During their Jan 21 finance and administration committee meeting, members floated the idea of reducing the overall size of Thompson’s city council, which currently sits at eight council members and the mayor.
While it was only brought up as a point of discussion, and nobody at the meeting suggested how many council positions should be cut, city manager Gary Ceppetelli said this idea is being considered as a cost-saving measure. Through ongoing budget deliberations, council members are currently looking to reduce expenditures for the 2018–19 fiscal year, and a less crowded city council is one of several items being discussed.
However, if council is serious about this move Ceppetelli said they would have to draft a bylaw and approve it before April 27, which marks 180 days before the next municipal election.
The last time Thompson city council saw this kind of change it was under former mayor Tim Johnston in April 2010, when the city passed a bylaw that expanded the council from eight members to its current nine at the next general election that fall.
According to the Municipal Act, council is allowed to increase or decrease its members, as long as the overall amount of councillors is “not fewer than four and not more than 10.”
Thompson's council had eight members plus the mayor from 1972 to 2002, when the number of councillors was reduced by one until that position was restored in 2010. From 1966 to 1969 there was a mayor plus six councillors and from 1969 to 1972 there were seven councillors.
