June 23, 2022 – Today Elections Saskatchewan released its new three-year strategic plan, Service. Integrity. Innovation: Expanding Electoral Excellence in Saskatchewan. This new plan, with its emphasis on modernization, accessibility, and trust, will guide Elections Saskatchewan through the next general election and into 2025.
Service. Integrity. Innovation expands on the themes and goals articulated in Elections Saskatchewan’s 2017–2022 strategic plan, Sustaining. Leading. Modernizing: Advancing Electoral Excellence in Saskatchewan. Under that earlier plan, Elections Saskatchewan made advances in electoral management in spite of significant challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and an uncertain election date. Service. Integrity. Innovation builds on and expands that vision, highlighting opportunities to cultivate democratic participation and trust via a modernized electoral system.
“I have often said that we are serving twenty-first-century voters and political stakeholders with a twentieth-century election system,” says Dr. Michael Boda, Chief Electoral Officer for the Province of Saskatchewan. “The time for change has come.”
The exact format of Saskatchewan’s Thirtieth General Election has yet to be determined. Three by-elections in August and September 2023 will afford an opportunity for the Elections Saskatchewan team to continue testing modernized processes and equipment including electronic poll books, vote counting equipment and real-time data sharing with political stakeholders. Adoption of these measures in the Thirtieth General Election rests on the approval of the Legislative Assembly’s Board of Internal Economy.
“As Chief Electoral Officer for the Province of Saskatchewan,” Dr. Boda says, “I have presented a consistent, achievable vision of the pathway to a modernized election and all the benefits it brings. The final decision as to whether Saskatchewan will embrace that vision is now left to our elected MLAs.”
Elections Saskatchewan’s new strategic plan, along with previous plans, can be found here: https://www.elections.sk.ca/reports-data/strategic-planning/
Elections Saskatchewan (ESK) is the province’s nonpartisan election management body and an independent office of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. ESK directs and supervises the administration of provincial electoral events including Saskatchewan’s next general election, scheduled, by legislation, for October 28, 2024. Information for voters, workers, media, candidates, and parties at www.elections.sk.ca.
For more information contact:
Tim Kydd
Senior Director, Outreach & Communications
Elections Saskatchewan
306.537.9211
tim.kydd@elections.sk.ca