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Municipal, provincial Sask. election dates unresolved

Discussions around delaying the next set of municipal elections in Saskatchewan are underway. Saskatchewan provincial elections are due to take place on Monday, Nov. 2, 2020.
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Discussions around delaying the next set of municipal elections in Saskatchewan are underway.

Saskatchewan provincial elections are due to take place on Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. This would put the next provincial election only days after the next series of elections for municipal officials, set for Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020, less than a week before the provincial election.

The course of action for municipalities and the province has not been figured out, despite suggestions to bump local elections until after the next provincial election.

Matt Heley, CEO of northern Saskatchewan municipal organization New North has said he would support a five-year term for all sitting council members in northern Saskatchewan, including Creighton, provided that all election expenses are covered by the provincial government.

“For our part, the only way we would support a move to 2021 is if the province pays for the resultant byelections,” wrote Heley in the organization’s seasonal newsletter.

“To us, this condition seems sensible; if municipalities are going to accommodate the province, it should be the province having to bear, and explain, the additional cost to taxpayers, not municipal officials.”

In 2017, Dr. Michael Boda, Saskatchewan’s chief electoral officer, released a report detailing three options for the situation – to either move municipal elections to spring 2021, move municipal elections to the spring permanently to prevent future conflict, or to allow a one-off move for municipal elections, pushing the next ballot to fall 2022.

Some municipal politicians in Saskatchewan have come out against the idea, including the mayor of the province’s largest city. Charlie Clark, mayor of Saskatoon, said he was elected to a four-year term, not a five-year term.

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