Council votes for byelections in Wards 1 and 4 after new year

HALDIMAND—It will be an election-filled year in 2025 for Haldimand voters. In addition to a scheduled federal election and rumours of an early provincial election, voters in Wards 1 and 4 will head to the polls this spring to select replacements for the late councillors Marie Trainer and Stewart Patterson.

“This is unprecedented in Ontario. We’ve lost two councillors – this has never happened before in Ontario in this short period of time,” said Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley.

The decision to host byelections was made Tuesday, December 10, 2024 and ratified December 16.

Councillors were presented with three options by County Clerk Chad Curtis: byelection, direct appointment, or appointment by call of application.

Curtis said the County was already looking into the logistics of running a dual byelection, ensuring there would be accessible polling stations in both wards and noting that they are working on securing a vendor who could provide stable internet voting and tabulation services.

He predicted that new councillors could be appointed between March and May depending on when the needed bylaw to permit a byelection is passed.

“The 2023 Ward 4 byelection cost approximately $75,000. In consulting with municipal staff and taking into effect inflation and the additional ward, we’re estimating the cost to fill the vacancies for Ward 1 and Ward 4 would be around $150,000,” said Curtis, calling a byelection the “lengthiest process to fill a council vacancy, but it’s also seen as the most democratic.”

While no councillors supported the idea of a direct appointment, both councillors Patrick O’Neill and Rob Shirton expressed an openness to an application process.

Curtis called appointment by call of application the most used method in Ontario during this term for filling vacant seats, noting that anyone who meets the criteria for running for office would be eligible to apply.

“We would have any interested applicants come to a special Council meeting. They would have 10 minutes to speak to Council. They would hear that and have an opportunity to ask a question of the applicant,” said Curtis.

One advantage of this option would have been its expediency, with candidates selected and sitting in their seats before the end of January, allowing them to represent their wards on important decisions like an impending ward boundary review and the 2025 budgets.

“I know for Hagersville we’re looking at over 100 days without representation in that seat,” said O’Neill.

Shirton conceded that byelections are the most democratic approach to filling the seats, but argued for the merits of appointment by application: “It’s a quicker way to get the seats filled, we still have the input of the public, we have more than one to run on it,” he noted.

Mayor Bentley said her office had been flooded with calls and emails on the topic.

“Most of them are in favour of a byelection; we had a few that said they wanted an appointment,” she shared. “We can hear loud and clear from our constituents, because when they have an issue on the table boy do they rise up and start emailing.”

She said that community events also gave her ample opportunity to speak with many constituents face-to-face.

“It is a very hot topic,” said Bentley. “I feel a byelection is a reflection of my commitment to transparency, inclusivity, and democracy. While administrative and financial resources are needed in this investment in our democratic foundation, an important decision is ahead of us and I’m confident this Council will approach the decision with what serves the best interests of our county.”

Councillors Dan Lawrence and John Metcalfe threw their support behind Bentley.

“We sit in these seats because we’ve been voted in,” said Lawrence, suggesting he’d only consider appointment in a case where less than a year remained in the term. “I believe that everybody here at this table should be elected…. There is no price on democracy, even though I take it very seriously that we’re going to be spending upwards of $150,000 for this.”

Shirton rebutted, “It’s funny that the number one decision as far as moving forward for other municipalities has been the appointment. I don’t know whether we’re afraid to do that, but the other municipalities seem to step up and do that.”

Undeterred, Lawrence said that even with the cost and possibility of low voter turnout, “that’s out of our hands. We can’t control that. What we have to look at is what we can control and what we firmly believe in…. People died for this right (to vote). I think it would be a disservice at this time if we didn’t allow the people to pick.”

Council voted unanimously in favour of the dual byelections. Stay tuned to The Press in 2025 for coverage of this process.