Regina to seek provincial permission for alternative ways to raise funds

Regina city council held its first meeting of the new year on Thursday.

At an afternoon special meeting, council unanimously voted to seek approval from the provincial government to allow Regina and other municipalities to expand how they can raise revenue.

Regina’s money troubles are no secret, and over the last few years, residents have started feeling the pinch through increased property taxes, which is the primary tool cities have at their disposal to draw revenue.

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Working alongside the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association, Mayor Chad Bachynski said this motion would give Regina and other cities much-needed flexibility to deal with the costs of growth.

“The goal is diversification,” Bachynski said after the meeting.

“The biggest thing is just trying to find a way to not solely rely on property taxes as a source of revenue for the city. And this is not unique to Regina, it’s not unique to Saskatchewan – this is something that we’ve seen even at Federation of Canadian Municipalities, where we recognize that we need to explore different models, and this is a step that I think Regina, as the capital city, can take.”

Since the motion passed, city administration is tasked with formatting the request and submitting it to SUMA by its deadline to receive resolutions. The resolution will be brought up at SUMA’s board meeting, where it needs to be formally ratified by the board before its convention.

Ward 8 Coun. Shanon Zachidniak, who is council’s SUMA representative, explained that a member of council would need to speak in favour of the resolution on council’s behalf.

What measures are on the table?

The motion came with several specific asks of the provincial government, including:

• Requesting SUMA to advocate for the province to either collect its own education property tax directly or reinstate a grant to municipalities that compensates for the administrative burden of collection.
• Requesting that SUMA advocate for the return of surcharges for Crown electrical and natural gas revenues. Coun. David Froh said the province used to receive around $10 million a year from power companies, which stopped in 2017.
• Requesting SUMA to ask the province to exempt municipalities from Provincial Sales Tax on construction projects in order to support infrastructure development.

Bachynski said this past budget cycle was a “massive catalyst” for this motion, which he brought to council.

The mayor credited Ward 3 Coun. David Froh for starting the conversation about this motion beforehand.

“Cities are growing and they’re changing. The property tax is regressive; it doesn’t recognize a homeowner’s ability to pay; it’s not great for business; it is unpredictable because of how we do assessment,” Froh said during the meeting.

“Around the world, most cities have a better balance of how they manage their revenue, because remember the PST or the corporate or personal income tax rates at the province – they don’t change those rates by year. The economy where consumption grows or attracts –they manage those funds, not so at the city level, where every year we have to go through this artificial process of raising taxes, and so I think it’s an investment and a partnership with the province.”

Mayor Bachynski said he was grateful for the province’s revenue-sharing agreement, but added that further diversification will help cities as they grow.