The Town of Winnipeg Beach council was dissolved last week after a councillor resigned, leaving the town government without quorum, and the province will be appointing an administrator.
Councillor Doug Jarvis, who served as council’s chair of public safety and sat on the finance and personnel committee, resigned.
Jarvis declined to comment when contacted by the Express. Because his resignation occurred a few months before the next municipal election, no byelection will be held.
Under the Municipal Act, three is the minimum number of council members required for quorum and to conduct municipal business. If quorum isn’t met, the act allows for the appointment of a temporary administrator.
Winnipeg Beach once had a five-member council. Former deputy mayor Jean Gendron resigned in September in 2025, and councillor Larry Kisiloski passed away in December 2025, leaving former mayor Stan Potten and former councillors Barry Hoel (deputy mayor) and Doug Jarvis to govern the town.
The Express reached out to Potten, who declined to comment. The paper also rang the phone number listed for Hoel on the town’s council webpage but was told by a man this was not his number.
The town has seen a number of chief administrative officers come and go over the past number of years. And former mayor Pamela Jackson resigned in September 2024, citing sexism, homophobia and bullying by male members of council who refused to allow her a short medical leave (see Oct. 3, 2024, edition of the Express).
The Express contacted former deputy mayor Jean Gendron after news of Jarvis’ resignation spread.
Gendron, who had previously declined to speak with the Express about her resignation, said she did not “feel comfortable” speaking up months ago.
“Now that this council has been dissolved, I’m willing to explain why I resigned and what was going on around that council table,” said Gendron.
She said she stepped down for a number of reasons, including misogyny, council members acting beyond the scope of their duty and an inability to get things accomplished for ratepayers.
“I resigned because it was very evident — not just to me but to ratepayers as well — that the majority of council at the time preferred to manage the town rather than govern it,” said Gendron.
Under the Municipal Act, a chief administrative officer is responsible for managing and leading a municipality/town, including overseeing its staff. Council acts as the governing body, setting policies, providing services and developing the municipality for its ratepayers.
With regard to council members acting beyond their scope, Gendron said they had a meeting with two staff from the provincial Department of Municipal and Northern Relations at which it was agreed that council committees such as public works and recreation — which have municipal staff as members — would be abolished by council resolution.
“Some council members didn’t like it, but everyone agreed we’d abolish these committees that involved staff. At the next council meeting, on the advice of the CAO, I put a resolution forward to abolish them, and the other members of council changed their mind and voted against it,” said Gendron. “They wanted to keep the committees despite the fact that Municipal and Northern Relations staff said there was a bit of cloudiness between managing and governing within those committees.”
Gendron said council also halted progress on recreation after Budget 2025 was released. The budget proposed funding of about $19,000 to commission a recreation study, and all of council had voted in favour of the budget. The recreation study was to look at the current status of leisure services, parks, and physical infrastructure such as the town’s community centre and curling club in order to help guide long-term planning.
It was initially approved, but at a subsequent meeting the mayor requested to have the recreation study put back on the agenda, she said. When it was raised again, the mayor stated he had made a mistake when he voted. While Gendron supported the recreation study, the rest of council voted against it.
“After public consultation, and staff and council input, the 2025-2030 strategic plan was developed and adopted by council. As a result of the strategic plan, it was deemed that the town needed a recreation study and an operational plan,” said Gendron. “But council failed to follow through with the recreation study, and I don’t believe that to date they have an operating plan.”
Former mayor Potten introduced a resolution to cut the reimbursement of mileage for travel from Winnipeg to the Beach to attend town council business. Being the only seasonal resident on council, Gendron was the only member who would have been impacted by the resolution.
Although Gendron said she provided information from Victoria Beach — which has a seasonal property owner on council and who receives reimbursement when travelling from Winnipeg — Potten repeatedly claimed that a couple of MSOs [provincial Municipal Services Officers] he had spoken to allegedly said it was “unheard of,” and the rest of council voted in favour of the resolution. When Gendron emailed Potten to ask who the MSOs were, he wouldn’t tell her.
“This council has a history of trying to make things difficult for women. I received feedback from several people who had watched that meeting [livestreamed] and they said council’s changing the mileage was a personal attack on me,” said Gendron.
“Council got rid of Pam [Jackson] by giving her no choice but to resign in order to address her medical condition, and former councillor Hoel publicly questioned the integrity of the CAO by saying she had withheld an email from the male members of council. But he apologized at the next council meeting as no such email existed.”
Within such a challenging environment, Gendron said she decided that she “couldn’t continue to be paid by Winnipeg Beach taxpayers” when council wasn’t moving the town forward.
“The reality is that having had 13 months under former mayor Potten’s leadership, two members of council have resigned and now this town has no council,” she said.
The town’s CAO Jodi Mitchell did not respond to requests for comment.
The town’s website notes that a public hearing for the 2026 budget has been set for Monday, May 11 and that next municipal election will be held on July 24.
A spokesperson for the provincial Department of Municipal and Northern Relations said [Jarvis’] resignation on April 30 required the province to step in.
“When there are not sufficient members on a council to form a quorum, the Municipal Act requires the province to appoint an administrator to ensure the continued functioning of the municipality,” said the spokesperson. “The province is currently working to confirm the appointment of an administrator next week. Upon the appointment of an administrator, all council members will be deemed to have resigned and the administrator acts in place of council.”
The administrator will oversee the upcoming budget meeting and stay on until new council members are elected.
“As a resort community, the Town of Winnipeg Beach holds its general municipal election on July 24 and the administrator would stay in place until a new council is sworn in the following day,” said the spokesperson. “A public hearing for the Town of Winnipeg Beach budget is scheduled for May 11. The appointment of administrator will ensure that the public hearing may proceed and that there are no delays to taxation notices and other municipal decisions.”
