REGINA, Sask. — When RM of Sherwood ratepayers go to the polls in November’s municipal election, they could be casting ballots for up to five council positions.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than two weeks after Sherwood opened its nomination period, just one candidate — incumbent Division 4 councillor Chris Reynolds — had submitted a nomination form.
That left the position of reeve, along with councillors for Divisions 2, 3 and 6, without a candidate, with the Oct. 7 deadline just over a week away.
Interim reeve Ray Orb suggested Tuesday morning that a wet and delayed harvest likely has a lot to do with the slow uptake so far.
“I think it’s quite normal that nomination papers are slow to come in,” Orb told SaskToday on Tuesday morning. “Many of the eligible candidates are indeed farmers and are working tirelessly to get their crops in the bin. Especially this year.”
While most RMs across the province are accepting nominations in even-numbered divisions only this year, Sherwood council has two additional vacancies after Orb and three interim councillors were appointed to council by Government Relations Minister Eric Schmalz earlier this year.
Orb, Mitch Huber, Donna Strudwick and Judy Harwood were appointed April 9 to fill vacancies created by a mass resignation in mid-March that left council without the required quorum to conduct business.
All four, however, are ineligible to run again for their current seats due to residency and land ownership requirements for RM elections.
Then-reeve Susan Oakley-Paul, along with then-councillors Grant Paul, John Wilke and Trent Reiger, all submitted their resignations over a three-day span from March 16-18, immediately on the heels of the provincial government announcing Bell Canada would build an artificial intelligence data centre in the RM.
The interim councillors were appointed to fill those vacancies only until this fall’s regularly scheduled vote.
The appointments were also made just 11 days before RM council was to vote on a development agreement with Bell so construction on the AI centre could proceed. Without quorum, the agreement could not have been approved.
Saskatchewan’s rural municipalities hold general elections every two years, alternating between even-numbered and odd-numbered divisions, with voters electing representatives to four-year terms.
“I can’t speak for the others, but I for one wish I was eligible to continue since I believe the Bell data centre is such a great project,” said Orb, who also previously served as president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
