Over 80 public delegations scheduled to address Regina city council as it debates historic mill rate increase
CBC
Over 80 people are scheduled to speak before Regina city council this week as the city’s municipal budget deliberations kick off, many speaking for organizations under serious threat of funding cuts next year.
City council is scheduled to spend the next five days debating how to reduce a historically high mill rate increase of 15.69 per cent forecasted for next year’s municipal budget. The final vote is set for Dec. 19.
The 15.69 per cent figure comes from a November announcement by acting city manager Jim Nicol, who said the city is facing a $51.78 million budget shortfall in order to maintain current levels of service.
If passed, that would correspond to a property tax increase of $33 a month for the average homeowner. Without changes, the new operating budget will be $697 million, up from $650 million in 2025.
“The only way for the mill rate to remain constant would be to reduce services,” Nicol said at the time.
City administration said the bulk of the budget shortfall is due to city council approved salary increases, increases to the Regina Police Service budget, and new services from previous council decisions like development charges, the indoor aquatics centre, infrastructure upgrades and staffing a new fire station.
As part of the November announcement, city administration released a list of 131 city services that could be cut. Those have been collected into four possible mill rate increases of 9 per cent, 7.5 per cent, 6 per cent or 3.1 per cent. Beyond that is a fifth option, where cuts are so deep they lead to a mill rate reduction of five per cent.
Among the largest possible funding reductions are cutting the REAL District’s budget, closing an existing fire station, reducing city park maintenance and cutting transit service.
Terri Sleeva, from the Regina Citizens Public Transit Coalition, is third in line to speak to council. She says she’s worried about every iteration of possible cuts to the bus service.
“The way it’s going is like a chicken and the egg,” she said of making the service sustainable. “If we don’t increase the service to make it better, people aren’t going to use it.”
“People who have minimum wage jobs have to go to work, and they’re cutting it away. How are these people supposed to get to work? Walking in forty below?”
Closing an existing fire station, which city administration says could save the average homeowner $13.55 a month in property taxes, is also an option. As is abandoning plans to build Fire Station #8, which would save another $4.06 per month.
“We have a fire master plan the city's agreed to and and funded and built, that actually builds three more fire stations, Fire Halls 8, 9 and 10, for the next 25 years,” said Tyler Packham, the president of the Regina Professional Fire Fighters Local 181 union.
“They did that back in 2021. So we're hoping they stick to their plan because we really do need it.”
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