Mayor and Council

Luke Charbonneau was raised in Saugeen Shores and is a fruit and vegetable farmer. Along with his parents, he is the owner of Hi-Berry Farm, a local, road-side farm market. He was first elected to Council in 2006 and served as the Town’s Deputy Mayor from 2010 to 2018. Luke has been Mayor of Saugeen Shores since 2018. Luke served as Chair of the Saugeen Shores Police Services Board from 2010 to 2018 and Chair of the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority from 2014 to 2018. He was Chair of the Bruce County Library Board from 2018, to 2022.

Luke is currently the Warden of the County of Bruce, a municipal representative for the Westario Power Board, a member of the Nuclear Innovation Institute, and a Director of South Western Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT).

Along with his wife, Alison, Luke has three sons.

Mike and his wife, Jean, have two sons Jeff and Andy. Jeff and his wife, Katie, reside in Saugeen Shores with their children, Peyton and Colby.  Andy and his wife Melanie reside in Binbrook, Ontario.

Mike takes great pride in his past experiences as a hockey and baseball coach for over 20 years, a long-time member of Port Elgin Cenotaph Committee, and member of the Port Elgin Legion.

Mike has served on Council since 2014. In that time, he has served on committees and boards including the Physician Recruitment Committee, Saugeen Mobility and Regional Transit Board, Committee of Adjustment, Saugeen Rail Trail Committee, and Port Elgin BIA Board. He also served as the co-chair of the Lamont Sports Park Fundraising Committee, and takes great pride in having guided that project to its construction.  

Mike looks forward to being a strong voice for all three wards in Saugeen Shores. 

John Divinski was appointed November 1, 2021 as Saugeen Shores Councillor for the Southampton Ward, and then acclaimed in 2022.

Divinski has been a Southampton resident ever since he moved to the area in 2005, where he was employed by Bayshore Broadcasting as News Director of CFPS-FM (98 the Beach; 97.9 the Bruce).

He semi-retired in 2011 and went back to his roots as a news reporter out in the field, where he covered Saugeen Shores Council meetings for 10 years before retiring from work in August 2021.

Divinski has been active in the community since moving here, hosting a one-hour daily talk show called Soundingboard on CFPS-FM, helping people solve their problems or, at the very least, trying to get experts on the air that could solve the issues.

He was also the first Honourary Chair of the "Light the Way" fundraising campaign for the Saugeen Memorial Hospital Foundation, and helped create the annual Radiothon on 98 the Beach that continues to this day.
Divinski also continues to be the “voice” of the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks Sr. AA Hockey Club handling public address duties at the Community Complex (The Plex).

Divinski is married to Rev. Ann Veyvara-Divinski of St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Southampton.

Cheryl Grace is serving her third term on Saugeen Shores Council as a Southampton Ward Councillor. A Bruce County native, Cheryl and her husband, Mike, summered in Southampton before retiring here in 2011. They have two children, Lindsay and Perry.

With degrees from the Universities of Toronto and Western Ontario, Cheryl taught high school for thirty years in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she founded and coached her school’s state-champion Mock Trial program. 

She volunteers with the Marine Heritage Society as a Chantry Island tour guide and is a member of the Southport Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW). 

In the previous Council term, Cheryl chaired the Town’s Environmental Stewardship Advisory Ad Hoc Committee, and was a member of the Attainable Housing Task Force, the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority Board, Chamber of Commerce Board, Municipal Heritage Committee and Accessibility Committee.

Bud is a Bruce County native who has spent some time living in Alberta and attending school in the United States. In his twenties, Bud was involved in volunteer work that took him to the Philippines and Central America, where he met his wife, Jenny, a Wisconsinite. 

After volunteering, Bud and Jenny settled in Chesley where they raised their four children, Elizabeth, Rachel, Ben, and Molly. Bud ran a home building business and sat on Chelsey Town Council and the PUC commission for one term each, while Jenny worked as a Nurse.

A career change brought Bud to Saugeen District Secondary School in 2000, where he taught construction technology for 22 years. During that teaching career, Bud took the opportunity to partner with the Town to contribute to its many parks and public spaces. From 2004 to 2016 the Halpin family owned and operated two cottage parks in Port Elgin. The family started summering in Saugeen Shores in 2006 and moved to town in 2010. Bud retired from teaching in 2022, and was elected to Council by Port Elgin residents in the same year.

Dave Myette moved to Saugeen Shores from Mississauga in 1997 to work at the former Ontario Hydro Bruce Nuclear Power Development, now known as Bruce Power. The Myette family moved onto an eight-acre farm just south of Port Elgin where they keep goats, dogs, cats and chickens. Dave is married to Melinda and they have three daughters, Renee, Sydney and Simonne.

Dave worked for Ontario Hydro/OPG/Bruce Power starting in 1982, and retiring in January 2015 as an Operations Specialist.

His initial involvement with the Town was a member and later Chair of the Parks and Trails Advisory Committee.

In addition to being a Councillor, he is on the United Way of Bruce Grey Board of Directors. He is a member of the Lake Huron Fishing Club Executive Committee and is the Manager of the Port Elgin Salmon Hatchery. He and Melinda also operate a rental accommodation business in Saugeen Shores.

Rachel Stack is serving her first term as Port Elgin Ward Councillor following her election in October 2022. 
Councilor Stack was born and raised outside of Ottawa, moving to Waterloo to attend university in 2002. After completing her undergraduate degree from the University of Waterloo, Rachel worked at Queen’s Park, and subsequently earned a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School.

In 2012, Rachel moved to Port Elgin on a two-year contract to begin her law career, moving here permanently in 2016. She now lives in Port Elgin with her partner Nick.

Port Elgin has always been a welcoming place to Councillor Stack, and she has built a great network of friends and colleagues over the last 10 years. Having spent time volunteering for youth soccer, and local boards of directors --  including a current tenure on the Board of the United Way Bruce Grey -- Rachel is eager to serve as a Councillor and focus directly on the best interests of Port Elgin and Saugeen Shores.