Regina Minute: Issue 121

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

📅 This Week In Regina: 📅

• The Accessibility Advisory Committee meets today at 4:00 pm. The Committee is scheduled to receive two staff reports for information: one on proposed Traffic Bylaw changes setting out procedures for when accessible parking stalls are displaced, and one updating the City's policy on clearing snow from sidewalks.
  
  
• The Executive Committee will meet on Wednesday at 9:00 am. The Committee will discuss Regina's potential application to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency to be designated an eligible assistance area under the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program, following a heavy rainfall event on June 27th and 28th that flooded properties across the city and generated 331 requests to Service Regina for help with water in homes and yards. The designation would let affected residents and businesses apply to the Province for money toward uninsurable losses. The Committee will also consider transferring a 30-unit affordable housing building at 2710 5th Avenue to the YWCA Regina under the federal Rapid Housing Initiative, a project the City has already supported with $3 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund and one that would come off the municipal tax roll starting in 2027. Rounding out the agenda are a new Regina Housing Strategy and an update to the City's Parks Master Plan.
  
  
• The City of Regina has issued a request for proposals to find an engineering consultant for the long-delayed redevelopment of the former Taylor Field site, the vacant land north of 10th Avenue where the Saskatchewan Roughriders played until the stadium was demolished in 2017. The successful bidder would service the land, advance subdivision and carry out the infrastructure work needed to turn the site into a new mixed-use neighbourhood, including a new park and serviced parcels for sale. The City has said the development will include both affordable and market housing, though no council has firmly committed to a final vision for the land. In 2025 Council approved applying for money through the federal Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund, and Regina received more than $10 million in April 2026, combined with provincial and municipal contributions. Proposals are due by August 13th, and the project's completion is tentatively set for December 2032. The work is meant to align with the City's ongoing Indoor Aquatic Facility Project on the same lands.
  
  
• In another housing development, a stalled supportive housing project in Regina's North Central neighbourhood has been transferred to the City after its original builder ran out of money partway through construction. The 30-unit development at Angus Street and 5th Avenue was about 75% complete when funding from government and donors ran dry, halting work for roughly a year. The units were to have been run by the North Central Family Centre, but the non-profit has now handed the project and property to the City, which approved a $3-million injection in December to resume construction. The roughly $1.5 million the group raised from donors will stay with the project. The City has said it will issue a request for proposals to find a new operator once the building is finished, and the Centre does not intend to apply.
  
  
• A provincial Crown corporation just west of Regina is preparing to spend as much as $10,064,550 to buy 417.9 acres of land from agriculture giant Cargill. The Global Transportation Hub Authority said the purchase, authorized by an Order in Council, covers land next to its existing footprint that includes a rail spur, site improvements and direct connections to the CN and CPKC rail lines. The land is tied to Cargill's canola crushing plant, which opened in April after the company bought an earlier parcel from the hub for $38 million in 2022. President and CEO Daniel Hersche said owning the land lets the Province protect and grow the industrial site and keep the rail infrastructure public. The Authority, which has faced financial struggles but reported net income of $1.82 million in the 2024-25 fiscal year, said the deal will be covered within its existing budget.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

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