Saskatchewan

Sask. gov't changing 2020 provincial and municipal election dates to provide more time between

The provincial and municipal elections would have been held five days apart.

Provincial and municipal elections scheduled five days apart

The provincial and municipal elections would have been held five days apart under the existing law. (Cory Coleman/CBC News)

The Saskatchewan government says it will amend election law so that the 2020 provincial and municipal elections will be held two weeks apart, rather than the five days apart they were previously scheduled for. 

The updated legislation will have provincial elections after 2020 held every four years on the last Monday in October and municipal elections on the second Wednesday in November, unless that falls on Remembrance Day. 

"The government decided to flip the order (putting the provincial election before the municipal election) because moving the provincial election back would make it difficult, if not impossible, to hold a legislative session before Christmas," a government news release says. 

"Fall provincial elections make sense because they don't disrupt the legislative calendar."

Once the amendment is made, the provincial election will be scheduled for Oct. 26, 2020 and the municipal and school board elections for Nov. 9, 2020.

"The government can still introduce the Throne Speech in the fall and a budget at the usual time in the spring," the release says.