By Tyler Marr

Province floats tweaking civic election date to avoid provincial vote conflict

Aug 17, 2018 | 2:00 PM

Mayor Greg Dionne acknowledges holding the 2020 municipal and provincial elections a few days apart could be problematic on a number of fronts, and supports pushing the municipal vote back one year.

The Ministry of Government Relations confirmed they are reaching out to school boards, municipalities and stakeholders on potential changes to the municipal election date, including pushing it to Oct. 27, 2021, over its scheduled Oct. 28, 2020 date. The province is asking all municipalities to submit comments by Aug. 24, though the ministry has no fixed date to finalize a decision.

As it stands, Saskatchewanians will head to the polls on Nov. 2, 2020, for the next provincial election — just five days after they would stuff ballot boxes for civic, school board and some rural municipality seats.

This conflict arose when the Saskatchewan Party tweaked the previous provincial election date from fall 2015 to spring 2016 as to avoid a tangle with the federal election that year. 

Saskatchewan’s chief electoral officer identified the predicament in a report published in May 2017. At that time, Dr. Michael Boda recommended pushing the provincial election date to April 2021 to avoid “significant confusion for voters” and something “not administratively tenable for provincial and municipal election administrators.” The dates would thereafter revert back to following current legislation, which requires provincial elections be held on the first Monday in November every four years.

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Dionne supported the possible pushback on municipal elections as a way to solve the problem, citing voter fatigue and confusion.

“What happened one year, there were three [elections] in a row, and we got a lower voter turnout because people were tired of it,” he said. “That is not right either. I want to make sure we can get the most people out that we can.”

When asked how he defends the fact voters did not head to the ballot box knowing their representatives could serve a five-year mandate, Dionne said “it is not me extending it a year, it is the province.”

“That was the law at the time and they have the right to make the adjustment,” he said.

Longtime provincial and municipal legislator Coun. Don Cody said there is no question something has to be done one way or another and supported a tweak to the municipal date. He pointed to possible headaches administrators could endure should the votes be held just five days apart.

“My suggestion to them would be to push it back. I am not saying it has to be a full year, but let’s say June or something like that,” the Ward 4 councillor told paNOW. “That at least would give us some breathing room to get over one [election] prior to another.”

Cody, however, admitted the government must tread carefully when considering extending mandates, as “we can’t go and perpetuate ourselves into office. You have got to have a time when you see renewal.”

“You have got to look at the democratic way to do it. But at the same time, you have to look at the way it can be done,” he added. “The way I would suggest is hoisting it to June. I think that makes sense but you have to be careful. After all, we don’t want to say, ‘we want to stay in office forever.’”

Cody further defended his June election call, saying it would give first-time councillors more time to become versed in municipal happenings before diving head first into budget deliberations just a few weeks after taking their seat.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr