RM of St. Andrews council lacked authority to take mayor’s power, Appeal Court rules

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This article was published 13/03/2023 (960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Councillors in the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews didn’t have the power to lead a coup against their mayor to strip her of key responsibilities.

In an unanimous decision, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled the councillors “lacked the authority” when they passed bylaws in 2019 allowing them to take away the power of Mayor Joy Sul to chair council meetings and another to allow them to choose a fellow councillor to chair meetings in her place.

In a 19-page decision, Justice Diana Cameron said the councillors didn’t have the power to make the decision. She noted that while the six councillors in the municipality represented and are voted in by residents in their individual wards, the mayor is the only elected official voted in municipality-wide.

Cameron said council can only vote to have a council member chair a meeting if the head of council, the mayor, or the deputy head are not able to act or if the offices are vacant, and that wasn’t the case.

“I’m just ecstatic,” Sul said Monday.

“I know right from wrong. But I didn’t know what a milestone this ruling is. It affects every head of council in Manitoba, if not Canada.”

Sul was elected as a councillor in the municipality in 2014, and was elected mayor in 2018.

But, soon after, tensions flared between the council and the mayor because, even though council and the mayor had voted to proceed with a controversial wastewater project in the area, Sul was unhappy about it and continued to express her opinion about it in public.

Finally, at a meeting on Dec. 10, 2019, council voted to amend its procedures bylaw to allow council itself to appoint the chair and deputy chair for meetings, followed by a special meeting a few days later to appoint deputy mayor John Preun as chairman and another councillor as deputy chairman.

During last fall’s election, four of the six councillors who voted for the motion were defeated, while a fifth, Preun, lost decisively to Sul by 739 votes. Only the sixth, Laurie Hunt, who has won re-election several times, was returned to office.

“This was a democracy issue,” Sul said. “These people overturned an election; how is that even possible? But the people understood and voted in the election.

“This council is a wonderful council. We’re all doing the best we can do to help the residents.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca