Estevan city council has voiced their support for a proposed change in dates for the next civic election.
The provincial government has approached Saskatchewan’s urban and rural municipalities and school boards to see if they support having the next civic election in 2021 instead of the initially scheduled date of 2020.
It means the current term for councils would be five years instead of four. This would be the only time that would happen. Council would then return to having four-year terms, with an election taking place in 2025.
Estevan Mayor Roy Ludwig said council was unanimous in their support of five years for the current term.
“We e-mailed all of council, and got responses back, and council was all right with the one-year extension, with the understanding that would go back to four years after that,” Ludwig told the Mercury.
The current schedule calls for the next civic election to occur on Oct. 28, 2020. The next provincial election is slated for five days later on Nov. 2. The province asked for the municipal and school board date to be pushed back because of the quick turnaround.
Ludwig said he would have rather see the province and the municipalities work together to find a new date for the provincial election, and not change the civic election dates. But he ultimately understands the situation, and the need not to have two elections within a week of each other.
“As long as there’s no great outcry, it would appear that’s the way they’re heading,” said Ludwig.
Most of the municipal councils he has talked to have said they’re in favour of delaying the next election to 2021.
There was some discussion of having a provincial election in the spring of 2020 or 2021, but Ludwig said that from the province’s point of view, they thought it would be more advantageous to have their vote in the fall, even though the last provincial election was held in the spring of 2016.
The mayor doesn’t expect there will be any issues for the current council members if the current term is extended from four years to five.
He also stressed that this is based on a recommendation that came from the provincial government, and that it wasn’t the municipalities who approached the government about the need to change dates.
