A big change was made within the City of Regina last night.

Chris Holden was fired as City Manager after a special Council meeting.

Mayor Sandra Masters says with new projects beginning to develop within the city over the next year, new leadership was needed. “Really to have someone come in a year from now, or a year and a half from now, puts them probably a little bit behind. We felt that new leadership was needed now to carry those initiatives forward.”

Some of the new initiatives that Masters highlighted were the Transformation office which was a response from the efficiency review, community safe and well being, along with working towards net zero by 2050.

Holden’s contract was set to expire in 2024 and Masters believes that change was needed to be made now, instead of possibly waiting two years. “To allow the change process that we are undertaking at council, we thought bringing in a new City Manager is a better decision.”

Jim Nicol will step into the role of interim City Manager. Nicol has been with the City of Regina since 2007. Nicol was previously the City Clerk, and to replace his role, Amber Ackerman has assumed the role of interim City Clerk.

Holden was a mainstay with City of Regina, having been employed by the City for over 40 years. Prior to his appointment of City Manager in 2016, Holden previous roles with the city included Director of Parks and Open Spaces, Director of Community Services and Director of Communications.

Masters thanked Holden for all his contributions to the City of Regina, she noted that Holden had an important role helping out the transition of the new city council that was voted in 2020.

The search for a new City Manager is expected to take between six-nine months.