Warren Paull will fill the vacant spot on Sechelt (shíshálh) Nation council left by former councillor Garry Feschuk, who suffered a stroke in May.
Paull won the shíshálh Nation’s Oct. 29 byelection with 78 votes. Melodie Pierre came in second with 56 votes, Nate Smith garnered 42 votes, Wesley Jeffries got 22 votes and Colin Joe had one vote. There were two spoiled ballots.
The current council’s term will end in March of next year and Paull said he has a lot of things that he wants to see done in that time.
“Whether or not I can get them done in such a short window is a bit of a dilemma,” he said.
Paull noted that the recent turmoil at the band is something he wants to see “put to rest” and that he thinks the Nation is nearly past it.
The protests and lockdown of the Nation’s administration offices in May and the outfall from it has stalled work at the band for months.
“Because of all the delay there’s been a ton of stuff that’s been on the back burner and we’re actually just in catch-up mode,” Paull said.
He wants to focus on the reconciliation process going forward because it’s “the big one as far as I’m concerned” and noted there’s another large undertaking at the Nation right now.
“We’re doing a reorganization of the entire administration, so that’s big,” Paull said.
“We’re in the process of doing that now. It’s going to be kind of interesting to see how it all turns out.”
He said he has his work cut out for him, starting with catching up on all that he’s missed since his last time on council.
“Right now I’ve got four binders in front of me and they’re all about 1,400 pages each and I’ve got to burrow through those and get caught up on what has happened,” Paull said.
He served on council from 1985 to 1989 and again in 1999 and 2002 and from 2005 to 2008.
He said he feels a bit odd this time, filling a seat left empty by Feschuk, who has long been a fixture at the shíshálh Nation.
“I feel kind of freaked out that I’m sitting in Garry’s chair and in his office,” Paull said.
“It’s kind of surreal.”
Paull joins Chris August, Randy Joe and Robert Joe on council, along with Chief Calvin Craigan.
