Regina city manager blasts two councillors over ‘unfounded’ comments about her

Sparks continue to fly at Regina city hall.

City manager Niki Anderson took to the podium Thursday afternoon and blasted councillors Dan LeBlanc and Andrew Stevens over comments they’ve made over the last two months since filing a lawsuit against her for not including specific funding for homelessness in the 2023 budget.

“Unfortunately, I have been portrayed by two members of council as a controversial figure in a continued debate related to houselessness and the City of Regina’s effort to address the issue,” she said.

On Wednesday, council voted to remove LeBlanc from the Community and Social Impact board for the actions he took against Anderson in November.

While Anderson couldn’t comment on the move made by council as she doesn’t have a vote, she said LeBlanc is continuing to make “unfounded” and “misleading” comments about her.

“Councillor LeBlanc’s public comments have accused me of purposefully violating the will of council to serve my own purposes, providing misleading information to council to propel my own agenda, and acting with disregard to the most vulnerable members of our community,” she explained. “None of these claims are accurate, yet they’re repeated ad nauseam by the councillor.”

She said the accusations made by LeBlanc against her carry significant weight because he’s voicing them to the media and amplifying them on social media.

She’s pleading for him to stop with the comments and wants him to remain focused on facts and personal respect when mentioning her by name.

“In the social media space, this has created a hurtful and toxic environment, in many cases targeting me personally,” she said.

Anderson said that during Wednesday’s council debate, Stevens said that as the highest-paid city employee, Anderson should expect to tolerate the criticism she’s received and that she should have thicker skin.

“Professional criticism based on fact is fair game. Personal attacks based on lies, distorted information and conspiracy theories is not,” she stated.

Since the lawsuit was filed against Anderson, she said she won’t meet with LeBlanc and Stevens one on one. Instead, she said she’ll only meet with them in person if there is a third person in the room.

“I will not ever be alone with the councillors that sued me because I need to have another presence there so things aren’t distorted,” she said. “I will still go to meetings with them, but with other people there so it’s not a ‘he said, she said’ conversation and what transpired in those spaces.”

Anderson feels the entire situation has been an attack against her both politically and personally.

“Did I have to go to court? Yes. Did I have to wonder if I’d have to pay my legal bills? Yes. Did I have people trying to find my address? Yes, I did. Was it political or was it an attack against you? It was both,” she said.

When asked if she still felt safe doing her job after the public attention this story has received, Anderson gave a split answer.

“I don’t think they’re going to punch me in the face. I don’t think they’re going to do that,” she said. “Do I think that they’re going to use me as a tool in their very narrow view of how to fix things? I think they’ll use anything that they can for that and so it depends what you call safe.”

As for moving forward, Anderson said while her relationship with the two councillors won’t be repaired on a relational perspective, she said she’ll continue to do her job and work with those members of council to continue to help the city.

“I have met with Coun. Stevens (since the lawsuit) with a third person from administration because there was work I was doing that impacted his ward,” she said. “I need to still try and show up and do my job despite all of that other stuff that’s happening. I can’t speak on how the other councillors would handle that.”

She believes the impact of the situation has taken away the actual conversation of helping solve homelessness.