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On Thursday afternoon, Regina’s city council began parsing through the details and bringing forward their changes to the 2024 budget – one of which would greatly affect the accessibility elevator at the new Wascana Pool.
Coun. Andrew Stevens moved an amendment to the budget which would have postponed the building of the elevator for the main waterslide at the pool, and instead use the money for other accessibility improvements in the city.
According to administration answers at the meeting, the cost of the elevator was originally pegged at $550,000 but because of changes — like the elevator needing to be fully enclosed to protect it from the elements all year — the cost ballooned to $1 million.
To pay for that, administration had planned to use the $500,000 of accessibility recreation improvement program money for 2024 and also bring forward the 2025 money to 2024 – leaving no money for such improvements in 2025.
If Stevens’ amendment had passed, the cash would have been returned to normal in both years, and in 2024 would have been used for bringing three of the city’s recreational facilities up to Rick Hansen gold standard for accessibility in things like the washrooms, entrances, and emergency system upgrades.
Coun. Terina Nelson led the push for the accessibility additions on the waterslide and she seemed to take the amendment personally on Thursday evening. She said it made her sick.
“How dare you take this away from the disabled community. That community that was so excited to finally be able to go down a goddamn waterslide,” she said, her voice rising to shout.
At one point, Mayor Sandra Masters turned Nelson’s microphone off and tried to calm her down but Nelson demanded it be turned back on.
“This is not fair and I hope you’re all ashamed of yourselves …,” she said. “Because you didn’t build proper doorways (in recreation facilities), and because you didn’t build proper entranceways, now we’re suffering for it.”
Nelson’s daughter has a physical disability and she’s long been an advocate for accessibility on and off council.
“You don’t know that you need an elevator … to get to a waterslide until (you’ve) carried your child up the stairs crying because you’re so bloody tired but she wants to go again,” Nelson said previously during initial discussions about the pool.
The pool opened last summer but the elevator wasn’t set to be built until next year. Until it is, the waterslides at the pool are not accessible to those with physical disabilities.
Stevens’ motion wasn’t passed, instead being referred to city’s administration until some feedback can be gathered from the disability community in Regina. That is expected to come back in the first quarter of 2024.
