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The CEO of the Regina and District Chamber of Commerce says any prudent business owner will have to explore all options when looking at a property tax hike of 10.9 per cent.
The increase was approved Friday by Regina City Council as part of its 2026 budget deliberations.
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Earlier in the week, chamber CEO Mike Tate appeared before council to call for a “more realistic” increase between zero and 6.7 per cent and outlined recommendations to allow Regina to grow its tax base.
In an interview Monday, Tate called the approved increase an outlier.
“It’s just too high,” Tate said. “From the current business environment, I believe that very, very few of our businesses would be growing at a rate of 11 per cent.
Tate warned that retailers who will now be facing higher rents will to have to pass the cost on to customers.
He also says some will consider going out of business or moving out of Regina.
Ahead of its deliberations, council heard from dozens of delegations, many of whom expressed concern about the loss of services. Tate is sympathetic to the position that put council in.
“The way the information was presented to them, as far as the services that the city currently provides our citizens, and the cost to those services, any growing city of course has increased costs for maintenance and all of the services they provide.
“So yeah, there’s no question it was a difficult position to be in, and we do have empathy toward that.”
But Tate says council had the option of following the chamber’s recommendations.
“There’s examples all around our country that will showcase what we believe are good opportunities to increase the tax base and really become more of a(n), ideally, a predictable budget cycle,” he said.
Union worries cuts made by council will lead to job losses
The union representing nearly 1,600 City of Regina outside workers says the budget will weaken services and threaten the jobs of its members.
“It cuts pretty directly to the quality of life for Regina residents as well as the ability of hard-working municipal workers to provide services and making a living,” Kent Peterson, Saskatchewan president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), said in an interview Tuesday.
Peterson added it wasn’t yet clear what impact the service reductions would have, but expected it to mostly hit the parks department.
But he said any number was too big.
“You have to remember that every time a worker gets laid off or a job gets eliminated, that is somebody with a life, with a family, with people to support, with bills to pay and who is supplying services to City of Regina residents.”
Peterson said he understands people are unhappy with a double-digit tax increase, but suggested alternative targets to find savings, such as management positions and the contracting out of services, which he said costs more than performing those same functions in-house.
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