Enterprise mayor resigns after four months
Enterprise mayor Sandra McMaster resigned from her post at a council meeting on July 2, two months after the Northwest Territories hamlet held a by-election to fill empty seats and resume operations.
At Tuesday's meeting, McMaster submitted a letter of resignation with immediate effect.
After the resignation was accepted, then-deputy mayor Barbara Hart was appointed mayor and councillor Jim Dives was appointed deputy mayor until the next election, which will take place in December.
"We assigned a new mayor rather than have an in-term election at this point because by the time it got through the process, it would almost be election time again," said hamlet councillor Genevieve Clarke.
Since the February 13 election that won McMaster her seat as mayor, Enterprise's council has faced multiple obstacles in its efforts to move forward with business as usual.
The hamlet has been handling the aftermath of last year's destructive wildfire while negotiating multiple council resignations and an ongoing dispute over equity leases.
It took the hamlet two months to fill four vacancies on council after some resigned in protest at McMaster's February win over then-mayor Mike St Amour.
Those council seats were filled by acclamation. Dives, St Amour, Clarke and Dave Richards were appointed.
In her resignation letter, McMaster set out a range of challenges she had faced in the position, according to Clarke. (McMaster has not commented.)
"With a small community especially, if any residents have a problem, they know where the mayor lives. They know the mayor's phone number, they know where to find her when she's shopping — you hear it wherever you go," said Clarke.
"It was too tough on her and we understood that. She hadn't been at the last two meetings and without reason too. So, we saw it coming."
"She didn't really attend any meetings except for one since I got back on as a councillor," said Dives. "She was absent without cause for the last three or four meetings. If you're elected as mayor, you can't do that."
Multiple councillors said McMaster had attended one meeting since the new councillors were acclaimed. Clarke said that meeting had gone smoothly with McMaster at the helm.
Now, as they transition to Hart as the new mayor, Clarke says there are some differences in opinion but councillors "hashed it out" and are "working very well together".
"Council seems to be pretty-well on the same page as far as the running of the hamlet," Dives agreed.
"There are certainly issues that are going on right now that we're still trying to deal with, all the way back to the fire. It hasn't been easy at council, but council's basically agreeing on a lot of stuff."
"The resignation will not adversely affect the council," said Clarke.
"The council is working diligently to do what we can to help those people that are displaced and make everything transparent, and work out any issues that are in the community."
Simona Rosenfield, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cabin Radio
