Still no date for byelections as spring sitting ends in Saskatchewan

Three byelections will have to be held by the end of this summer in Saskatchewan, but as of the last day of the spring sitting on Thursday, there still wasn’t an indication of any dates.

Premier Scott Moe wouldn’t say when they might be held, just that it’ll be “at some point in the near future.”

Moe did imply they would be held at the same time.

“The timelines are what they are and (with) the regulations around when they’re called and can be called, you know it would make the most sense ultimately to hold all three at the same time,” said Moe.

The Saskatchewan Party is still working on its candidates for those contests; Moe said the party is pleased at the interest there has been.

“I know from our party perspective we’re working on and have interest and will have contested nominations in all of those ridings,” said Moe.

The byelections are going to be important to the opposition NDP, which only has 12 MLAs in the Legislature right now.

All three seats were most recently held by Sask. Party members, but the two Regina seats were only won by about 300 votes and about 600 votes, respectively, in 2020.

NDP Leader Carla Beck said the races will be big for the representation of the people in those ridings, and also for her team.

“I’ve got 11 fantastic MLAs on this team and they all work really hard, but I’ll tell you, being in a small opposition to hold government to account, we work (the MLAs) pretty hard. To add more people to our team, to show some momentum, to continue to build our team I think is incredibly, incredibly important,” explained Beck.

Only one candidate has been nominated for the NDP so far out of the three ridings but Beck thinks the party is ready.

“The goal is to put everything we can into all three, in fact, and we’ll see where we end up at the end,” said Beck.

Mark Docherty stepped down from the Regina Coronation Park riding in early February to pursue other opportunities.

The Regina Walsh Acres riding needs to find a new MLA after Derek Meyers passed away after a battle with cancer.

And voters in the Lumsden-Morse riding will go to the polls after Lyle Stewart stepped down for health reasons.

A byelection must be held within six months of the seat being vacated and Docherty’s seat is up first. With him resigning in the first week of February, that byelection will have to happen by early August.