Regina Minute: Construction Woes, Accessible Taxis, and New Community Supports

Regina Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Regina politics

This Week In Regina:

• There will be a City Council meeting on Wednesday at 1:00 pm. The agenda includes a discussion about waiving cemetery license fees for veterans, amending the way the City directs surplus amounts from tax-funded reserves, and the potential creation of a centralized accessible taxi dispatch center. (More on that below!). A Notice of Motion will be brought forward to establish the creation of a Preceptor role, designed to support the Mayor and Councillors. Another Notice of Motion will be brought forward that prohibits Councillors from making disrespectful, derogatory, or demeaning comments towards the City Manager and City staff either in meetings, in public forums, or in written communications.
  
  
• Construction on various roads is resulting in traffic delays. Two major arteries - Saskatchewan Drive and 11th Avenue - are experiencing construction simultaneously. Both of these are SaskPower projects, related to upgrading the energy grid, leaving the City with no control over the timelines. For now, the Mayor has said that the City will not be doing work on other major roads, like College Avenue, Victoria Avenue, Eighth Street, and Fourth Street while this work is ongoing.
  
  
• Rumours are spreading that the Cornwall Centre will be the location for Regina’s new Central Library branch. The downtown shopping centre is going to have a lot more space as the Hudson’s Bay Company, one of the largest stores in the mall, will not be renewing its lease. The CEO of the Regina Public Library says that this is anything but confirmed, and remains only a rumour for now. Evidently, the site has come up as a proposed location before, prior to this vacancy arising. While it seems that nothing is yet certain, the Mayor has publicly stated that she hopes the Cornwall will be considered further.

Last Week In Regina:

• The Executive Committee heard recommendations for accessible taxi services - and those recommendations had not changed much since Council referred them back to Administration in May 2023 and again in December 2023. The proposed changes include lowering the fee per accessible trip and implementing a third-party operator for a new central dispatch system. The use of a third party would lower the cost of the overall program to $238,000 from $460,000. Another recommendation involves transitioning from the existing lottery system to a wait-list approach for granting accessible taxi licenses, with all brokers being required to have a minimum of two accessible licenses and to ensure that at least one of the vehicles are on shift at all times. Despite opposition from some Councillors and the Mayor, the recommendations were approved and will move forward for final approval by City Council with the goal to have the dispatch center operational by spring 2025.
  
  
• The Downtown Regina Community Support Program has been rebranded as the Regina Street Team (RST). This initiative is a partnership between the Regina Downtown Business Improvement District and The Comeback Society, and aims to address homelessness, mental health issues, and substance-use-related distress in Regina's downtown area. Mayor Sandra Masters highlighted the City's ongoing commitment to supporting the downtown community through the RST. A new van was also unveiled to assist with service delivery.
  
  
• Two other support services also opened in the city. The Regina and Area Sexual Assault Centre moved to a new “trauma-informed space” designed to better serve victims. Features of the new space include frosted windows, divided hallways, and a self-serve coffee machine instead of coffee served by staff. The John Howard Society opened a new Youth Drop In Centre, which provides services like homework help and counselling to at-risk youth. The Province’s Ministry of Social Services is providing $165,000 to the Society to run the facility.