Commission proposes new voting boundaries map before next Saskatchewan election

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This article was published 27/07/2022 (1240 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

REGINA – A commission tasked with drawing new voting boundaries ahead of Saskatchewan’s next provincial election is proposing no increase in the number of constituencies, despite the province’s growing population.

The Constituency Boundaries Commission’s interim report proposes keeping the number at 61 — two in the province’s north and 59 in the south.

“We were able to work from the existing constituency boundaries and make rather minor changes so that the constituency boundaries stayed approximately, and as much as possible, the same as they were before,” Queen’s Bench Justice Donald Layh, the commission’s chairman, said Wednesday.

“Which of course, would avoid a lot of confusion to the electorate.”

The report shows two constituencies — Saskatoon Stonebridge-Dakota and Regina Wascana Plains — would shed their rural voters and become solely urban constituencies due to population growth.

The report suggests leaving one constituency that would have a mix of rural and urban voters, called Martensville-Blairmore.

Layh said this would also separate the neighbouring communities of Martensville and Warman, north of Saskatoon, into two different constituencies.

“They have been growing, and they had to be separated.”

The public will be able to offer feedback in September before a final report is presented to the legislative assembly, which then makes the final decision in time for the October 2024 election.

In announcing the commission last April, Premier Scot Moe noted that the province’s population has grown by almost 100,000 people over the past ten years, and some parts of the province have grown more than others.

Patrick Bundrock, executive director of the governing Saskatchewan Party, said in a statement that the commission did a good job of redrawing the boundaries to ensure the constituencies would be roughly equal in population.

“This was a challenging task, as some areas of Saskatchewan have grown faster than others. So I want to thank the members of the commission for their good work in creating this new map,” Bundrock said.

Tim Williams, provincial secretaryfor the Opposition New Democrats, said updating boundaries is fundamental to democracy so voters can trust their vote has equal weight in Saskatchewan.

“We’re relieved, given the Sask Party’s record of wasting taxpayer money, that they didn’t decide to add more MLAs like they did the last time the boundaries changed, or further alter the formula for apportioning seats for their own benefit,” Williams said in a statement.

“Constituency boundaries are too fundamental to democracy for that kind of gerrymandering.”

Aside from the two northern constituencies, which the commission doesn’t deal with, each of the 59 proposed constituencies are allowed to have 13,950 to 15,021 voters, based on a formula, Layh said.

He said the formula divides the population that is over the age of 18 by the number of constituencies.

“The quotient … this time was 14,306 people. But we have a variation allowance under the Constituency Boundaries Act of five per cent above or five below,” Layh said.

He said the commission attempted to keep the boundaries “as stable as possible” and it also took into account communities of interest and the locations of polling stations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2022.