Wednesday, April 19, 2023 Vol. 46, No. 16
$1 includes GST
Your LOCAL Paper!
Viking Council censures mayor, names Buttner acting mayor and Ewashko acting deputy mayor Patricia Harcourt Editor
In her absence, Viking Mayor Laura Yakiwchuk was censured by council Monday night and relieved of her committee duties. She is also being asked to apologize officially for her conduct. Yakiwchuk has been on unofficial leave since an incident took place during a strategic planning session in March. During that time, Deputy Mayor Jamie Buttner has been chairing the meetings. Viking Council passed several motions at its April 19 meeting regarding the mayor’s conduct. It culminated in relieving the mayor of her committee duties and the remuneration councillors are paid for attending them, while censuring her for what was called “unprofessional conduct.” In her absence, Mayor Yakiwchuk was then replaced by councillor Jamie Buttner, who became Acting Mayor after a unanimous vote of council. Yakiwchuk was also absent from the previous week’s special meeting on governance that council held April 3 where council discussed Code of Conduct issues in closed session. A second closed session meeting was held prior to regular council Monday night, with several motions passed once the councillors were back in the public domain. Councillor Cindy Lefsrud brought forward several com-
plaints against Yakiwchuk, citing Section C in the town’s Code of Conduct bylaw, that states members of council must engage in respectful and healthy debate with one another. She referred to a complaint of a person, who was not named, not being respectful of a council decision. Lefsrud also referred to the need for persons on council to act with professionalism when speaking with other councillors. She referred to one council member acting “aggressively,” and calling the other councillors “uncompassionate jerks before storming out of the meeting.” Lefsrud concluded her statement by saying that council decisions are made by majority vote and are to be respected by all councillors even if they don’t agree with a particular decision. Her motion against the mayor was carried. This was followed by Councillor Clint Nearing who said: “The mayor was given an opportunity to come and speak or present something in writing but has refused to do so.” Nearing then made a motion, also specified as “against the mayor,” requesting that the mayor issue a letter of apology to the CAO, council members, and consultant Nolan Crouse for alleged remarks made during the course of a particular meeting. The only meeting in which Crouse would have been involved was during the special meeting concerning the Strategic
Planning Process for the Town of Viking in which Crouse was the facilitator. That plan was actually passed at the April 17 regular council meeting. Nearing’s motion called for the suspension of all the mayor’s representation on all committees and bodies, and the suspension of remuneration for all these positions. Also, he moved that the mayor only receive partial remuneration for her position as mayor as she was not attending meetings. The special meeting then ended and the regular meeting of council began. Added to the agenda was
the appointments of a temporary acting mayor and deputy mayor. A motion by Nearing to appoint then deputy mayor Jamie Buttner as temporary Acting Mayor for council was passed unanimously. Council also appointed Councillor Dana Ewashko as Acting Deputy Mayor, replacing Buttner Nearing also proposed that Buttner should be paid mayor’s wages that would take effect retroactively to last month. This was due to the fact that Buttner has been doing the chairing of the Continued on Page 6
Police Agreement impact on Beaver County taxpayers unknown for now John Mather Staff Reporter
Beaver County Reeve Kevin Smook isn’t sure yet just what impact the Federal government’s settlement with the National Police Federation representing the RCMP will have on Beaver County. The pay increase will be retroactive to April of 2017. “This was done without municipalities being properly
consulted despite the potential local impact,” said Smook. “While Beaver County doesn’t contract with the RCMP directly, we do receive RCMP policing under the Provincial Police Service agreement which will cost our taxpayers $383,131 in 2023.” Smook added he didn’t know yet whether this would increase as a result of the collective agreement.
