Regina city councillors will begin deliberating the 2025 city budget on Monday morning.
At the start of February, city administration first presented its proposed budget, which included a property tax increase of 8.5 per cent along with a utility rate hike of 5.82 per cent.
Administration attributed the rise this year to large increases in funding requests from city entities like the Regina Police Service (RPS) and Regina Exhibition Association Ltd. (REAL).
RPS is historically the largest-funded city organization.
They requested an operating budget of $109.7 million – an increase of nearly $7 million from 2024.
While REAL requested $12.7 million – over $7 million more than its 2024 budget – in operating funding.
The 8.5 per cent proposed mill rate increase would be the largest property tax rise since 2013.
In total, the city says the increased property tax and utility rates would amount to an additional $27 per month for the average Regina household.
Top Priorities
According to a city survey conducted ahead of the formation of the proposed budget, residents have three areas where they want to see increased spending.
The results showed 45 per cent of respondents support added investment to city roadways and repairs while 41 per cent want additional funding for affordable housing. A further 40 per cent would like to see more funds allocated to public safety initiatives to address crime.
At the same time, residents want to see smaller property tax increases and for the city to reduce its expenses.
“[Administration] did a really good job of containing costs,” city chief financial officer Darren Anderson said on March 4. “And balancing the fact we need to replace aging infrastructure as well as add new facilities as the city grows.”
From the survey, the administration identified five strategic priorities of investment.
Economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, community safety and well-being, creating a vibrant community and operational excellence.
“Every dollar increase matters to residents,” city manager Niki Anderson said in March. “I want to be proud of the value municipal taxes provides to our residents.”
Why now?
Over the past few years, the city has moved its budget discussion to December.
This was to allow administration the ability to get project contracts and costs approved and out to tenure prior to the spring construction season.
However, things are different for 2025.
“If this was not an election year, budget deliberations would have happened in December,” Anderson said. “With the new council coming in and nine out of 11 new council members, that’s would have normally happened.”
In 2023, council also approved moving to a two-year budget cycle. The election has also thrown a wrench in this year’s approval.
To accompany the change, council will only be setting a one-year budget in 2025 and then restarting the two-year cycle in 2026. This will also mean an election should not coincide with the start of a new cycle.
What is also new for 2025, is five days have been set aside to allow for wholesome debate.
“If they end early, they end early,” Anderson explained. “Delegations can take up to two days by themselves. That leaves three days for debate, which is not a lot of time for figuring out your budget for the next one to two years.”
Striking a balance
Another challenge for city administration has been a mostly new council with differing priorities from the previous iteration.
“Our approach was to put forward a budget that had no new asks other than anything the previous council had said had to be in the 2025 budget,” Anderson said in her reasoning. “I have no idea where [this] council will go.”
Some items include funding to build a new indoor aquatics facility, water network expansion plans and other dedicated mill rate approvals.
Mayor Chad Bachynski says council has been doing its best to understand what the city is prioritizing in this budget.
“There is a lot of core requirements [we] must provide,” Bachynski told reporters following Wednesday’s council meeting. “There’s still infrastructural requirements. There’s still service requirements.”
“There are some things this new council may be looking at from a different angle, we’ll do our best,” he added.
Anderson also says she and her team have been working diligently with the new council to ensure they are understanding of the budget process.
The full budget debate will begin Monday, March 17 at 9 a.m. Historically, the first item discussed and approved is the city’s police budget.
The remaining deliberation schedule is yet to be determined.
