Masters shares thoughts on Eagles Club shelter site, REAL cash injection

Regina’s Executive Committee gave the green light on Wednesday to move forward with a plan to use a building operated by the Regina Eagles Club on Halifax Street as a shelter site.

The final decision on the proposal is expected at the next council meeting, set for Wednesday, September 25.

The city also approved another $4 million for the Regina Exhibition Association Ltd. (REAL), which is intended to allow the organization to pay off its line of credit by the end of October.

CJME’s Greg Morgan spoke to Mayor Sandra Masters about both topics during the mayor’s appearance on the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Thursday, starting with the shelter proposal.

Listen to the interview, or read the transcript below:

MORGAN: I think there was something like 11 delegates that stood up and said ‘OK, we should have been consulted a little more.’ They felt like this might hurt their business. You are probably not surprised by their concerns?

No, not at all. I think anywhere you’re going to go place a shelter, you’re going to have the concerns around the surrounding neighborhoods, absolutely. But trying to mitigate it, it was one of the delegates who had recommended, ‘Hey, if this goes ahead you need to consider something for businesses,’ and we’ve been looking at it, as it relates to where the where the shelter is right now. Just looking at other municipalities in terms of trying to compensate businesses for whether it’s cleaning costs, security costs, damage, insurance premiums going up.

So really, in some respects it’s the call to action to you need to do more outside the shelter, because we’ve got wraparound services inside the shelters. It is a 24-hour shelter. We’re not releasing folks or kicking them out of the building at nine. So, really, we just added on an amendment that said we need to do more for businesses as it relates to impact, but also to do the consultation now before next Wednesday, because as you know, it goes to council for an actual decision, and to have administration talk to those concerns and see what we can alleviate and how we can improve the impact.

MORGAN: There’s got to be some things to lessen the impact. That has to be thought of too, out front.

Oh, absolutely, and that’s fencing some of the property so that if they want to go enjoy the outdoors, they’re not loitering on the edge of a street. They actually have space to go and sit and to, you know, to smoke and all of those kinds of things. But really, the fencing and the design of it to help mitigate some of the visual impacts from the shelter itself.

But we also have alternate response officers, which will be coming onto the street in October. So by next July, when this move happens, you’re going to have way more boots on the ground as it relates to the unwanted guests and community outreach from the Regina Street Team. So that was the other flag. You’re going to have to invest more in the outreach, to connect folks to services and move folks along.

MORGAN: Do you think some common ground with locals in the area can be found, then?

Yeah, I think so. You’re never going to mitigate all of the concerns, because that is a big change. You are never going to mitigate all of the concerns. But also, because you have months to plan into it, to actually have a plan with (the Regina Police Service), and with the Regina Street Team and with the social-serving agencies that up down there.

MORGAN: Your city manager said it checks all the boxes, this particular location, but there is that mentality of ‘not in my neighborhood,’ and sooner or later, the city is going to have to make a decision that is tough. That is one thing that I hear from some of my listeners – everything just gets kicked down the road. If you lose this, how concerning is it if this goes away and funding is in place, and it just goes on and on and on, it seems?

It’s just a brutal decision. It’s a really hard decision to make, because it doesn’t matter where it goes, and so you’ve got to make the decision. You’ve got to make sure that we’ve got a plan in place, but also we have to elevate again, as I said, our game on the outside.

MORGAN: It was a six-to-two decision last night. You and Councillor Andrew Stevens voted against getting REAL an extension for $4 million they were asking for so they can pay off their line of credit. Why did you say no?

I didn’t get an acceptable answer as to the why of it and, again, it’s just another short-term solution. I said we keep doing the short-term solutions, as opposed to – it was over a year ago when I said you gotta come up with something that makes some more sense for the site. There’s so much community benefit to the rinks and to the court spaces and you get the Pats playing at the Brant Center, so it’s the short-term nature of it. You’ve had over a year to do this.

MORGAN: Don’t we need to extend this?

Yeah, the reality is that the city is responsible.

MORGAN: You kind of are stuck in this situation?

The city is responsible for the debt regardless. But to not actually do the deep dive and the work over the last year, to say, ‘Here’s how you actually deal with it,’ so that they can operate within their line of credit, and you’re removing, you know, the number was something like, they paid $11 million in down in debt over the last number of years. You’re like ‘OK well, that in and of itself is a big drain on cash flow, and all of that is the city done anyways.’ So it’s just nonsensical to me, but it’ll keep going. It’ll be fine.

This interview has been edited for clarity.