Regina city council finds $1.55 million in savings

Regina city council approved a series of expenditure reductions totalling $1.55 million on Wednesday.

The list of 13 items to potentially cut from was brought forward by city administration after council directed them to find $1.55 million in savings during the 2025 city budget talks.

The savings were intended to reduce the 2025 mill rate increase.

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“We looked at this very carefully to ensure that they would be feasible, acceptable and doable,” said Acting City Manager Jim Nicol, while introducing the motion.

“Credit goes to my colleagues on the leadership team here and their respective divisions for taking a very hard second look at this and giving you what I hope is a much more extensive menu to choose from.”

Coun. David Froh amended the list to narrow it down to eight items.

The items are:

• General carbon tax savings for utilities ($600,000)
• Utility cost savings for natural gas ($100,000),
• Reducing the general revenue transfer to the city’s transit fleet reserve ($500,000)
• Deferring workplace improvements (100,000)
• Deferring city facility upgrades and retrofits ($100,000)
• Reducing the frequency of custodial services ($80,000)
• Deferring SCADA cyber security audit (Phase 2)  ($26,000)
• Reducing mosquito control service. ($44,000)

“There are no good cuts,” Froh said.

“I want to reiterate that I’m in disagreement with the process that finds us here today, but given where we’re at and given the options put forward by the staff, I think these give us the best balance of providing services, not handicapping anything that would be so critical and allows us to get through the rest of this fiscal year largely unscathed.”

Froh’s motion was approved 6-4. Councillors Froh, Victoria Flores (Ward 6), Clark Bezo (Ward 10), Mark Burton (Ward 4), George Tsiklis (Ward 2) and Mayor Chad Bachynski voted in favour, while councillors Dan Rashovich (Ward 1), Jason Mancinelli (Ward 9), Sarah Turnbull (Ward 5) and Shobna Radons (Ward 7) voted against.

Initially, the proposed reduction of the mosquito control program was set at $327,000 and would have been accomplished by dropping the out-of-town control zone circling the city and ending the program’s delivery earlier in September than normal.

However, acting city manager Jim Nicol said $44,000 could be taken from the mosquito control service without “any significant impact” due to the late start to the mosquito control year and wet conditions Regina is experiencing right now.

Accessible taxi bylaws

Council also finalized bylaw amendment changes to Section 14 (1) that would ensure at least one accessible taxicab license affiliated with their brokerage at all times.

The changes also ensure that at least one accessible taxicab affiliated with their brokerage is in service at all times and that the brokerage is open and operating.

Taylor Field site development

City council voted to allow city officials to access the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund (CHIF), which could help cover $10.5 million of the estimated $20.9 million project. If approved, the city would enter a cost-sharing agreement with the provincial and federal governments.

The motion was unanimously approved as part of the consent agenda for Wednesday’s vote, meaning there was no discussion.