A by-election will take place in late winter to replace CRD Director Mary Sjostrom who passed away suddenly last month.
Charlotte Kurta has been representing the area as an alternate and will continue to do so until the by-election.
CRD Board Chair Margo Wagner says “we are legislatively mandated to hold a by-election unless the municipal elections are within 6 months of when the alternate would step into a Director’s place. So because the municipal elections are in October, that means we have to hold a by-election.”
Wagner says whoever is elected in the by-election will only serve for until the municipal elections are held in October, and then they will have to run again if they want to stay in.
“It’s a bit of an ideal opportunity for somebody to put their name forward to see if they might be interested because if you run in October and you get in, you’re there for a four year term, whereas this way they kind of get to dabble their toes in a little bit to see if something they’d like to do.”
The plan is to hold the by-election in late winter but an exact date won’t be known until January.
Wagner says a by-election, because Area A is so large, will cost at least 10 thousand dollars.
The last time there was a by-election to replace a Director that passed away was for Area E Director Byron Kemp in 2018.
