A Surrey city councillor turned Liberal MLA says there is no simple solution to avoiding costly civic by-elections despite what Premier Christy Clark said yesterday.
Marvin Hunt says there are more questions than answers when it comes to councillors just taking an unpaid leave of absence until the new year, before officially resigning.
"I found out about that just recently so we are going to get our municipal clerk to check with their city clerk to figure out how that was done and then check with out lawyers and make sure that, that is a proper process that we can use because it is sort of news to me but I understand Abbotsford has done this previously with those who have gone to the federal level of government."
Hunt says there is only one other option to avoid a civic by-election.
"Well the other one is just living through it all and working through which is what I said I am willing to do but it is trying to find out what the alternatives are and we are certainly doing our homework to know what that is."
Hunt says it is now a case of gathering as much information as possible.
"It is one of those ones that you work your way through it and as we get more information then we can talk to people about it but it is like I want to know whether we can properly do that and how it is done so that we can then take that information to our council."
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts has said it would cost the city up to $900,000 to hold a by-election to replace Hunt.
Yesterday the premier said councillors turned MLAs could take unpaid leave and then resign from civic posts closer to next years municipal vote removing the need to have civic by-elections.