Regina council approves free youth transit pilot and new flag protocol

Regina’s city council is going ahead with a pilot program to provide teens with free bus rides.

The measure passed unanimously on Wednesday, with council directing administration to find a high school on an existing transit route that needs the service.

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Administration is to come back with a preliminary report about the project by the third quarter of this year before it is rolled out.

The initiative was championed by Kimberli Kolody-Watt, an 18-year-old student and leader of the Better Bus Regina youth group. She said transit is immensely useful for families that don’t have a vehicle, and for young people who can’t deal with the financial burden of paying for fares and passes.

Kolody-Watt said she has had to walk to school on numerous occasions because she doesn’t have the money to pay for bus fare. She said free transit would make Regina a more inclusive city and would better enable students who rely on its transit to succeed.

Single-ride fares cost $2.75 for youths (ages 14-18) while 31-day passes cost $60 and semi-annual passes cost $300.

“We all know how upsetting it is for residents for one day to not be able to go from point A to point B, and we spend millions of dollars on snow removal for our residents to get from point A to point B,” said Ward 5 Coun. Sarah Turnbull.

“We talk about it every day, and when we do that we feel from everyone what it is like to have a barrier or an obstacle, and it’s just for one day. These kids and people who face obstacles every day in our infrastructure have a snow day every single day.”

New flag-raising protocol

Council also voted unanimously to amend the city’s flag-raising protocol. Flying flags outside of City Hall was a longstanding practice but going forward, the only flags permitted to fly on the City Hall flagpole will be those of the City of Regina, Treaty 4, and the Métis Nation–Saskatchewan.

There will also be exceptions for the flags of charitable organizations and the flags of foreign dignitaries visiting in an official capacity.

A notice of motion was first brought to council by Ward 8 Coun. Shanon Zachidniak and former Ward 1 Coun. Cheryl Stadnichuk, following public outcry after the raising of the Israeli flag outside of City Hall in May.

The matter was tabled several times at council.

In November, outgoing Mayor Sandra Masters cancelled the raising of a Palestinian flag outside of City Hall, which sparked protests.

“I’m glad to see the new flag policy here to be sparse and just sticking to the key things that matter. The world’s a complicated place; to come up with policy that covers every permutation, combination and situation and explanation becomes burdensome,” said Ward 4 Coun. Mark Burton during the meeting.

“As a councillor, I want to work on the things that matter to the citizens of Regina and not get caught up in various things that appear in the world.”

Turnbull added a friendly amendment to the recommendation to allow exceptions for the flags of Regina’s sister cities like Jinan, China and Fujioka, Japan.

Housing initiatives

Council also unanimously decided to approve housing policy pilots, including the rental acquisition and repair pilot for 2025 and 2026, getting $2 million a year from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.

The decision also amends the housing incentives policy to remove the 25 per cent secondary suite tax exemption and provides secondary and backyard suites with the same incentives as other rental units.

City staff said Regina had received the first installment of the $35 million from the federal program, adding up to roughly $8.6 million. The next $8 million installment is expected to arrive in February.

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre has previously stated that he would end the housing accelerator program, sparking some concern at council.

“It would be unfortunate if that was taken away, obviously. But right now, we’re taking advantage of any funding that’s in front of us and trying to implement it and get it into our accounts and use it where we can,” Mayor Chad Bachynski said after the meeting.

“We can’t control what we can’t control, but we’re hoping that we can continue leveraging that good program.”

As part of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Big City Mayors Caucus, Bachynski said he hopes to connect with other mayors on how to best deal with these challenges, along with the threat of U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.