Fellow councillor confident Spina will beat cancer

Dec 27, 2016 | 12:03 PM

KAMLOOPS — A well regarded councillor will be missing around the table at City Council in the new year. 

Councillor Marg Spina will be taking a leave of absence as she battles breast cancer. 

Spina announced her diagnosis to friends through a Facebook post, and had informed City Council through an email. She pledged to put up the fight of her life, and fellow councillor Arjun Singh has no doubts she will do just that. 

“She’s been an advocate for so many important things in the community for so many years and we all look up to her for her trailblazing history in the community,” Singh said, “and this is another one of her challenges she’ll face, and I’m sure she’ll come out on top and we’ll have her back hopefully really soon. It’s really a question of making sure that the causes that she’s really passionate about continue to be advocated while she’s away and when she comes back she can come back and keep on moving.”

With Spina’s absence and Councillor Donovan Cavers and Mayor Peter Milobar running for provincial office, there could be some noticeable gaps around the council table in 2017. 

“It’s obviously not ideal to have councillors who are away,” Singh said, “but for very good reason this has happened. We need to work with it, and we definitely will. I don’t think anybody will notice too much in the community that we have a couple people off because we’re a strong team, we work well together, and the staff in the city are always working hard so I think it will be a good year for us.”