THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - A Fort Smith town councillor is facing impaired driving charges.

Sheila Sauteur-Chadwick: Fort Smith town councillor facing impaired driving charges. - NNSL file photo

Sheila Sauteur-Chadwick was arrested in Hay River on Nov. 14 and charged with several offences.

According to the Hay River RCMP, the charges are impaired care and control of a motor vehicle, impaired care and control with over 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 mililitres of blood, and resisting arrest.

"We received a complaint of an impaired driver and, when the member attended and located the vehicle, she wasn't driving," explained Sgt. Scott Buchanan of the RCMP. "She had care and control of the motor vehicle while she was intoxicated."

The complaint from the public was of an erratic driver.

The vehicle was located in the early evening at the Homesteaders Inn on the outskirts of Hay River. Buchanan said there were two children in the vehicle at the time.

"They were delivered to the care of social services," he said.

Sauteur-Chadwick spent the night in jail.

She was released from custody under a promise to appear in Hay River Territorial Court on Jan. 19.

Sauteur-Chadwick, 40, was elected to Fort Smith Town Council last year.

When contacted by News/North, she declined to comment on the charges based on legal advice.

She has lived in Fort Smith for about nine years. In that time, she has held a number of jobs – child protection worker, counsellor, therapist, foster parent, instructor at Aurora College and manager of the Taiga Adventure Camp for girls.

Currently, she is the head librarian at Mary Kaeser Library.

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