Regina Elphinstone-Centre

Regina Elphinstone-Centre encompasses some of the most socially complex neighbourhoods in the province, including the downtown core, the Warehouse District, and the North Central area — an inner-city community that has long struggled with concentrated poverty, high crime rates, and inadequate housing. First-term NDP incumbent Meara Conway, who had won the seat in 2020 after the retirement of longtime MLA Warren McCall, secured a second term in a five-candidate field.

Candidates

Meara Conway (NDP) — A lawyer and musician, Conway earned a law degree and a Master of Music from McGill University and studied human rights at Georgetown University before returning to Saskatchewan. As a public defender with Legal Aid Saskatchewan, she was named one of Canadian Lawyer's 25 Most Influential Lawyers of 2019 for her advocacy work. During her first term in the legislature, she served as Deputy House Leader and took on the critic portfolios for Social Services, Housing, Childcare and Early Learning, and Francophone Affairs. She released a major report documenting gaps in the province's social safety net following the rollout of the Saskatchewan Income Support program.

Caesar Khan (Saskatchewan Party) — A local businessman who promotes Saskatchewan products on international markets, Khan ran as the Saskatchewan Party candidate in both the 2020 and 2024 elections in this riding.

Pamela Carpenter (Saskatchewan United Party) — Owner and operator of The Bannock House, a food truck recognized among Regina's most popular from 2020 through 2024, Carpenter is a small business owner from the North Central neighbourhood. A mother of three who became a single parent at 17, she brings firsthand experience with the community's housing and social service challenges. She has union bargaining experience and served as both a union and employer representative.

Nathan Bruce (Saskatchewan Progress Party) and Jim Elliott (Green Party) also ran but each received less than 4% of the vote.

Local Issues

Homelessness and the lack of adequate shelter capacity defined much of the public discourse in this riding during the 2020–2024 term. Regina's 2024 Point-in-Time count identified 824 individuals experiencing homelessness — an increase of more than 250 percent since 2015. The city's prolonged search for a permanent emergency shelter site saw an initial recommendation rejected by city council after hours of debate, before council ultimately approved the purchase of the Eagles Club building on Halifax Street in September 2024.

The Saskatchewan Income Support program, launched in 2019 to gradually replace the old Saskatchewan Assistance Program, drew sharp criticism from community organizations and from Conway herself, who held emergency consultations across the province and published findings detailing how the new system was failing vulnerable residents. Housing conditions in North Central remained a flashpoint, with reports of social housing units plagued by mould, sewage problems, and hundreds of vacancies in the Regina Housing Authority's portfolio.

Public safety and addictions services were inseparable from the housing conversation. Residents and frontline workers called for integrated approaches — combining mental health treatment, harm reduction, and supportive housing — rather than enforcement-only responses to visible poverty and drug use in the downtown core.