Regina’s city council has rejected the Municipal Ward Commission’s proposed ward boundary changes.
Mayor Sandra Masters said that councils’ rejection of the Municipal Ward Commission report has no effect on its implementation for the next election meaning the commission’s proposed boundary changes will be in effect after the 2024 election.
“The vote today has no legal barring,” she said. “The commission has filed their report, and the boundary changes will adjust for the November 2024 civic election.”
The ward boundary review’s objective is to ensure that “the democratic principle of equal representation achieved through “one-person-one-vote” is adhered to across the City.”
The Cities Act requires a review of ward boundaries at least once every three election cycles or when the population of any individual ward varies from the average population of all wards by plus or minus ten per cent.
The 2019 boundary review was completed using population data from Saskatchewan Health, indicating that Regina’s population was 226,926 for the prior review period.
The most recent Saskatchewan Health data shows that Regina’s population for this review period is 245,319. Based on this data, four out of ten wards have a population exceeding the ten per cent variance allowed under the legislation.
The 2022 population data from Saskatchewan Health showed that Regina’s population was 245,319 for the ward boundary review. Based on the existing ten wards, the average ward size should be 24,532, with allowed people ranging between 22,079 and 26,985.
The current population data shows that Wards 2 and 4 exceed the average population by more than ten per cent while Wards 7 and 8 fall below the average population by more than ten per cent.