At a meeting on Tuesday night, April 18, the town council and the department reached an agreement – and the formerly resigning members will be staying on.
In a Facebook post to the St. Lunaire-Griquet Community Channel group, Mayor Dale Colbourne advised the public that a committee would be formed to ensure “necessary policies are put in place for the department and council regarding the department.”
She added, “We will continue to keep the lines of communication open and transparent.”
According to an earlier Facebook post by Deputy Fire Chief Chris Humby, a number of firefighters resigned from the St. Lunaire-Griquet Volunteer Fire Department after the town council rejected the results of the fire department’s vote for a new fire chief. The former fire chief had earlier resigned for personal reasons.
According to Humby – who remained an active member through the process and was out of the country at the time of the election – the town council rejected the vote because “it didn’t follow the Municipalities Act and they wanted an open and transparent process for the election of officers in the Fire Service as per the Municipalities Act and Fire and Emergency Services.”
In her Facebook statement, mayor Colbourne issued “a huge Thank You to our department for their dedication. This has never been an issue about who they voted in and together we will work on the process.”
The Northern Pen was unable to reach Colbourne for further comment.
Update: The St. Lunaire-Griquet Volunteer Fire Department told the Northern Pen a peaceful resolution was reached and it was concluded that no policies were broken in the voting process.
“We both got together and it was a learning experience for both sides,” they said. “We came to the conclusion that nobody was in the wrong here – there were no policies broken (i.e. the Municipalities Act). We came to a peaceful decision and all of our members are back in order and the town council and the fire department have a stronger relationship than they did before.”
