Langley Township will ask for provincial help to hold a school board byelection during the pandemic.
The Township is in charge of running local municipal byelections, and that includes an upcoming vote to replace Megan Dykeman, who stepped down from the board of education after she was elected MLA for Langley East in the recent provincial election.
At the council meeting on Monday, Nov. 23, Councillor Eric Woodward said the Township should get the province to pitch in.
The Township doesn’t have the option to run a local election with mail-in or absentee ballots, Woodward noted in a motion he put before the council.
Therefore, he suggested that they contact the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, to ask that Elections BC administer any local byelections while the pandemic continues, and that the costs of such an election be paid for by the province, rather than the school district.
The motion was approved unanimously.
Multiple other municipalities around B.C. are in a similar position, with mayors, councillors, and school trustees elected as new MLAs in October’s vote. Mission and Chilliwack are to have byelections as well.
