(File photo/CKOM News Staff)

By Angela Brown

Looking ahead

City discusses challenges with timing for next municipal election

Oct 14, 2022 | 11:55 AM

North Battleford city council looked at the potential difficulties of having municipal and provincial elections too close together at its meeting this week.

The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) has been lobbying the province on behalf of city municipalities to reconsider the date for the 2024 municipal election. The next municipal election in the province is scheduled for Nov. 13, 2024, while the provincial election will be held just before that, on or before Oct. 28, 2024. SUMA hopes to see the municipal and provincial elections held much farther apart.

The province’s Government Relations Minister, Don McMorris, has since replied to SUMA’s request in a letter, saying that “at this time, municipal election dates will remain unchanged to maintain consistency among all municipalities in Saskatchewan.”

North Battleford Mayor David Gillan said the municipal and provincial elections in 2020 were both held around the same time, in the fall, which posed some issues. Saskatchewan held its provincial election on Oct. 26, and its municipal election shortly after, on Nov. 9 of that year.

Gillan said he took part in a city mayors’ meeting a couple of weeks ago looking at the issue.

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He noted there was poor voter turnout in North Battleford, as well as in Saskatoon, Swift Current, and many other communities in the 2020 municipal election. The municipalities are worried about a repeat scenario in 2024.

“As you recall, a year or so ago we discussed the potential for a change in the municipal election dates,” he said. “They are currently scheduled in the fall of 2024. There was talk about moving it to the spring of 2024 or the spring of 2025 to avoid the provincial and municipal elections coinciding…, and the potential for bad weather.”

However, the response from the province in its letter to SUMA wasn’t promising.

“This letter is a reply from the provincial government, basically saying that at this time they are not willing to change that date,” Gillan said. “It came up with our other city mayors in the last meeting. I think the issue is still going to be lobbied a bit more.”

He said there are obviously some valid reasons to be lobbying that holding the elections all at the same time, late in the fall, during an election year has its pitfalls.

Gillan said the city received a copy of the letter from the province, outlining the Saskatchewan Minister of Government Relations’ position on the matter, for information purposes only.

“In the last [city] mayors’ meeting, [the issue] garnered a lot of discussion. I think it might come back again to talk about the options here,” Gillan added.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow