Cambridge council will decide how vacancy will be filled on Tuesday

Cambridge city council will make a decision on Tuesday on how it will fill the recent vacancy created by the death of Ward 1 Coun. Donna Reid.

Reid, who was serving her fourth term on council, died on Aug. 13 at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener after a brief illness.

Two days after she died, council declared a vacancy in Ward 1, giving it 60 days to make a decision on how to fill the chair.

Council will consider two options on how to fill the vacancy: through appointment or through a byelection.

If it chooses to make an appointment, it will have to do so within 60 days, but if council decides to hold a byelection, there will need to be a nomination period before an election is eventually held.

It has only been a few years since Cambridge leaders were forced to make a similar decision, as a similar situation occurred in 2018 when Frank Monteiro died.

In that case, a byelection was held with just over 1,200 voters turning out to elect Scott Hamilton in Ward 7.

&copy 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.