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An expansion of paid on-street parking is one of the budget enhancements being proposed by City of Regina administration.
The report being presented at Tuesday’s pre-budget meeting of city council says expanding paid parking zones would help increase parking turnover and allow more people to find parking at busy times.
It suggests three areas: around Regina General Hospital, the area around Pasqua Hospital, and Victoria Avenue and Angus Street in Cathedral.
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“The main benefit for drivers in these areas is parking availability near high parking generators,” the report says. “The primary disadvantage of this proposal is negative public perception, especially near the hospital areas.”
For Munish Bhardwaj, the proposal raises the spectre of not having a place to park. The financial adviser has rented an Angus Street office for the last eight years and parks on the street.
“Most of us park on the road, and we change as we need to, the sides, or sometimes park it somewhere else because there is not much more parking,” he said. “It will be devastating for us and (we’ll) probably end up leaving the place.”
Munish Bhardwaj rents office space on Angus Street. He’s concerned adding paid on-street parking will push businesses out of the area. (Geoff Smith/980 CJME)
He said it raises concerns about the viability of the nearby downtown area.
“How are you going to manage the parking? Or take a bus, maybe that would be the ideal. But for many of the people like us, who have kids, who go back and forth, pick up the kids, drop off, go home quickly, have lunch.
“So it’s not ideal for us that we pay where we are leasing the office.”
If it’s approved as part of the 2027 budget process, a bylaw would then need to be passed. It’s projected to raise $110,000 in revenue.
$9 million in additional spending being proposed
The administration is presenting a list of spending increases after detailing the cost of a status quo budget at the previous meeting.
It totals $9 million, which would be offset by $215,000 in additional revenue. The full list, if approved during the budget process, would raise property taxes by 2.34 per cent.
“The majority of the proposed enhancements are focused on accessibility, transit, and technology investments, with several initiatives also focused on adding staff capacity across the organization,” the report says.
One of the largest items is implementing the city’s accessibility plan, which would require eight full-time equivalent positions and spending of just over $1 million. This includes high-priority sidewalk snow clearing, as well as snow removal at transit stops.
Another is enhancements to the concrete distress program, worth $1.3 million. The report says this additional funding would go toward contractors to repair deteriorating sidewalks.
More than $1 million in transit improvements are being proposed, including service to the new Costco.
A price tag of nearly $890,000 is attached to enhanced winter maintenance and cleaning services, with a focus on city centre neighbourhoods and the recently revitalized Dewdney and 11th avenues.
Implementing items in the LGBTQ+ action plan would require $444,000. Another item to move toward enabling AI tools within the city would require $410,000.
The report also points out that if council hopes to keep any tax increase below the target of 5.81 per cent, adding any of these items would require finding a cut to offset it.
