The Region of Waterloo officially has a new councillor, who is set to start next week.
Matt Rodrigues was appointed at a special council meeting held Thursday.
He is taking over the seat vacated by Rob Deutschmann, who resigned to run in the provincial election as the Ontario Liberal Party’s candidate for Cambridge and North Dumfries.
To avoid a byelection, that could have cost the region as much as $800,000, councillors decided to appoint Rodrigues to the role. They also noted that there was only about a year and a half left of the councillor’s term.
Rodrigues was the runner-up to Deutschmann in the 2022 municipal election, receiving 9,714 votes, or 9.7 per cent, of the total vote. Rodrigues was also only 400 votes behind Deutschmann.
While he serves on council, Rodrigues will be taking a leave of absence from his position as an urban planner for the City of Kitchener.
“I am excited to dive in with my new colleagues later this month,” he said in a social media post.
Rodrigues will officially join council on March 21.
