Court to hear application against Regina city manager ahead of next budget meeting

A Court of King’s Bench justice will hear an application against Regina’s city manager by a current councillor.

During a hearing Tuesday, it was decided that written arguments from both parties must be in by Dec. 7, with written responses filed by Dec. 9. A judge is expected to hear the case on Dec. 13, but it could be moved up a day if a judge becomes available on that date.

City council is expected to meet again on Dec. 14.

Ward 6 Coun. Dan LeBlanc, who is a lawyer, filed an application on behalf of Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Stevens and Regina resident Florence Stratton over the city’s proposed budget.

That document, which was released Nov. 22, included millions of dollars in spending, but it didn’t include funding to end homelessness through a housing-first, supportive-housing model.

That’s a problem for advocates who claim that, at a meeting in June, council unanimously agreed to have administration include full operational funding in the budget to solve homelessness through such a model.

The court application to direct city manager Niki Anderson to do just that was filed by LeBlanc on the same day the proposed budget for 2023 and ’24 was released.

LeBlanc has said that since the council dates to discuss the budget are coming up soon, the application was necessary.

The issue could be raised during those meetings, but LeBlanc said if something is not in the draft budget, it takes six votes to put it into the document.

The text of the motion from June read in part “that Administration be directed to include the following in the 2023 proposed budget: 1. Full operational funding to solve homelessness throughout the City using a housing-first, supportive-housing model. This draft funding to be clearly demarcated in a line item of its own. 2. Any supplemental report required to explain the costing of point 1, above.”

However, Mayor Sandra Masters said last week that it was understood council wasn’t directing what administration should recommend.

“We were not approving anything other than we were looking for the numbers to be included in the budget book — and they have been — and it would be debated at budget time,” Masters said after the application was filed.