There has been a big shake up on the Village of Canal Flats town council, as councillor Evence Blanchard announced his resignation at a regularly scheduled council meeting on December 10.

“Hopefully sometime in the future he will run again, because I think that he did an excellent job,” Mayor Ute Juras said. “He’s very passionate about the community.”

As a result of Blanchard’s departure, Canal Flats will now head for a by-election to elect a new village councillor. A call for nominations has not yet gone out, and Juras said they will wait until after New Year’s to begin looking for candidates. Following that, the by-election is likely to take place in late March.

“I’m hoping it will be someone that knows the community, cares about the community and has the community’s best interests at heart,” Juras said.

Juras said Blanchard had a lot going on in his life and felt that he could no longer give the time commitment necessary that the job deserved. Blanchard could not be reached for comment.

“I just want to make sure people know that I think (Blanchard) did an excellent job, we will all miss him,” Juras said. “He brought a lot to the table, but we understand that priorities change and we just have to go with that.”