The mayor of the small municipality of Northern Ontario, Fauquier-Stickland, says she has no plans to resign, since the community avoids a municipal closure for little due to an operational deficit of $ 2.5 million.
In a meeting of the City Council on Tuesday, resident Peter Konopeky received applause from others who attended when he asked Mayor Madeleine Tremblay to resign.
“We ask you to give up and allow someone to understand how to handle [the municipality] And progress, “said Konopeky.
Tremblay, however, said he would end the rest of his mandate.
“And I have to tell you that I will do my best,” he said.
“It would be much better to run, and quit smoking and not face music. But I am not that kind of person. I will fight, I will work hard and do my best to try to find a solution.”
At a special council meeting on July 31, the Fauquier-Stickland Council accepted $ 300,000 in provisional funds in the province to avoid a closure of municipal services.
At the beginning of that month, Tremblay said that the municipality could not pay services such as garbage collection without help from the province or a significant increase in the property tax of up to 200 percent.
Temporary provincial financing will now allow the municipality to maintain garbage collection, keep the overtime, retain its volunteer fire department and continue with limited administrative functions with a personnel of three.
But Shannon Pawlikowski, director of Municipal Services at Fauquier-Stickland, said many services should be reduced.
“The services, whatever happens, will continue to be bones in the predictable future.”
Tremblay told CBC News in July that it was a challenge to keep up with the growing costs of services when the municipality has about 500 people.
She said some projects, such as the updates of the municipal water filtration system, were on the budget. That particular project, which occurred during the Covid-19 Pandemia, cost around $ 1 million.
