REGINA – The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities is objecting the establishment of a one-person commission to study district health board elections.
The association says the commission will only delay the plans to hold elections this fall.
Last week, the provincial government announced that former Saskatchewan Wheat Pool president Garf Stevenson would consult with the public and submit recommendations to the government by late summer or early fall.
Stevenson will deal with three main issues:
- How to fairly establish ward boundaries within the health districts to balance the interests of rural and urban people, as well as minority groups.
- Identify processes and procedures that could be used to make the elections more flexible, economical and convenient.
- When to schedule district health board elections.
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Health minister Louise Simard said elections will be called as soon as possible after Stevenson has made his report.
But SARM president Sinclair Harrison said the elections should be held this fall along with the municipal and school board elections. The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association has also called for fall elections.
Harrison said local people are quite capable of determining ward boundaries by themselves.
“At our former conventions, the health minister assured SARM members that the election process would be one of the priorities established early in the health-care reform process,” Harrison said in a press release. “We feel that the establishment of the commission is just another stalling tactic which local people feel is inequitable.”
Under the Health Districts Act, each district board will consist of eight elected and four appointed members. The current boards were nominated by district representatives and appointed by the government.
Harrison also said the province cannot afford the $200,000 study.
