Council Prefers No Change to Election Date

Robert Thomas

Council discussed whether or not they agreed with proposed changes to extend their terms from four to five years and, without hesitation, they said no. 

The Province was looking for Council's view regarding changing The Local Election Act 2015 to extend their term in office from four to five years. The question was being asked because the Province wishes to hold the provincial election in 2019 and move the municipal elections from October 2019 to October 2020.

Councillor Dawn Luhning jumped on the request and was immediately opposed to the idea.

Councillor Luhning said she did not want to make the decision on whether or not to extend her term in office and moved the request be received and filed.

Earlier, while introducing the item to Council, acting City Clerk Tracy Wittke said that from the “perspective of Admin we can work it either way 2020 or 2021.”

The report from Administration did lay out some concerns because Council had been elected to a four year term they were “playing with the democratic process here,” Wittke stated.

The request for feedback on the proposed one year term extension was being made after the Ministry of Government Relations asked for feedback in the Spring of 2018 to move municipal elections from the fourth Wednesday in October to the third Wednesday in November had been rejected by municipalities. This time the request was for feedback about moving elections to October 27, 2021.

The reason for wanting to move the fixed election dates is so as not to have any interference between the municipal and provincial election.

“From a first principles perspective, however, the key democratic right of citizens to pass judgement on the performance of their elected members is their ability to cast a ballot every four years,” the report to Council read.

Mayor Fraser Tolmie stated the reason for the feedback was the “challenge of the Parliamentary system colliding with council.”

Mayor Tolmie spoke about the reasons for initially extending municipal representatives terms from three to four years was to save municipalities money.

The Mayor favoured the existing date and said it was a provincial issue.

“I’m in agreement with the Mayor, this is a provincial issue,” Councillor Crystal Froese stated.

Coun Froese saw it as “going too far” and moving the election date a couple of months might be appropriate.

Councillor Brian Swanson questioned why the Province was looking for consultation on the issue given that when it came to Grants in Lieu there was “no consultation.”

Grants in Lieu are paid from one level of government to another instead of property taxes as one level of government does not tax the other. As part of their austerity budget the Province cut Grants in Lieu in the 2017-2018 budget surprising Council who had to return to the budget process to find cost savings.

Coun Swanson spoke about a previous election where the municipal election overlapped a provincial election and there were no problems.

“I don’t think too many people were fooled and confused.”

Councillor Scott McMann wanted to send a stronger message and wondered if a "receive and file" motion was sufficient.

“I don’t think a receive and file sends a strong enough message,” Coun McMann stated.

Councillor Chris Warren echoed that Council’s term should not be extended until October 2021.

“We were elected for four years and that’s our mandate,” Coun Warren stated.

Coun Luhning felt a "receive and file" motion was appropriate because it meant Council was not in favour of what the Province was tentatively proposing.

“I don’t say it’s appropriate we should be here for another year,” she said.

In the end, the entire issued was received and filed but Administration will be contacting the provincial government saying Moose Jaw opposes extending local elected officials terms by an additional year.