Enterprise mayor rejects councillor’s attempt to scrap resignation

Enterprise’s mayor says one councillor’s attempt to retract his text-message resignation will not be accepted, meaning his seat will be contested in a May by-election.

Jim Dives sent a text message resigning from the hamlet’s council shortly after Sandra McMaster won February’s mayoral election. He then changed his mind, stating he wished to remain on council.

McMaster, though, says the resignation stands and Dives’ seat will be up for grabs. Three other vacancies also need to be filled after people elected to those council seats declined to be sworn in, citing concern about McMaster’s election as mayor.

“We need four councillor seats filled. It’s all been set out,” said McMaster of the upcoming by-election, which will conclude on May 6.

“Everything we’re doing is legal and we’re going on with an election.”

McMaster says the NWT’s Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has been consulted and agrees four seats is the correct figure.

Dives disagrees. He says Maca minister Vince McKay told him earlier this week his seat was secure.

“When you ask a lawyer’s opinion on something, if they don’t have all of the facts, then the result that you get is going to be tainted by that,” said Dives.

In a statement issued after this article was first published, McKay acknowledged a conversation with Dives had taken place and that the minister had told Dives “he may still have a seat on council.”

The minister said, however, that he now understood the hamlet to have accepted Dives’ resignation, adding: “He is encouraged to put his name forward during the current nomination period for the upcoming by-election.”

Dives said his text message contained the wrong date and he did not comply with a hamlet request for a letter bearing his signature to formalize the resignation.

He says he has previously witnessed a council member verbally resign without facing repercussions. He thinks there’s a double standard at play, asserting that the hamlet hasn’t accepted similar heat-of-the-moment resignations in the past.

“I don’t see how you can pick and choose like that,” said Dives. “Either you treat everybody the same or you don’t. And right now, they’re not, that’s for sure.”

McMaster said Dives broke council’s code of conduct and “went against our community when he gave his resignation … just like the other three gentlemen when they refused to sign the oath. They didn’t do anything positive for the community.”

Maca told Cabin Radio: “In order for a council resignation to be valid, it needs to be accepted by the community government. Maca has been advised that this was done by the hamlet and communicated to the individual.”

McMaster said Dives should run again if he wishes to remain on council.

“If the people want him there, he’ll be a councillor again,” she said.

Dives said he hasn’t heard from council directly.

“The politics in this town have never been clean. It’s always been one group or another,” he said.

“We’ve got to communicate and try to put the past behind, and putting the past behind is really hard,” said McMaster. “You can let it go a little and let the anger go some, too, because we’ve got to come together to work together.”

The by-election nomination period opened on April 2 and runs until April 15.

McMaster said she hopes people who run for council are “honest, happy, and really want to work for our community, because our community needs a whole lot of help.”