REGINA — Heading into its next budget, the City of Regina will have a new procedure
Recently, city council approved a more transparent process for councillors and the public to understand expenses for items and a necessary mill rate increase.
This process includes the council adopting a strategy to keep Regina in the lower 25 percent of taxes among Canadian comparator cities.
“To meet this strategic imperative, any 2027 mill rate increase must be at or below 5.81 per cent,” notes the report.
In its first two years, Regina’s current council has approved a 7.33 per cent mill rate increase in 2025 and 10.9 per cent in 2026.
A recent council decision to sell several city-owned properties located at the Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) to Brandt is expected to save taxpayers $79 million over five years, a move that could help keep the 2027 mill rate lower.
One notable change for the new process is council seeing a draft of the proposed 5.81 per cent mill rate with items not included, such as service enhancements or new services administration could recommend.
For the 2026-2027 budget process, administration presented different mill rate increases and implications.
During a scrum, Mayor Chad Bachynski said the city is not committed to the 5.81 per cent mill rate increase, describing it instead as a benchmark.
“That doesn't mean that it can't be higher or lower at council's direction, it's the guideline or the guard or the guide posts that count or that administration will use when they're calculating and formulating what service levels they're looking at in correlation to the budget ask.”
Council will have several meetings to discuss the budget as follows:
- July 28: General operating budget part one;
- Aug. 25: General operating budget part two;
- Sept. 8: General operating budget part three;
- Sept. 22: General capital plan;
- Oct. 6: Utility operating and capital.
Meanwhile, a final draft of the budget will be presented on Nov. 5.
Council will then debate the 2027/2028 budget between Dec. 8 and 11.
