Regina Minute: Issue 90

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

📅 This Week In Regina: 📅

• This morning, at 9:00 am, there will be a City Council meeting. Council is set to hear from a wide range of voices as it discusses the 2026-27 budget, which could result in a property tax increase of between 15.69% and 18.92%. Seventy-six residents have signed up to speak, with another seven addressing the police portion of the budget. Delegations will include citizens proposing tax cuts, defending funding for programs like transit and community grants, and representatives from City-funded organizations such as the Regina Public Library and Economic Development Regina.
  
  
• Regina transit workers have voted 83% in favour of a conditional strike mandate in response to potential City budget cuts that could reduce bus service and eliminate positions. The cuts are part of a $71.5 million package aimed at lowering the City’s proposed tax increase, with transit accounting for $12 million of potential reductions. Proposed changes include eliminating evening and holiday service, cutting high school routes, reducing paratransit hours, and cancelling several bus routes, along with fare increases and new card fees. The union says these cuts would harm both employees’ livelihoods and the community relying on transit.
  
  
• Regina has signed an eight-year agreement with Awasis Organics Ltd., a Cowessess First Nation-owned company, to build and operate a new composting facility east of the city. The project will process about 17,000 tonnes of organic waste each year and convert it into biochar, a low-emission soil product. Awasis will fund the roughly $6-million facility, with the City paying a per-tonne processing fee while Awasis markets the resulting biochar. The City says the partnership is key to meeting Regina’s landfill-diversion target of 65%. The biochar process also avoids concerns such as odour and groundwater risks that halted a previous compost proposal. Cowessess leaders describe the project as a meaningful step in Indigenous-led economic development and climate stewardship, noting its potential to prevent thousands of tonnes of emissions annually. Construction is expected to begin in May 2026.
  
  
• Parents in Regina are facing long waitlists for City-run swimming lessons, with nearly 900 people currently on the list due to limited pool capacity. Registration requires parents to act quickly at 7:00 am to secure popular classes, and families with multiple children often struggle to find overlapping time slots. The City cites facility limits and competing uses - like lane swim, leisure swim, and staff training - as reasons it cannot expand lesson availability. Private instructors also face challenges, as they can only use pool time during evenings or busy leisure periods, limiting how many students they can take. Construction on a new indoor aquatics facility at the Sportplex site is planned for 2029, but it will replace the Lawson Aquatic Centre rather than increase overall pool capacity. Parents and instructors say an additional pool is needed to meet growing demand and ensure more children can access lessons safely.
  
  
• An audit has found that Regina’s $6.8-million subsidy to Costco could potentially have been avoided if the Global Transportation Hub (GTH), a provincial Crown corporation, had better coordinated with the City when negotiating Costco’s new location. The subsidy was approved by City Council to secure Costco’s move to Regina’s Westerra neighbourhood after the retailer backed out of a previous agreement. The City will fund the incentive from its land development reserve, which will be replenished through property taxes collected from Costco over the next seven to eight years. Auditor Tara Clemett recommended that GTH formalize a framework for collaboration with the City to prevent similar issues in the future. The Saskatchewan NDP has criticized the provincial government for creating tension between the City and GTH, suggesting the Province should reimburse Regina for the cost.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

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