Saskatchewan Party MLA Greg Brkich will not be representing the constituency of Arm River-Watrous in the next election. Not to worry, he’s staying put. It’s the riding that is changing.

Arm River will be the new constituency for Davidson and Craik, taking over the town from the current Thunder Creek riding.

“I enjoy representing Arm River-Watrous and I will enjoy representing Arm River in the next election,” said Brkich.

The new riding, recently proposed by the provincial boundaries commission, will stretch down to Central Butte in the southwest and run north along Lake Diefenbaker. It will then go above Hanley and move along a straight line under Watrous before hitting Big Quill Lake and then move down through Wynyard. Using Last Mountain Lake as a natural boundary it will head south passing just above Strasbourg on its way to Regina Beach before cutting straight across above Moose Jaw on its way back to Central Butte.

“Changes happen (to ridings) when the population changes,” said Brkich. “You have to adjust to the changes you’re given. It will be a little larger because the population has grown and the area (covered) is a little bigger.”

The Saskatchewan Provincial Boundaries Commission is established every 10 years as required by the Constituency Boundaries Act to propose an electoral map for the province based on the latest Statistics Canada census data. Its mandate is to keep the voting population of a constituency at 13,059 with an allowable variance of five per cent.

“Changes are driven by demographics where you have changes in population (like) increases or decreases,” said Stuart Pollon, deputy chairperson of the Commission. “It requires a realignment or adjustment of the constituencies to continue to try to keep them as even as possible.”

To read more please see the August 20 print edition of The Davidson Leader.