NDP contends voting on First Nations suppressed

NDP Leader Ryan Meili is accusing the provincial government of suppressing Indigenous votes.

On Tuesday, he encouraged the Saskatchewan Party government to join him in signing a letter requesting the province’s chief electoral officer put a polling station on each First Nation reserve for the 2020 election.

The number of polls on Saskatchewan First Nations increased from 76 in 2011 to 164 in 2016.

According to Elections Saskatchewan, 78 per cent more First Nations residents living on reserve land were registered as voters in 2016 than in 2011 — but not all First Nations had a polling station.

“We still have lots of communities where people don’t have an easy time getting to polling stations, whether it’s because there isn’t one on election day or they don’t have access to advanced polling, as well,” Meili said, noting there is a shift to more people using advanced polling.

He said the province “should be making sure every First Nation that wants a polling station has one” and said he was a “bit surprised” the province didn’t take him up on his offer to do so.

Meili suggested the province suppressed Indigenous voters when it last redrew constituency boundaries.

That redrawing took place in 2011.

People under 18 weren’t factored into the equation when determining the new constituency boundaries, prompting then-ndp leader John Nilson to say the changes were “absolutely wrong.”

“I think practically what it does is it excludes a huge number of Aboriginal young people because we know that’s a major part of the population of the province,” said Nilson at that time.

“It ends up, I think, skewing the boundaries in the province, and there are a whole number of unforeseen consequences.”

Meili suggested a 2010 change that made photo identification a requirement to vote also suppressed Indigenous voters.

“I really do think there are concerns with this government, and their interests in serving the needs of First Nations people and making sure they are heard in elections, so that’s something I want to be raising and pushing.”

But Attorney General Don Morgan said the government has already taken steps to “ensure there were sufficient resources” to “adequately cover” First Nations in the province.

“Our goal should be that every person in the province is entitled to vote, exercises their franchise, and votes,” he said. “Access to a polling station ought not be an issue.”

In a followup statement, the province said “Insinuations made by the leader of the Opposition that the government is attempting to suppress First Nations voters are false and baseless.”

It said Elections Saskatchewan “has already taken a number of steps to enable First Nations voters that may not have ID to be able to vote” and called the electoral boundaries redrawing process “non-partisan.”

“Accusations of gerrymandering to suppress First Nations voters are completely unfounded,” it read.