Regina city councilors engage in heated deliberations, move aspects of budget to Monday

Friday, Dec. 15, was supposed to be the final day for the City of Regina’s budget deliberations, but there was a lot of confusion and heated discussion at city hall.

Approval of the capital, operational and the utility budget provisions has been pushed to Dec. 18th.

Most of these tensions stemmed from confusion around the budget layout.

“I have been opened about the fact that the budget is difficult to process because there is no comparator for how we have done this year and what the budget ask is, compared to performance issue as we executed in previous years,” Sandra Master, mayor of Regina said.

Council decided to approve in principle funding for the Regina Public Library, The Provincial Capital Commission, Community and Social Impact Regina, Regina Business Downtown Improvement district, and the Warehouse Business Improvement District.

They’ve also decided to give the Economic Development Regina (EDR) $1.6 million instead of its requested $1.9 million.

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The Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) will only receive $2.2 million for its operating budget instead of its request for $2.9 million.

Council will have $1 million from the reductions in EDR and REAL funding, and that money will go to the YWCA and its services.

However, all of this funding is a part of the city’s operating budget and since the budget discussion has been deferred to Monday, no decisions have been set in stone.

“At least those organizations can walk away knowing that in principle their operating has been approved so we can calm some nerves there. So, we’ve made some progress,” Masters said.

In the end, Councillors struggled to make tough decisions that will determine how much property taxes will go up in Regina.

Masters told media that she expects to get approval of the utility budget on Monday but is unsure whether council will come to a conclusion for the capital and operating budgets. This means the current 2024 mill rate is still undetermined. It currently sits at 2.83 per cent, which would cost homeowners roughly $70 more per year on their property taxes.

This number won’t be finalized until council approves the capital and operating budgets.