Councillor Chadi will continue on medical leave for the time being. There was a motion that was raised to rescind medical leave for the councillor, and the motion appeared on the agenda for the council meeting Tuesday. Ward 3 councillor Allan Vinni was the one who proposed the motion, and also the one who pulled it from the agenda on Tuesday. When Vinni responded to questins he stated “There is a long history of operating without legal authority for matters such as this. In an open and transparent government, the elected officials would act according to the law and I would very much like to see us operate that way. Council should be mindful that one of their members is not there. It just gives a perspective of a medical leave that is open ended. We still have close to three years left in this term. Theoretically, we could be doing this for the next eight weeks for the next three years. We could do that, but we have to do that while reviewing his absence and excusing it or not excusing it.”

The medical leave for Councillor Chadi started in November 2013. Shortly after being elected Chadi, a Fort Chipewyan resident, received a diagnosis of bile duct cancer and took medical leave for treatment. The type of cancer involved is considered to be very rare. In spite of this four residents of Fort Chipewyan have been diagnosed with this type of bile duct cancer. This has caused some concern about the possible origins of all the cases, and some residents wonder whether there is something in the local environment that may be a contributing factor. The population of Fort Chipewyan is not enormous so four cases of a rare cancer is alarming.