Regina city council votes to cut nearly $1.6M from this year's budget

Regina city council voted Wednesday to cut $1.55 million from the 2025 municipal budget, honouring a commitment it made in March to fund a 0.5 per cent reduction in the city mill rate.

The move came after a decision during the 2025 budget debate to lessen the city's 7.33 per cent increase — the biggest hike in over 10 years — to this year to its mill rate, which is the amount of tax payable per $1,000 of taxable assessed value.

The city had originally proposed saving the money by terminating 34 external consultants and "out of scope" management-level positions, but that plan was scrapped after a backlash.

Instead, council tasked city administrators to return in May with a number of cost-cutting options for them to vote on. 

"We committed to bringing you a menu of options," said Regina city clerk Jim Nicol told council on Wednesday. "We looked at this very carefully so that they would be feasible, acceptable and doable."

Ward 3 Coun. David Froh said there are "no perfect cuts."

"I certainly have an expectation that the people of Regina aren't interested in us reducing our mosquito control services or our dust suppression," he said.

Council found the $1.55 million in savings after being presented with 13 different city programs and budgets.

The largest cost savings by far came from the carbon tax payments the city stopped having to make on its electricity and natural gas bills after April 1, when Prime Minister Mark Carney reduced the consumer carbon tax to zero per cent. 

That accounted for $600,000, or 39 per cent, of the total shortfall. The next largest cut was to the transit fleet reserve, which funds the replacements of city buses and other vehicles. Its budget for 2025 was cut by $500,000, from a total of $6.2 million. 

The city's budget for natural gas, its workplace improvement budget and its facility retrofit budget were each slashed by $100,000.

The city cut a further $80,000 by reducing the frequency of custodial services in non-public spaces like city hall, transit facilities and fire stations. 

Another $26,000 was saved by deferring a cybersecurity audit.

And the mosquito control budget did end up being cut by $44,000, to arrive at the $1.55 million goal.

"It was a list [of] items that were not a major impact to services," Mayor Chad Bachynski said after the vote. "We recognized the services that would maybe have a more visible impact to residents than others." 

Along with Flores and Bachynski, Couns. Clark Bezo, Mark Burton, Victoria Flores, David Froh and George Tsiklis voted in favour of the framework. Couns. Dan Rashovich, Shobna Radons and Sarah Turnbull voted against it.  

Turnbull attempted a different suite of cuts. She wanted to reduce the transit fleet reserve's budget by only $250,000, and make up the difference by cutting the external and professional services budget, which funds external consultants to work on special city projects, by the same amount. 

That option, which was only supported byTurnbull and Radons, was rejected.

City council also voted unanimously to accept the donation of a storage building by the Regina Ski Club at Kinsmen Park, and enter into a lease agreement with the Regina Rugby Union for their clubhouse.