Acting mayor appointed to position
Mary Wilman will chair council until 2015 general election
Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 1, 2014
IQALUIT
Nunavut's capital city has a new mayor after Iqaluit city council appointed acting mayor Mary Wilman to serve until the 2015 general election.
"I do," Wilman said when acting council chairperson Romeyn Stevenson asked if she accepted the appointment Nov. 25. "Sounds like I'm getting married or something."
"You are," joked clerk Tracey Cooke.
"Thank you for believing in me," Wilman told council. "I will try to lead to the best of my ability."
As her first duty as mayor, Wilman recommended Romeyn Stevenson to be deputy mayor, and Simon Nattaq as the alternate deputy. Both were confirmed. Wilman left the council chambers during the discussion about whether to appoint a mayor.
"I've been told I'm not in conflict," she told council, "but for public perception," she excused herself from the discussion.
Councillor Kenny Bell moved to appoint Wilman as mayor. Coun. Noah Papatsie, who with Bell and Coun. Terry Dobbin voted in favour of a byelection in July, was the sole dissenter. Dobbin was absent from the meeting.
Wilman's decision to excuse herself from the debate comes three months after she handed the chair - where she wouldn't have the power to vote unless there were a tie-breaker - to Romeyn Stevenson so she could cast a vote to quash a byelection call by Bell Aug. 26.
Her vote caused a tie, and Stevenson, facing a tie-breaker, also voted against a byelection. Their votes ensured Wilman continued to act as mayor. As a result, she continued to benefit from a July 8 decision to change the indemnity bylaw to ensure an acting mayor gets paid the mayor's $109,000 salary in the event of a prolonged absence.
"I've been told by our lawyers that I was in no way in conflict of interest," Mary Wilman told Nunavut News/North Sept. 4. She disputed the argument by Bell that she should have left the room for the mayoral byelection motion, which would have resulted in a byelection call. "It was a discussion item about a byelection. It wasn't a discussion about whether I want to continue with my salary. It wasn't a discussion on mayors per se."
A byelection would have cost about $90,000 and would have filled a council seat empty since Wilman replaced former mayor John Graham. Council remains one councillor short.
