Armstrong electing new council to replace ‘toxic’ one

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Advanced voting begins this weekend in a by-election to replace an entire rural municipal council that was dissolved after several councillors walked off the job earlier this year. Two of those councillors are trying to get their old jobs back.

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The RM of Armstrong has announced its upcoming by-election will be held July 31, with advanced voting scheduled to take place on Saturday, and again on Tuesday.

The by-election comes after Armstrong councillors Pat Stein, Paul Humeny, Ted Sumka and Brent Dziadek abruptly resigned during an April 9 council meeting, in what Stein said at the time was a “coordinated” action.

In an April interview, Stein said the council members resigned because of a “toxic” working environment that was negatively affecting council and the people they were elected to serve.

“It was toxic, and I could not continue to work under those conditions any longer, it was so bad that it was also not in the best interest of the RM for council to be working in those conditions,” Stein said on April 16.

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The RM did have a code of conduct in place when the resignations took place to deal with workplace issues, but Stein said it was decided by the four council members who quit, that they would get no help from that code of conduct, because she said “when it’s not adhered to, it becomes a long, expensive and drawn out process.”

The resignations left the Interlake community with two sitting council members, Reeve Kate Basford and Councillor Allen Pfrimmer, and forced a by-election, as Manitoba’s Municipal Act requires a minimum of three elected officials.

Despite their resignations, two of the four council members who stepped down in April will attempt to regain their seats, as Stein is running for reeve, and will face off against Basford and Garry Wayslowski.

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Humeny, who also resigned in April, will also run, as he tries to regain his seat in Ward 2.

In total, 15 candidates will run for five of the six seats on council, while one has been awarded through acclamation.

Since the dissolution of council, the day-to-day operations in Armstrong have been performed by a provincially-appointed administrator, and the RM has cancelled all council meetings since April 9.

The community has scheduled its first council meeting after the election for Aug. 13.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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