Regina council seek ways to reduce mill rate increase ahead of budget talks

Regina’s executive committee went over numerous submissions for the proposed 2025 budget on Wednesday.

This year’s budget proposes an 8.5 per cent mill rate increase – the largest jump in at least 10 years.

Ward 8 Coun. Shanon Zachidniak said the amount was too high and council will try its hardest to reduce the increase.

“I think we need to have a more measured increase and I heard that sentiment echoed among my council colleagues today,” she said after the meeting where she sat as deputy mayor.

“The good thing about having this information now is we have the opportunity for the next several weeks to try and assess where there may be the opportunity to realize some saving (and) some efficiencies to lower the mill rate.”

The largest budget requests come from the Regina Police Service and Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL).

Figures from the Feb. 5 executive committee agenda. (City of Regina)

The two entities are asking for mill rate increases of 2.25 per cent and 2.21 respectively, which would be roughly an extra $6.98 million and $6.85 million for 2025.

The proposed budget could cost the average homeowner an extra $320 per year or $17 more per month.

Council heard from representatives of Regina Public Library, the Provincial Capital Commission and Economic Development Regina on Wednesday.

In total, RPL is requesting a 10.08 per cent mill rate increase between a 2025 request to keep up with operational costs and the dedicated costs for the Central Library Renewal Project.

A graph showing the 5-year increase in municipal costs and the mill rate. (City of Regina)

During the meeting, Coun. Mark Burton (Ward 4) questioned the timing of the project, asking why it needed to get done now – as did Clark Bezo (Ward 10).

“How much are we going to ask our taxpayers to shell out for another project? What’s acceptable?” Bezo asked the delegation.

RPL’s Cindy Kobayashi said the library had consulting service DCG perform a feasibility study for the Central Library Project that said it could raise $3 million by itself, but without a commitment from city council, the library wouldn’t be successful in raising any money.

City administration has also said the dedicated mill rate for city operations has increased due to delayed capital requests for major infrastructure projects that had previously been deferred.

Administration said many projects had been hit with “remarkably high” rates of inflation.

“It’s a particularly difficult budget year and this is what we signed up for – the difficult work of trying to balance the inflationary costs and the concerns from the public, and just do our best to represent the residents of Regina,” Zachidniak said.

She said council will receive a more comprehensively detailed proposed budget at the beginning of March ahead of official budget deliberations.

Zachidniak said council will have up to five days for budget talks as opposed to the previous stretch of three.

The executive committee also decided to dissolve the municipal corporation Community and Social Impact Regina Inc., which is a municipal corporation made to lead the city’s Community Safety and Well-being Plan.

A special council meeting was held immediately after Wednesday’s executive committee to confirm the decision.