mayoral byelection is postponed. A news release stated the postponement is “in light of the risk to the public regarding the COVID-19 virus.”

Town administrator and returning officer Kevin Trew has consulted with both the provincial government and the two mayoral candidates — Acting Mayor Ila Boehm and Brock Irvine.

Trew recommended postponing the byelection to town council, which voted to postpone. Boehm, as the acting mayor, declared a conflict of interest and was not part of the decision.

“We were really looking for the ability to postpone the… byelection due to the COVID-19 virus. It certainly was something that if we needed to proceed, we were figuring out how we could accommodate social distancing and precautionary measures that are required,” Trew told northeastNOW.

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Trew said they were able to find legislation that could support the postponement. He said council members decided it was important to err on the side of caution in this case.

The byelection became necessary after former mayor Bob Gagne resigned in November. Trew said they explored whether they could just hold off until the civic elections being held this fall, but it was clear that the former mayor’s resignations would have had to happen in 2020 for that to happen without a byelection being necessary.

Of course, as with most things since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, the situation is up in the air.

“With the COVID-19 virus and everything else going on, council is very confident that if there’s an opportunity to hold the byelection as per legislation, that they’ll be able to, and if there’s not, very confident that – in kind of some loose terms – it would probably be the least of our worries,” Trew said.

The advance poll was already held March 13, with a turnout of 33 voters. The town’s news release said those votes will “continue to be secured and the election will be deemed ongoing until the end of the regular poll which will be set at a later date.”

Deputy Mayor Dennis Letendre said in the release “I think we can safely say that we can delay holding the regular poll of the byelection until deemed safe to go ahead.”

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974