BLACK RIVER-MATHESON - Another meeting has been cancelled as a trio Northern Ontario councillors continue to boycott them in hopes of triggering a byelection.
Last night’s (April 9) Black River-Matheson council meeting was cancelled due to a lack of quorum. It's the fourth consecutive meeting that has been cancelled because there weren't enough members in attendance.
Mayor Doug Bender and councillors Chantal Rondeau and Allana Schmidt were the members in attendance. They waited 16 minutes before it was officially cancelled.
Councillors Dave Dyment, Louise Gadoury and Steven Campsall did not attend. Coun. Keith Neal resigned in February, but there hasn't been a meeting held to accept his resignation or determine how he will be replaced.
SEE: Matheson councillors continue to boycott meetings
The council members, township staffers James Lefebvre and James Mousseau and fire chief Guy Lamb were also in the meeting before it was called. They talked about internet providers, Starlink versus Xplore, Bender mentioned adding another piece onto his two garages once the weather gets warmer, and there was a short discussion about roads.
“As we were discussing earlier, you're just going to keep an eye on the roads and we'll try to wait for some drier weather before we try to slosh the mud around," Bender said to Mousseau.
In response, Mousseau said they’ll take it day-by-day and keep their “eye on things.”
About 14 minutes into the meeting, Bender said they’d wait a couple more minutes until cutting the live feed.
“I know everybody's got other things they can be doing other than sitting and just staring at me,” he said.
Dyment, Gadoury and Campsall have said they are boycotting meetings and are trying to have the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing step in.
If a municipal council can’t hold a meeting for 60 days because of a lack of quorum, the Municipal Act says that the Minister of Municipal Affairs may declare all of the seats vacant, triggering a byelection.
SEE: Three Matheson councillors boycotting meetings to try and force byelection
RELATED: Scheme to force Matheson byelection 'just not going to happen' predicts CAO
The last time that council publicly met was Jan. 23.
Its Feb. 13 meeting was cancelled due to a CUPE rally that day. Short of quorum, the Feb. 27, March 12 and March 26 meetings were cancelled. They did meet in-camera on Feb. 20.
The township has a seven-person council and at least four members must be present for the meeting to happen.
Part of the agenda included a budget guideline report that will be used to adopt the 2024 operating and capital budgets along with a four-year forecasted budget. Council hasn’t discussed anything related to the 2024 budget.
Another item was a correspondence from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs dated March 18, 2024, discussing the duty of councillors to attend meetings and fill vacancies on council to “support the municipality and its operations.”
The letter notes that cancelling meetings can “impact municipal services provided to the community and ultimately risk the municipality’s administrative and financial obligations,” like passing an annual budget.
The meeting can be watched on the town’s YouTube channel here.
