A recall petition against the mayor of Wetaskiwin failed because it could not garner the required number of signatures.
The petition, which aimed to have Mayor Tyler Gandam removed from his position, only collected close to 1,900 signatures, said Debby Hunker, the petition’s organizer.
The petition was started on Feb. 12 and the 90 days to collect signatures expired on April 12. The petition had to have 5,038 signatures in order to remove Gandam from office.
Hunker said because they fell short, she destroyed the petition.
“As I understood it, if we didn’t have enough signatures, I wasn’t required to hand it in, so in moving on, I destroyed the sheets,” Hunker said.
The recall petition was required to be signed by 40 per cent of the city’s population to be sufficient.
According to Municipal Affairs, the petition would have been measured against a population total of 12,594, requiring 5,038 signatures.
According to Hunker, 1,898 people signed the petition which uncovered a great deal of dissatisfaction among the residents – as Gandam won the last election by only 1,819 votes in the 2021 municipal elections.
“The message that came in loud and clear is that people are very unhappy with the situation here in Wetaskiwin. They have no confidence in the mayor or council at this point,” Hunker stated.
“The increase in costs is getting to be very difficult for people, especially people on fixed income like seniors. The water bill situation is getting completely out of hand, and then on top of everything else, people don’t feel safe in the city because of the vagrancy and theft.”
The City of Wetaskiwin stated on its Facebook page that the city had not received a completed petition against Gandam as of the deadline, April 12, at 4:30 p.m.
The post further reads that the councillor named in the petition, the petitioner, and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs have been notified.