Fort Liard (Jan 19/07) - Seats on the hamlet council in Fort Liard that remained vacant following last month's municipal election have been filled by appointments.

No candidates were nominated for the five seats in the hamlet for the Dec. 11 election, leaving only Mayor Mike Drake and Coun. Julie Capot-Blanc on the council. The lack of nominees was called a first by Gail Cyr, the chief municipal electoral officer with the GNWT.

John McKee, the senior administrative officer with the hamlet, said he's unsure what all the fuss is about. Appointments have been done before.

"This is nothing out of the normal," said McKee.

There are always some vacancies on the council following elections. This time the number of appointments that needed to be made was just a little higher, he said.

Councillors who have been appointed include Barbara McLeod, Morris McLeod and Mark Schmidz, who are returning from the previous council. Wayne Newbury is a new addition.

There is still one vacancy on the seven-person council.

McKee said he's not sure why no one ran for council. Having only a two-year term for councillors might not help, he said.

The hamlet might consider making the terms longer so elections don't happen as frequently.

-with files from Paul Bickford