City councillors taking leave without pay to run for MLA

Two Charlottetown councillors will be stepping away from their regular duties to pursue a seat in legislature but there are some conditions.

Councillors Melissa Hilton and Bob Doiron are both vying for the District 11 MLA seat. Hilton is running for the PC Party, and Doiron is running for the Liberals.

• Charlottetown-Parkdale byelection set for Nov. 27 - Prince Edward Island

They'll both have to take a leave of absence without pay to run provincially. The rules around this are determined by the Charlottetown Area Municipalities Act.

Section 11.1 of the act statesthat: "Any person holding the office of mayor or councillor shall be granted, for the purpose of running in a federal or provincial election, a leave of absence without remuneration, beginning when the person has filed nomination papers with the appropriate election official, and continuing until the end of the election."

City laptops, cell phones not permitted

Councillors have to submit a formal request for a leave of absenceto the CAO.

While on leave, the councillors are not allowed to do their city council jobs.They will no longer be permitted to use their city laptops, city cell phones and other devices.

They also have to ceaseaccessing municipal information. That means they'll no longer have access to electronic databases or city email.

The city said Hilton and Doiron have submitted their formal requests, and are in the process of meeting all of the conditions around their devices. They still need to schedule a meeting with council to make the leave official.

Council meetings can still go ahead

Hilton and Doiron's departure leaves council down three members. Eddie Rice is currently on medical leave.

Thequorum for Charlottetown city council is the mayor andhalf of council five members. So even with three councillors on leave, meetings can still go ahead.

The District 11 Charlottetown-Parkdale byelection is set for Nov. 27.

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