REGINA – It has been a long and slow grind at City Hall on Wednesday as Regina councillors got to work figuring out the 2026 operations budget.
This marked the third day of budget deliberations but the first day of debate on what the budget should contain and what the mill rate increase should be.
The major piece of news of from the day has been Mayor Chad Bachynski’s motion calling for a 10.73 per cent mill rate increase, well below city administration’s originally proposed 15.69 per cent increase.
The motion also proposed a large number of cuts and reductions. They range from removing parking metres downtown to go app-only, as well as a proposed 10 per cent fare increase to transit — one that may not end up happening now based on council discussions Wednesday afternoon.
There were also changes proposed to the general capital budget including deferring $1 million for the Campbell St. reconstruction from Simpson Ave. to Albulet Dr. in 2026-27, cancelling $1 million from the 11th Ave. revitalization in 2026, and reallocating $2 million to Dewdney Ave. and Lewvan Dr. intersection improvements.
In his remarks Mayor Bachynski called his motion “a starting point,” noting this was a $16 million reduction and a 30 percent reduction from where they had started. He also said this was a reduction from a $30 a month increase to the average homeowner to $18 month.
Several motions proposed by Councillor Radons
While Bachynski’s motion started Wednesday’s proceeding on a bang, proceedings slowed down soon after as members of council started to introduce their own motions and amendments.
Several of those came from Ward 7 Councillor Shonda Radons. Her first motion on Wednesday was to propose an amendment to cut funding to Economic Development Regina by 50 per cent, and ask for a report on absorbing the organization into the city.
But that idea drew immediate pushback from councillors including Ward 3’s David Froh, who worried it would send a signal Regina would not be open for business.
What ended up going to a vote was a watered-down motion calling for a 10 per cent cut. That would have been double the five per cent cut the organization had already faced in the budget, but in the end that motion was defeated by a 6-5 vote.
Radons also brought forward a motion to reallocate $1.55 million in funds to go to accessible playground capital projects, with another $160,000 reallocated to a grant for playground enhancements.
The motion was later amended further by Coun. Sarah Turnbull to bring the $1.55 million down to $460,000, and that eventually passed by a 7-3 vote.
Radons then introduced another amendment motion, this time calling for council to remove the cancelling of Service Regina rightsizing of 50 per cent from the budget. But that motion lost by a 7-4 vote.
Motion from Councillor Zachidniak nixes transit fare increase
Next up was a motion from Councillor Shanon Zachidniak on the transit portion of the budget, in which Zachidniak proposed adding enhanced safety and security support and peace officers, as well as removing the proposed 10 per cent fare increase. Zachidniak also proposed removing some other items to offset those costs for a net zero impact to budget.
In his remarks Mayor Bachynski said he was "happy to support" Zachidniak's motion, noting the time taken to come up with the proposal, meaning his own proposed 10 per cent fare increase would not happen should her motion be passed.
Council was still debating the operations budget as 4 p.m. approached. As of publication time it seems unlikely the budget will be settled on Wednesday, as council would still need to decide the utilities and library budgets after the operations budget is concluded. Budget deliberations are once again scheduled to start at 9 a.m. on Thursday morning.
