Regina Minute: Issue 100

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

📅 This Week In Regina: 📅

• This is our 100th edition of Regina Minute, marking 100 weeks of tracking City Council meetings and summarizing key details for residents! This newsletter was created to make local politics accessible, cutting through lengthy reports, jargon, and marathon meetings so more residents can stay informed and hold leaders accountable. We have covered debates on spending, taxes, and City priorities, highlighted good and bad decisions, exposed waste, and shown when core services are neglected. Funded entirely by readers, Common Sense Regina relies on donations to continue its work, so if you appreciate our work to improve City Hall accountability and ensure citizens stay informed, please consider making a donation to keep this newsletter and our other important municipal work going!
  
  
• We're hosting a Pints & Politics event in Regina, in conjunction with our friends at the Saskatchewan Institute! We're going to keep things simple and just have some casual drinks, with no formal agenda, as an opportunity for everyone to get together with like-minded people, meet some of the team, and chat about politics. There's a lot going on, so there will be plenty of conversation topics. The event takes place on Friday, March 6th at Birmingham’s East. It’s free, but you’ll need to RSVP here.
  
  
• Council will meet on Wednesday at 1:00 pm. They are set to consider final approval for a community garden in the Eastbrook neighbourhood, proposed by the Arcola East Community Association. The project would lease City-owned parkland at 5500 Kennett Square in the developing Maka Park area, offering 98 garden plots and 12 accessible planters, with construction planned for this spring if approved. The initial lease would last three years and include a full property tax exemption until 2028, consistent with other community garden agreements. Council will also review a lease consolidation for the Al Ritchie Community Association, merging its office space into the existing $1-a-year lease for the Core Ritchie Community Centre, freeing up funds for programming.
  
  
• The Audit and Finance Committee will meet on Thursday at 4:00 pm. On the agenda is the Regina Public Library’s Central Library Renewal Project. It faces a funding shortfall due to the City’s sharply reduced borrowing capacity, now estimated at just $39.63 million by 2030, down from the $92 - $119 million originally planned. Rapid population growth, rising costs on existing capital projects, and prioritization of debt for affordable housing have tightened available debt room. To address the gap, the City implemented a 5.5% dedicated library mill rate in 2025, expected to generate $39.3 million by 2031, which, combined with the Library’s $18.6 million reserve and remaining debt room, brings total funds to about $96.9 million - well below the original projections. The Audit and Finance Committee recommends continuing to collect and invest the mill rate until funds or debt room are sufficient, while other options include renovating the existing building using only available funds or capping the project cost at $96 million to align with current financial limits.
  
  
• The City of Regina is inviting residents to provide feedback on its Accessibility Plan, which was adopted in 2024 to address barriers faced by seniors and people with disabilities. A public survey, open until March 2nd at the Be Heard Regina website, seeks input on the progress of the 84 actions outlined in the plan, with an update showing 33 completed, 41 in progress, and 10 not yet started. Achievements so far include accessibility audits of City facilities, disability awareness training for staff, upgraded signage, expanded paratransit hours, and the launch of PedApp for vision-impaired pedestrians. Upcoming efforts will focus on snow removal, sidewalk repairs, inclusive hiring policies, and traffic light upgrades linked to PedApp, along with playground accessibility improvements at Rick Hansen Optimist and Glencairn Park. The City plans to report survey results to Council in May, aiming to complete nearly all short-term actions by the end of 2026.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

🪙 This Week’s Sponsor: 🪙

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