Lambton County councillors can now have someone else represent them if they're going to be absent from a meeting.
County council has approved the appointment of alternate members from its member municipalities.
St. Clair Township Mayor Steve Arnold said it ensures everyone has a voice at county council.
"We'll have to self regulate ourselves to make sure that everything is working the way it was meant to, but we have had people that have been off on injury or illness when they're a single representative from a municipality and this gives them an opportunity to have someone to take their place," said Arnold. "I think it's the right thing to do."
Arnold said some municipalities have planned ahead.
"During this last election cycle, there's a few municipalities that have designated deputy mayors. So, those people will likely be the ones that fall into taking the place of the mayor here," said Arnold. "So, they're already in tune with what's going on here at the county hopefully, because the last thing we want to do is start recycling a lot of information for someone that may not be up to speed."
He said he doesn't expect every municipality to participate.
"That will be a designation done by each individual municipality. In the case of my own municipality, deputy mayor Miller is here. So, if I'm not here, he's here to represent the municipality," said Arnold. "So, chances are pretty slim that we would look at doing something like that because we are already fortunate enough to have two representatives."