Vancouver City Council byelection to be held on October 14

The exterior of Vancouver City Hall. (Shutterstock)

The City of Vancouver has provided a timeline for the upcoming $1-million byelection to fill the vacant councillor seat on Vancouver City Council.

General voting day is currently slated for Saturday, October 14 from 8 am to 8 pm at about 50 locations across the city, including schools, community centres, City Hall, and one church. The precise locations will be announced as the election nears.

The advance voting period will take place from Wednesday, October 4 to Tuesday, October 10 while mail-in ballot voting is set to start on Tuesday, September 26.

In order to vote in the byelection, individuals must:

be 18 years of age or older on general voting day
be a Canadian citizen
have lived in BC for at least six months immediately before voting day
have lived in Vancouver for at least 30 days immediately before voting day or have owned property in Vancouver registered in your name for at least 30 days immediately before voting day

Permanent residents who have yet to become Canadian citizens cannot vote.

The nomination period for being added to the ballot will run between August 29 and September 8. To date, only one individual has stated their intention to be a candidate.

The process to organize a byelection was quickly launched earlier this month after Geoff Meggs resigned from Vancouver City Council to become the Chief of Staff for the new provincial government led by the BC NDP and Premier John Horgan.

With the vacancy from the resignation, City Council is now comprised of five Vision Vancouver councillors not including the Mayor, three Non-Partisan Association councillors, and one Green councillor.

It remains to be seen whether this byelection ballot will include a byelection for the Vancouver School Board. Last fall, the BC Liberal provincial government fired the elected school board and replaced it with appointee Dianne Turner.

Premier-designate Horgan has indicated that he is considering holding a byelection to have a new elected school board replace Turner. The City says the provincial government has until Friday, August 4 to notify the municipal government of its intent to allow a Vancouver School Trustees byelection to be conducted.

Any individuals elected from this byelection will hold their position for approximately one year, until voters return to the polls in October 2018 for the scheduled general municipal election.

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