NF Expels Councillor Stephanie Regent Over Non-Attendance
North Frontenac township has removed Councillor Stephanie Regent and declared her council position, as council member for Ward 1 (Barrie), vacant.
Section 259 of the Ontario Municipal Act says that the “office of a member of council of a municipality becomes vacant” under certain conditions.
One of those, Condition C, is if the member “is absent from the meetings of council for three successive months without being authorized to do so by a resolution of council.”
A staff report to Council for their meeting on Friday of this week (February 6), says that Councillor Regent attended a meeting on October 31, virtually, but did not attend the meeting on November 21, the meetings on December 4th and 16th, or the meeting on January 16th.
The report goes on to say that “On January 27, 2026 the CAO and Clerk Planning Manager provided Councillor Regent with a letter advising that per the Municipal Act her seat as a Member of Council would be considered vacant as of February 1, 2026 and therefore as a result would be declared vacant at the February 6, 2026 Council Meeting.”
When contacted by phone early this week, Mayor Gerry Lichty said that the decision to enforce the municipal act in this case, was informed by consultation with the township’s solicitor, who said that the township had no choice but to follow the dictates of the Act in this case.
The Municipal Act provides Ontario municipalities with a few options when it comes to replacing a vacant seat on council. If an election is less than three months away, the position can remain vacant. Since that is not the case in this instance, the municipality can either hold a by-election or appoint a resident of the township to the position. There are further options when it comes to appointments, one of which is to offer the position to the person who received the highest number of votes in the most recent election, but still lost.
The North Frontenac procedural policy states that the position be offered to that person.
In 2022, Stephanie Regent received 468 votes, Wayne Good, 430, Mike Hage 390, and Kevin McCann 181. There are two councillors per ward in North Frontenac, so Regent and Good were elected, and Hage finished third.
Council has the option to suspend the procedural policy, but if they decide to follow it, the position will be offered to Mike Hage, and he will be invited to the February 27 meeting of Council to take the oath of office.
When contacted, Mike Hage said that he was informed by township staff a couple of hours before the amended agenda for this week’s meeting came out on February 2nd, that he could be offered the post if Council goes along with the staff recommendation on Friday.
He said that he has received messages on various channels supporting his acceptance of the position, “as of this moment, I have not yet made a decision and need to first wait for Council to decide, and secondly, I need a few days to weigh my options and consider all angles before making my decision.”
If appointed, Hage will be the second member on this current council who finished third in their ward election back in 2022. Vernon Hermer was appointed after Gerry Martin resigned for health reasons before taking the oath of office for the new term, and died soon after of cancer.
The Frontenac News reached out to Stephanie Regent via email for comment on Monday, but we have not heard back.
This action by the township is coming about 6 weeks after Regent was sanctioned by Council on December 12, 2025. On that date, Council received the findings from Integrity Commissioner Tony Fleming into a complaint that was sent to him after some Facebook posts Stephanie Regent made in the spring of 2025. She was suspended for 7 days in December, because Fleming found that the Facebook posts were misleading.”
