Regina Minute: Issue 132

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

📅 This Week In Regina: 📅

• Economic Development Regina (EDR) will present its 2027 budget request to the Executive Committee on Wednesday at 9:00 am. The agency is asking the City for $1,980,000, which it says is the same amount Council approved for 2026 and below the $2,100,000 it received in 2025. EDR claims that the new residents and businesses it helped bring to Regina over the past year added an estimated $45 million in assessed value and about $507,000 in municipal tax revenue. By its own figures, that is roughly 26 cents in new tax revenue for every dollar of City funding. The request includes a $120,000 reallocation for a dedicated inclusive economic development staff position, and EDR is forecasting a $48,514 shortfall in its overall 2027 budget of about $2.9 million. The agency says it has cut its software and technology costs by 18.4% and identified a redundant data subscription, saving $10,077.69 a year. Administration recommends referring the request to the December 7th Council budget meeting.
  
  
• Also on Wednesday, the Provincial Capital Commission, which manages Wascana Centre, will present its 2027 budget request to the Executive Committee. The Commission is asking the City for $2.719 million, the same amount Council approved for 2026, toward total planned spending of about $15.171 million. To balance its budget, the Commission plans to draw about $3.034 million from its accumulated surplus, which it expects to run out in 2028-29. Under the Commission's governing legislation, the City is to pay 30% of the costs, but the Commission says the City's grant now covers only about 20% of true costs because the surplus has been filling the gap. The Commission is not asking the City to make up that difference in this request, but it wants Council to join talks on a long-term funding solution, including a review of the legislated funding split. Without one, the Commission warns that future decisions could involve deferring infrastructure renewal or reducing service levels. Administration recommends referring the request to the December 7th Council budget meeting.
  
  
• The Executive Committee agenda also includes an annual update on the Fire Master Plan. According to Regina Fire & Protective Services, construction of Fire Station #8, the first additional station built since 2001, is progressing toward an opening in early 2027, and the project now includes a co-located community centre. The Department filled the new station's staffing by hiring 20 firefighters between 2024 and 2026, and a fire inspector and investigator position is included in its proposed 2027 budget enhancements. It is also reviewing the timing and location of Fire Station #9 to match updated growth projections, and Administration plans to bring back the plan's original consultants to validate future station and service assumptions, with any funding to be considered in the 2027 budget. The plan, approved by Council in 2021, is a 25-year roadmap for the fire service, which responded to 8,029 incidents in 2025.
  
  
• The Regina Board of Police Commissioners met on September 29th and received reports showing reported crime in the city up 4% from January through August compared with the same period last year. Property crime rose 5.5%, with thefts under and over $5,000 still climbing, while crimes against people were essentially unchanged and break-and-enters and vehicle thefts continued to decline. Bin fires remain a particular pressure point, with 45 recorded in August, a 23.2% increase. Police Chief Lorilee Davies confirmed that an August investigation produced Regina's first charge involving fentanyl production, after officers seized roughly 1.5 kilograms of processed fentanyl along with manufacturing materials, methamphetamine, and cash. Police also responded to 40 overdose incidents in August, 7 of them fatal. The Board also reviewed the school resource officer program, which has 15 officers working in Regina schools under a 5-year agreement with Regina Public Schools and Regina Catholic Schools signed in December 2025. 
  
  
• City Council approved new floodplain maps and development rules, the first update to Regina's floodplain boundaries since 1982. The maps, produced by the provincial Water Security Agency, define the floodplain as areas that could flood with a meter of water or more in a one-in-200-year event, replacing a one-in-500-year standard that a City staff report described as strict compared with other provinces. The change brings Regina in line with provincial requirements adopted in 2025 and keeps the City eligible for provincial and federal disaster assistance programs. New development remains prohibited in the flood zone, but owners can now redevelop or remodel existing buildings if they follow flood-proofing rules, including no basement suites, furnaces and water heaters above flood level, and engineering certification of the work. Non-residential buildings such as garages are now also allowed. The new boundaries are expected to affect about 2,400 properties around Wascana Creek, Chuka Creek, Pilot Butte Creek, and the city's north and south storm channels, adding parts of the Dieppe, Mount Royal, CPR Annex, Lakeview, and Crescents neighbourhoods while removing some properties from the risk area.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

Do you think the City should allow existing buildings in newly designated flood-risk areas to be redeveloped under flood-proofing requirements, or should development restrictions be stronger?

Reply to this email and let us know!

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