REGINA — The City of Regina's budget transparency process has improved, according to a report.
An annual C.D. Howe Institute report analyzing how major Canadian municipalities help evaluate people’s understanding of the budget and hold governments accountable graded Regina a ‘B,’ an improvement over an ‘F’ grade for both the 2023 and 2024 budgets.
The report evaluates municipalities on several criteria, including budget approval timelines, compliance with public sector accounting standards (PSAS) for revenues, expenses and surpluses, the placement of key financial figures, and other factors.
For Regina, C.D. Howe said the budget presented key financial figures near the beginning of the budget.
“[Regina] also linked headline budget figures to PSAS-compliant revenue, expense and surplus numbers early in their reports, with no discrepancies between annual surpluses and changes in accumulated operating surpluses,” said the report.
However, the report noted that Regina’s overall grade was affected by the late approval of its 2025 budget on March 30. The city postponed the budget process to provide newly elected councillors with additional time to prepare for their first budget deliberations.
As for other municipalities, five received the highest grade of 'A', including Saskatoon. On the flip side, six areas were graded with an 'F,' including Montreal and Hamilton.
Looking ahead, 2026 could be another highly graded year for the city’s budget.
Last year, Regina held multiple council meetings months ahead of budget week to give councillors and the public a better understanding of numbers and how to work around property tax increases.
Additionally, Regina's 2026 budget was approved in December of 2025 as opposed to March.
