The vacant Ottawa council seat in Cumberland ward will remain empty through the remainder of the coronavirus pandemic, city council decided in a virtual meeting Wednesday.
Cumberland ward has been without an elected representative since former councillor Stephen Blais resigned from the post in March following his victory in an Orléans provincial byelection to service as an MPP with the Liberal Party of Ontario.
The city was planning to hold a byelection for a new councillor in the ward on June 8, but the COVID-19 pandemic and Ottawa’s associated state of emergency have disrupted those plans.
Council opted Wednesday to defer its decision on how to best fill the Cumberland ward seat until a point when the city would have more clarity on how