Saskatchewan’s Chief Electoral Officer is suggesting municipal elections in the province be moved to May in 2024 to address overlapping provincial and municipal election periods in future years. The provincial election would remain in October 2024.

Dr. Michael Boda says it would not be a significant problem to have RM elections remain in late fall and that he is aware that moving rural municipality elections to the spring may not be a viable option for SARM due to overlap with seeding and other spring work.

Dr. Boda points out that provincial and municipal election periods in the fall of 2020 overlapped significantly and he says the end result was significant voter confusion. He also thinks overlapping election periods are not good for voters or candidates in addition to introducing risks to administering the election that could undermine people’s confidence in the electoral processes.

Saskatchewan’s next general election is scheduled, by legislation, for October 28, 2024. The next round of municipal elections is scheduled for November 13, 2024. This overlap of provincial and municipal elections would continue every four years thereafter.