The Town of Hay River is down to six councillors, plus a mayor, following a resignation earlier this month.
Roger Candow submitted his resignation on Jan. 3.
The now former councillor was out of town last week and could not be reached for comment.
Mayor Brad Mapes said Candow resigned because of personal work opportunities, which meant he would not be able to be at town council as much as he wanted to be.
"The town appreciates the work that he's done," said Mapes, noting Candow served on council for five years.
"He gave his input," the mayor added. "He had different ways to look at it. That's the whole thing about the council is trying to get different viewpoints to make the best decision going forward."
With Candow's resignation, there are now six councillors, instead of the normal eight, along with a mayor.
Mapes said council could discuss if it wants to fill the vacancy, but he believes that is extremely unlikely since council didn't fill the other vacant seat when Mike Maher resigned in December 2016 and since there is a municipal election later this year.
"It sounds like there are no plans for them to fill it in," the mayor said.
Council has three options – hold a by-election, call for expressions of interest from people and appoint a new councillor, or let the seat remain vacant for the rest of council's term.
Mapes noted the fact there are now six councillors brings up the idea that Hay River could only have that number of councillors, like communities of a similar size in the South.
"That's a discussion point that's going to come up with council in the near future," he predicted.
Mapes also noted town residents narrowly voted in 2012 in favour of switching to six councillors, but the change was never made.
"There are some cost savings in there," he said. "Obviously you'd have two less councillors. My personal opinion – and it's only my personal opinion – is the fact that six councillors for the size of our town is plenty."
In fact, he noted the Yukon capital of Whitehorse has six councillors and one mayor.
Mapes said, if council decides to switch to six councillors, approval would have to be obtained from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs before the election in October.
"There's still plenty of time to change it," said the mayor.