REGINA — Saskatchewan is redrawing its constituency boundary maps ahead of its next election to reflect the province's changing population.

Under provincial law, the province must redraw its boundaries every 10 years — based on Statistics Canada census data — to ensure every constituency has roughly the same number of voters.

A commission has three months to prepare an interim report with new maps, which then goes to public hearings for feedback before being finalized.

Yorkton Court of Queen's Bench Justice Donald Layh has been named commission chairman.

Other members are Joe Donlevy, one-time chief of staff to former premier Brad Wall,and Frank Quennell, who was a justice minister when the NDP was in power.

Their report will be the basis of legislation to enact the new boundaries in time for the election set for 2024.

"This is an important task to ensure fairness in our democratic system," Premier Scott Moe said in a statement Thursday.

"Saskatchewan's population has grown by nearly 100,000 people in the past 10 years, and some parts of the province have grown faster than others, so the boundaries need to be adjusted to ensure equality and fairness."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2022.

The Canadian Press