High voter turnout in Teslin
Clara Jules beat out incumbent Robin Smarch in Teslin’s mayoral race last Thursday.
Jules received 89 votes to Smarch’s 42.
This will be Jules’s third stint as mayor.
During the last term, Jules had to step down halfway through her term to spend time with her husband, who was recovering from surgery.
“I just felt that I couldn’t look after the community and look after him too,” said Jules.
Her husband is doing much better now and Jules is ready to switch her focus toward working for the people of Teslin as well as those that live in the surrounding area.
Jules also plans to work closely with the Teslin Tlingit Council and the federal and territorial governments to upgrade the community infrastructure.
Unlike Whitehorse, Teslin enjoyed a relatively high voter turnout on Thursday, with 131 voters participating out of a possible 200.
That’s a significant improvement over the last municipal election, when only 82 people cast their vote, said Jay Dobson, Teslin’s returning officer.
“I think really it’s to the credit of the candidates who got out there and really made it happen.”
Many of the candidates were out actively letting people know that they were running for the election and what their platform was.
And several were very active in making sure people got to the village office to vote.
“I just want to thank the community for the outcome of the vote and everything,” said Jules.
“And I’ll be seeing them around.”
Lori Joe, Margaret Douville, Sharron Anderson and Stacey Hassard were elected as councillors. (Chris Oke)
Mediator called in for YTA talks
The territorial government and teachers’ union are headed for mediation to move along stalled collective negotiations.
The decision was made late last week by the chair of the Yukon Teachers Labour Relations Board, at the request of the Yukon Teachers’ Association.
A mediator will likely be in place sometime in November, said a union release.
The Yukon government recommended against mediation in September, saying it would be a waste of time, given the big gap in wages being proposed by both parties.
Teachers want annual wage increases of 4.5 per cent over two years. The last collective agreement, which expired in June, gave teachers annual wage increases greater than three per cent over three years.
Yukon’s teachers are the third-highest paid in Canada, following teachers in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. (John Thompson)