Sept. 28 meeting for council and mayoral candidates is at Royal George

Seating is limited for a Niagara-on-the-Lake Chamber of Commerce debate for town council and mayoral candidates next week at the Royal George Theatre on Queen Street.

However, the business group will be broadcasting the debate live on its Facebook page, president Minerva Ward said in announcing the meeting.

The debate runs from 6 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28.

All council and mayoral candidates are planning to attend, Ward said. The four candidates for regional council are not part of the debate.

Seating is not reserved and the theatre has a capacity of 300.

Doors open at 5:30 and Ward will outline the format and procedures for the evening at 6 p.m.

Starting at 6:15, each candidate will be allotted two minutes to introduce themselves.

A question period moderated by chamber board chair Andrew Niven will begin at 7 p.m. Final statements, limited to one minute each, will start at 8:30.

Chamber members have been invited to submit questions for the debate.

The chamber announcement noted each candidate will be asked one question drawn at random and have two minutes to answer.

Once their two minutes are up, one other candidate will be invited to give a one-minute rebuttal.

The rebuttal candidate will be identified as the first one to raise their hand. Each candidate can only have one rebuttal.

A timekeeper will be sitting in the front row, keeping an eye on the clock.

When the total time allotted for the question period has expired, no other questions will be asked, the chamber’s rules say.

After the question period, each candidate will have one minute for a final sum-up statement.

“Respect and consideration must be given to all persons while they are speaking. Distracting behaviour such as comments, gestures or excessive noises will not be tolerated,” the chamber said.

Besides the chamber debate, residents group FocusNOTL has planned a series of candidate meetings at the NOTL Legion hall.

Those sessions, all at the Royal Canadian Legion hall, 410 King St., will be from 7 to 9 p.m. on several dates.

The schedule for those meetings is as follows:

Mayoral debate

Tuesday, Sept 27: Betty Disero, Vaughn Goettler, Gary Zalepa

Councillors

Session 1 – Wednesday, Oct. 5 – Gary Burroughs, Maria Mavridis, Richard Mell, Nick Ruller

Session 2 – Tuesday, Oct. 11 – John McCallum, Sandra O’Connor, Katherine Reid, Erwin Wiens

Session 3 – Wednesday, Oct. 12 – Tim Balasiuk, Allan Bisback, Wendy Cheropita, Adriana Cater (Vizzari), Alistair Harlond

Regional Councillor

Tuesday, Oct. 18 – Pat Darte, Andrea Kaiser, Paolo Miele, William Roberts