The Shackan Band council has a new member and three-year terms now that its latest election is in the books.

The additional council seat was brought into the mix to help shoulder council’s heavy workload.

Previously, the band had operated with two councillors and a chief with two-year terms.

Expense, however, was the main reason the band opted not to add two councillors to make council an uneven five.

The result of the latest election at the end of March saw all the incumbents from the last council return, with Percy Joe re-elected as chief with 26 votes.

Councillors Joan Seymour and Sharon Joe were re-elected with 37 and 27 votes respectively.

Yvonne Joe took the new councillor seat with 29 votes.

She said she’d like to see council focus on growing the band’s culture, language and unity, given its small size.

She should fit in to the council quickly as her uncle is the chief and fellow council member Sharon Joe is her sister.

The newly elected council members took their oaths of office and held their first meeting at the Shackan community hall on Tuesday evening.

With a change to the number of councillors, the Shackan council now has an even number of members.

Shackan Band advisor Lennard Joe said tiebreaking procedures for the even-numbered council are being considered, but going forward, decisions will be made on consensus.

“We’ve never moved forward on a disagreement. Even if two councillors agree and a chief doesn’t, or the chief and a councillor agree and one doesn’t, it doesn’t move forward. Everything has been on a consensus,” he said.

Chief Percy Joe said he imagines a stalemate would be broken by community members.

The Shackan Band is one of the smallest in the area with just 133 members, 60 of whom live on-reserve.

There were 61 ballots cast in the March election of a possible 109.

In total, three people ran for chief and seven ran for council.

Chief Percy Joe said the re-election of the incumbents is a sign from the community to stay the course.

“One of the new things we may do is upgrade our comprehensive community plan,” Joe said.

He said the new council intends to create portfolios for its members to better place councillors on issues where their backgrounds, passions and interests lies.

Joe said education is a top priority for the Shackan Band.

He is just the eighth chief of the Shackan Band since the 1860s.

Between 1978 and 2006, the Shackan Band did not hold elections.

The band started holding elections every two years beginning in 2006, and passed its election code for a new three-year term in 2014.