Nanaimo-Ladysmith’s school district will be holding a by-election to fill one seat after a trustee resigned in May.
Manager of administrative services Karen Matthews says trustee Charlene McKay stepped down leaving a spot open and because of the timing of the resignation an election was triggered to fill that spot.
“We’re just under halfway through this term, so we can’t have a vacant position for this amount of time,” Matthews says. “If she had retired in January of an election year then we would be able to make it through until the next election.”
Matthews says, much like a regular election, the district will follow the election’s act guidelines to fill the vacant spot and the district has already started to accept nominations.
“Once we appointed a chief election officer, we had so many days to call the by-election and set the date,” she says. “The nomination period opened yesterday and is open until next Friday.”
The candidates will be declared after all nomination forms are submitted with a general election date set for Sept. 14, 2024.
So far Matthews says so far Tim Harris is the only nominee for the position.
The last by-election was held in SD68 in 2021 when the district had to replace current MP Lisa-Marie Barron after she was elected to represent Nanaimo-Ladysmith in Ottawa.
