Regina Minute: Issue 117

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

📅 This Week In Regina: 📅

• City Council will meet on Wednesday at 1:00 pm, and among the items on the agenda is a bylaw that would repeal the City's existing pension plan for certain casual employees and elected officials. Administration has folded the two existing defined contribution plans into a single City-administered plan document, the City of Regina Defined Contribution Pension Plan, and the repeal removes the old bylaw now that the plans have been consolidated. The change also modernizes the plan's governance, strips out provisions that are no longer used, and writes in terms negotiated with CUPE Local 21. Those negotiated terms raise the contribution rate from 3% to 5% for employees with 10 or more years of pensionable service, and remove the maximum contribution age of 65 for all members, including elected officials. The repeal would take effect on January 1st, 2027, provided the new plan document is approved by the City Manager before that date. 
  
  
• Also on Wednesday's agenda, Council will decide whether to authorize Administration to negotiate and sign a $29,068,000 funding agreement with the federal government for the Southwest Sewer Upgrade Project. The money comes from the federal Build Canada Strong Fund and covers up to 40% of eligible costs for the project, which the City says will increase wastewater capacity, reduce the risk of basement flooding, and cut untreated discharges into Wascana Creek. The full project is estimated to cost $100.3 million across 5 contracts, 2 of which were finished in 2024 and 2025. The federal contribution would reduce the City's remaining share from $72 million to roughly $45.9 million and free up about $7.6 million in planned borrowing to be redirected to other projects. The recommendation would delegate authority to the Chief Financial Officer to negotiate and approve the deal, with the City Clerk executing the agreements. Construction on the next contract is anticipated to begin in July, with 2 further contracts in 2027 and 2028.
  
  
• Regina is preparing to spend heavily on Mosaic Stadium ahead of the 2027 Grey Cup, and some Councillors want the Canadian Football League to help pay. City staff have asked Council to approve replacing the stadium's decade-old artificial turf and digital scoreboards at a combined cost of $10.4 million, most of it for the scoreboards, with $8.2 million in new money on top of a previously approved $1.9-million turf budget and $2.2 million drawn from the existing capital budget. The turf replacement is partly driven by new CFL field dimensions announced in 2025, prompting Ward 5 Councillor Sarah Turnbull to argue that "if they are the ones that changed the rules of the game, not us, then they should be paying for this." Acting City Manager Jim Nicol countered that the stadium is a City-owned asset the City is responsible for maintaining. The funding would come from the stadium reserve, pushing it to a negative balance of $10.5 million to be covered by City cash flow. Separately, Council voted on June 10th to commit $1.5 million toward hosting the 2027 Grey Cup, with Mayor Chad Bachynski pointing to more than $40 million in economic benefit the last time the city hosted. 
  
  
• More than 400 gardeners at Regina's largest community garden have been told they may have to leave the University of Regina campus as early as late summer, ending a 40-year arrangement. The university, which has let the South Zone Community Garden use the land at no cost, is now in negotiations for a commercial and residential development on the large parcel at the south end of campus. In a written statement, the U of R said the move is part of a broader strategy to diversify revenue as it faces financial pressure from a 59% drop in foreign student enrollment. Garden board president Dale Hjertas said the group always understood it would have to move if the university needed the land, noting that "40 years of gardening at no cost" was itself a significant contribution. It is the second time the university has opened land within Wascana Centre to commercial development, having raised $8.25 million about a decade ago by leasing College Avenue campus property for an office building. Any proposal will require approval from the Provincial Capital Commission, and the gardeners are working with the province to secure other vacant property in the area.
  
  
• Ward 6 Councillor Victoria Flores has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the organization that represents more than 2,000 municipalities covering over 90% of the country's population. Council says the seat will give Regina a stronger voice on the national stage. As a board member, Flores will help set the Federation's priorities and review recommendations from its policy committees on issues such as infrastructure, housing, public safety, and climate change. Flores said she was "incredibly honoured" to join the board and pointed to challenges Canadian cities face around housing, food security, and community infrastructure.

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