On top of the voluntary cuts, council reduced funding for REAL by another $300,000 during deliberations on Tuesday.
City budget deliberations began Monday with a full day of delegates speaking to a variety of items in the proposed 2025 general operating, capital and utility budgets.
Council also heard from the Regina Police Service (RPS), Regina Exhibition Association Ltd. (REAL) and Economic Development Regina (EDR). Combined, their budget asks make up 4.59 per cent of the proposed 8.5-per-cent mill rate increase.
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The RPS seeks $108.9 million in operational funding for 2025, to be fed into an overall $122.4 million operating plan and an additional $8.4 million in capital spending. The ask is $6.9 million more than RPS got in 2024.
Chief Farooq Sheikh said the growth is due to salary increases in a new collective bargaining agreement and “uncontrollable expenses” like inflation, adding they are doing everything they can to be as “efficient and effective as possible.”
He said RPS has lowered its ask by $800,000 from its proposal in February and by 31 per cent overall since last June.
“What we’re asking you for is the bare minimum, for what we need to do to just get through,” Sheikh said.
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Delegate Florence Stratton asked council to trim the police budget by 20 per cent and redistribute those funds to social programs instead.
“We’re not going to police our way out of houselessness. It doesn’t even seem that we will police its way out of crime,” she said, noting the police budget makes up about 17 per cent of the city’s overall $841-million budget but Regina has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the country.
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Deputy Chief Lorilee Davies argued Regina has a lower cost per call than other larger cities at $3,000 per incident, compared to Edmonton as the next closest at $3,500.
“There are a lot of calls we go to that don’t result in criminal charges,” she acknowledged, “but that doesn’t mean we aren’t the right people to go.”
The RPS looks to add 13 new positions this year: two civilian roles, eight alternate response officers and three constables.
REAL also lowered its request from $12.7 million to $11.5 million after appearing in front of council several weeks ago, according to interim president and CEO Roberta Engel. It was a voluntary cut from its operating line and cash flow contingency.
Engel said the reduction comes with some risks, as it leaves REAL, which is responsible for operating the REAL District, with only a $400,000-safety net.
She reminded council that should REAL default on any debt payments or need significant facility repairs it can’t afford, the responsibility would fall to the city to cover costs.
REAL’s operating grant was reduced by another $300,000 after council approved, 9-2, a motion from Coun. Shobna Radons (Ward 7) on Tuesday.
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“This affects our community and so I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry,” she said of her rationale, adding it trims about 0.5 per cent off the city’s proposed mill rate increase.
Councillors Mark Burton (Ward 4) and George Tsiklis (Ward 2) voted against the motion.
Budget deliberations are scheduled to continue all week.
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