A Court of King’s Bench judge has denied the application of Councillors Dan LeBlanc, Andrew Stevens, and resident Florence Stratton to include the motion to end homelessness in the 2023 and 2024 budget.
The judge declined to issue the order and said the interpretation or misinterpretation of the order provided to City Manager Niki Anderson must be addressed by the council, not through a judicial order.
“A bit disappointed,” LeBlanc said in his reaction to the news.
“Legally, the decision is correct; I think there are some tough political implications; notably, on my first review of the decision, it turns out the City Manager does not have a public legal duty to follow councils directions, and that makes one question I think why do we provide directions, politically why to residents come out and talk to us about things like homelessness.”
“I think there is going to implications about people coming to speak to city council in the future if decisions like this can be not followed with any resident or member of council unable to hold her to account,” he continued.
It was back in November that Leblanc, Stevens, and Stratton, filed a motion against City Manager Niki Anderson, claiming the administration did not include action on the issue of homelessness in the proposed budget after being told by council to do so.
LeBlanc added that he still plans to bring the plan to end homelessness during budget deliberations.
As for what’s next for the motion, LeBlanc said he would continue to advocate to end homelessness in the City.
“Now more than ever, we have to fight like hell,” he stated. “We have vulnerable people in Regina, at least 488 of them sleeping in tents, some of those tents burned down.”
“Inaction on this issue is making this issue worse, not better. I think residents don’t want to see surgeons in their public parks where they take their kids and want us to have an adult conversation, and now we have to fight harder than we should have had to to get this money in.”
