It was a full house for Monday night’s city council meeting.
City administration has recommended reducing expenses by more than $4 million to cover the $10.3-million budget shortfall, and many of those who could be affected sent representatives to the council meeting.
About a dozen delegations made their case for why their funding shouldn’t be cut.
“Rather than closure of the facility, we believe there are other options to consider that would result in a win-win situation,” Doug Normand, vice president of Regina’s Lawn Bowling Club, said.
City administration recommended ending the airport’s exemption to property tax.
“We recognize the proposal before council is not adequately informed and any decision to remove exemptions will, in turn, increase costs to airlines and passengers flying to and from Regina and hamper future service development and growth,” Richmond Dyck, Regina Airport Authority’s president and CEO, said.
“There are lots of things that go into the price of an airline ticket,” Mayor Michael Fougere responded after the meeting. “We are very competitive in our pricing. Our landing fees are competitive, so I don’t think it’s a straight line between the exemption going away and prices going up.”
City administration has also recommended another mill rate increase of 2.5 per cent, in addition to the 3.99 per cent already approved in February.
Council didn’t make any decisions on Monday night. It adjourned after hearing all the delegations.
“This has been a very, very quick turnaround. Literally under two weeks ago we were told we were losing this resource, this $11 million. We want to make sure we get it right and we want to make sure we understand what the delegations have said to us,” Fougere said.
“I caution using property taxes as a sole way to cover off the hole the province gave us. That’s not sustainable either. It’s a balance between a tax increase possibly, service efficiencies, some cuts, using reserves, which I don’t favour. There’s a spectrum of things we can do, and no single one answers the question itself.”
City council will reconvene on Tuesday, April 18 to finalize the budget.
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