REGINA — The third day of budget deliberations in Regina is set to go at city hall as council gets set to finally get down to the actual business of determining the mill rate increase for 2026.
Council members are expected to begin combing through details of administration's main report on the 2026-27 budget. In particular, council will go through the operating budget for the city and try to figure out how, or whether, to pare down administration's proposed massive 15.69 per cent mill rate increase.
Acting city manager Jim Nicol and CFO Daren Anderson began the morning presenting the 2026-27 budget report and the debate is expected to last throughout the day.
While it has widely been expected that the final increase for taxpayers will come in much lower than the proposed 15.69 per cent, some tough decisions are ahead on how to get there.
A number of areas of the budget could face the chopping block including potential cuts to the fire department, to transit, to the Community Investment Grant Program, and possibly even the Regina Floral Conservatory, among others. But whether those cuts will indeed transpire will depend on how the voting will go on these items in the coming hours and potentially days.
Tuesday at city hall was devoted to a long line of presentations from a host of delegations regarding the operating budget, with a number of sentiments expressed to try and bring down the proposed massive tax increase.
Several representatives from the business community, including the Regina & District Chamber of Commerce, had spoken in favour of a far lower mill rate increase from what is being currently proposed.
An even larger number of delegations appeared to try to convince council members not to proceed with cuts to one area or another. Regina Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 181 spoke against potential fire department cuts and raised concerns over the potential shelving of projects such as the building of Fire Hall No. 8. The Saskatchewan Arts Alliance and RCMP Heritage Centre were among those who spoke in favour of sparing the Community Investment Grant Program from the axe.
Meanwhile, the Regina Civic Middle Management Association went before council calling for an even higher mill rate increase, of 18.93 per cent.
Council was scheduled to get back underway with deliberations at 9 a.m. this morning.
