Regina city council approves financial compensation for businesses near new emergency shelter

Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski talks recent projects on city council and recent changes at REAL.

Regina city council has approved a plan to provide financial compensation to businesses located near a future permanent emergency shelter in the city.

Businesses that are within 100 metres of the shelter, which will be located at the former Eagles Club on Halifax Street are eligible to receive the compensation, after raising concerns the shelter could negatively impact their properties.

More details regarding eligibility are expected to be made public within the next month.

“We heard from the delegates that came to speak to us about how we had some paving dollars set there and they said we’d rather see that as a kind of contingency fund or fund set aside just in case something [happens],” Mayor Chad Bachynski said during an interview with CTV Morning Live Saskatchewan on Thursday.

“Really the way I look at it and even my fellow councilors and even the delegates that spoke to this, is our hope is that [fund] is not even used.”

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Bachynski said if businesses do not need to access the money it would set a precedent that similar compensation programs will not be needed for businesses that may have a shelter open near them in the future.

“We don’t know what we don’t know and so we put this aside and we will ultimately hope that the best-case scenario happens and everything goes as planned.”

The location was identified by city administration out of 72 possible locations before being recommended to executive committee and then passed by city council after discussions with businesses in the immediate area.

Regina’s lease on a temporary shelter located at “The Nest” expires on July 15 with no possibility of the lease being extended.

Businesses near the site of the new permanent emergency shelter have been in talks with the city since last September.

The funding, if needed, would come through a one-time grant.

-With files from David Prisciak and Sierra D’Souza Butts