Communities minister appoints trustee in Crapaud following council resignations

Prince Edward Island Communities Minister Jamie Fox has appointed a trustee to oversee the Rural Municipality of Crapaud after a series of resignations left its council unable to form a quorum.

Former Charlottetown chief administrative officer Roy Main has been appointed as Crapaud trustee. Main will fulfil the position until a new council has been elected. 

"This step is not taken lightly," said Christine MacKinnon, director of municipal affairs at the Department of Fisheries and Communities.

"Our preference is always to work with people of the community and the elected officials. But in the current case, with these recent resignations the municipal council was just not in a position to carry out the necessary business."

MacKinnon said there have been 14 resignations in the municipality's council since 2018. It was last left without a quorum after the resignation of the then-acting mayor and one councillor in July.

Della Ferguson is one of the three remaining Crapaud councillors, who were elected in a byelection last May. 

"The three of us have had a lot of phone calls because they're just hearing things through the grapevine," she said.

Ferguson said the department has not informed them they've been stripped of their positions.

"According to what I've been told, I am a councillor with no power," she said. "So I take it from that that I'm still in council. I have not been told that I'm not."

MacKinnon said the councillors "no longer have a role in the council," but avoided saying the body has been formally dissolved.

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