Black-River Matheson officially has a new mayor

Meet the new mayor of Black River-Matheson After many months of uncertainty, the Township of Black River-Matheson officially has a new mayor & council in place. Ian Campbell has more.

After months of uncertainty and a summer by-election, the Township of Black River-Matheson in northern Ontario officially has a new mayor and town council in place.

The new council was sworn in last week following the mid-August vote.

Former Ward 3 Coun. Dave Dyment is now the mayor.

Dyment won the top seat at the municipal council table with 728 votes in a by-election held Aug. 12.

According to the town website, Dyment’s campaign platform was "I'm honest, open and willing to listen. Our community will benefit from this."

Shortly after the results were released, Dyment said he felt relieved and the new council is a new chapter for the town.

"We need people that are going to be committed and be out there. I think the people that we have in office with us now are there for the long haul, they're excited and we're all pretty level-headed," he said.

"We're all on one team, so I think moving forward, we're going to have some positive results."

Dyment is joined by six newly elected councillors; Bree Allen (Ward 1), Dan Charbonneau (Ward 2), Steve Campsall (Ward 3), Scott McCutcheon (Ward 4), Louise Gadoury (Ward 5) and Alain Bouchard (Ward 6).

He said the new council is going to "turn this town around."

Black-River Matheson made headlines in the region for more than a year due to a non-functioning town council, a municipal strike involving its 14 public workers and a controversial property tax increase of 34 per cent.

The provincial government had vacated the last council after it failed to meet for more than 60 days.

Dyment was one of the councillors who spearheaded the movement that led to the previous council being booted by the Ontario Government.

The new council was sworn in at its inaugural council meeting on Aug. 27 and will serve until the October 2026 municipal election.