Town council in Battleford has officially held its first meeting of the new term on Monday night.
The main highlight of that first meeting back was the swearing in of Mayor Ames Leslie and the six councillors: re-elected councillors Kevin Russell, Judy Pruden, Shelley Boutin-Gervais, Doug Laing, and the two new councillors Alexis Christensen and David George.
The swearing-in was done remotely by Justice Brenda Hildebrandt, who is normally based at Battleford Queen’s Bench courthouse but on this occasion appeared virtually from Prince Albert.
The council meeting itself was done remotely with Mayor Leslie and a limited number of councillors attending live at Town Hall while Pruden and Laing appeared remotely.
The swearing-in was the main highlight of an otherwise routine meeting of council, which also saw the official declaration of the election results from the Nov. 9 municipal vote.
In his remarks at the meeting Mayor Leslie took time to congratulate David Gillan, the town’s director of finance, for winning election as mayor of North Battleford. He also thanked Ryan Bater for his time at the city. “He has done some great things in his time and we wish him the best of luck,” said Leslie.
Leslie also thanked Gordon Yarde, who was defeated in the election, for his two decades on council.
The councillors took turns thanking the voters for their support in the election, and looked forward to the coming term.
“We have a great group, I know I have something to learn from all of you here so I’m looking forward to that over the next four years,” said Christensen.
“I’d also like to congratulate the people who did run,” said George. “It’s awesome that we had 11 people running for six council positions which shows interest and awareness in our community. I’d like to congratulate those people running and looking forward to the next four years.”
Pruden thanked CAO Ash Alam for a “very long day” at the polls, as well as the election workers, noting it took until after midnight to count all the votes.
“I know by the time we got home at quarter to one that it was a pretty long day for all of us. So thank you for the work you did.”
