Mayor speaks on plan to cut $2.9M from Regina budget

Mayor Sandra Masters said Wednesday the city’s proposed $2.9 million in budget cuts won’t affect services going forward.

City administration initially proposed a 4.67 per cent mill rate increase to be included in the 2023 budget, but the final budget passed by city council in December contained an increase of 3.67 per cent.

That meant cuts to the budget amounting to $2.9 million.

To achieve that, the city will make cuts to travel and training for city staff, consulting, salaries and benefits, and what the city has termed “alternative funding sources.”

“The training that’s necessary to do the work is going to continue to happen,” Masters said Wednesday after an executive committee meeting. “It’s all coming back into the leadership table to determine.”

Sidewalk clearing

Masters also addressed some complaints about the city’s sidewalk-clearing policy.

“I think by and large, we knew or had an estimation going in that a significant proportion of the population of residents were already clearing snow and that would continue,” she said. “I think perhaps what’s missing based upon some of the feedback that’s coming is when it’s seniors or individuals who are physically limited.”

As of Jan. 1, 2022, all property owners in the city were required to clear their sidewalks after a snow or ice event.

According to the city, property owners who don’t clear their sidewalks in the required timeframe could receive a notice of non-compliance. If they still don’t address the problem, the city can have the sidewalks cleared and apply the costs of that operation to the property owners’ property taxes.

Masters said the policy shouldn’t be punitive, especially in regard to seniors and those with disabilities.

“Some of the pictures of the feedback I’ve received is when we snowplow, we’re dumping the snow back onto the sidewalk. And then to hold residents accountable for the width of a sidewalk seems it’s incongruent with what we’re trying to accomplish,” she said.

“We’re not participating essentially in part of our own solution.”