Election season isn’t over yet in the Kootenays.
With Fruitvale Mayor Steve Morissette being named the official winner of the Kootenay-Monashee riding, the village will soon need to find a new mayor to fill his spot.
Morissette will chair his final council meeting on Monday, November 4, with his resignation coming into effect on November 5.
A by-election must be held within 80 days of council appointing a Chief Elections Officer, but Morissette doesn’t anticipate that electorates will be heading back to the polls until at least the end of February.
“The next step is for Fruitvale to appoint a Chief Elections Officer, and that’s when the clock starts ticking. They [council] don’t want to have a by-election in the dead of winter, so I think they’re going to put off appointing the Chief Elections Officer for a couple of weeks at least and try to get the election going around the end of February.”
In the meantime, Fruitvale’s four councillors will rotate serving as deputy mayor.
Right now, Councillor Bill Wenman is the designated deputy mayor for the final quarter of 2024, and then the next councillor will take over in the new year.
Morissette has served on Fruitvale council since 2014 and was elected as mayor in 2018.
He was a key player in leading the development of the community’s new 37-seat daycare facility and the 31-unit affordable housing complex, which is set to be completed in the fall of 2025.
“My proudest accomplishments are that we made a master plan for the former middle school site for the completion of a 37-seat daycare this past winter. We have a 31-unit affordable housing complex going up right behind the daycare right now too, and to me, that’s a really proud accomplishment for our little village.”
For whoever takes over as mayor, Morissette hopes they will embrace their role progressively to assist Fruitvale in retaining and attracting business downtown.
He will be officially sworn in as the Kootenay-Monashee MLA on November 13 in Victoria.
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