REGINA — For the first time in nearly a decade, Regina Transit could see a fare hike.
During 2026/2027 budget deliberations, city council passed an increase for all transit fares by 10 per cent. However, the increase won’t take effect until council passes an updated bylaw.
Pleading to stop this from happening, transit advocates, workers, educators and others stood inside city hall on Friday to voice their concerns, including Atticus Kolody-Watt, leader of Better Bus Youth, who shared her personal story on needing transit.
“My mother, she has an illness where it's really hard for her to get out of bed. So we're usually missing school, or it's really hard for her to drive a certain pace, like at the speed limit, because of her back issues or whatever she has going on.”
Kolody-Watt said having transit as the only option to get to and from school posed challenges, with Regina dealing with cold winters while she also suffers from unresolved chronic pain issues.
These caused her to miss a large number of school days.
“I'm very fortunate that I had teachers who were willing to not give up on me with my education because if that was the case, I would have probably not graduated due to how many absences I had.”
By increasing fares, Kolody-Watt said it will create issues for workers and employers.
“This can affect employment, this can affect workers trying to employ people because if no one's riding anywhere, there's no one getting to jobs, there's no one able to get to jobs without accessible and affordable transit.”
Why is this happening?
Council was presented with a 15.69 per cent mill rate request from city administration for the 2026/2027 budget.
If passed, the average homeowner would have paid nearly $400 more a year.
Council managed to trim the mill rate down to 10.9 per cent by cutting services or hiking prices for resident services.
The proposed 10 per cent fair hike increase comes from adding $585,000 in revenue each year for the city, which equates to a 0.18 mill rate.
Ward 8 Coun. Shanon Zachidniak said voting on the fare rate increase didn’t take into account any consultation during budget deliberations.
“So [now] many riders are finding out for the first time by concerned community members telling folks on buses and at bus stops that this change is proposed.”
Impact of fare hikes
Zachidniak emphasized that raising fares could lead to a drop in ridership, similar to what occurred in 2017.
After the increase, Regina Transit saw a 4 per cent decrease in ridership, according to city data.
“The concern is that if this happens and ridership either flat lines or decreases as it has in previous times that we've raised fares, there will no longer be a strong rationale to continue building out and improving our transit system,” noted Zachidniak.
The enhancements, outlined in the city’s Transit Master Plan, include increased service frequency and the addition of new routes.
Rather than raising fares, Zachidniak said council should look at using the Transit Reserve Fund or explore other options to generate the $585,000.
The bylaw to increase the fare will be presented to council at its Feb. 25 meeting. If approved, the fair would come into effect on April 1.
However, if the bylaw is defeated, Zachidniak said the money would have to be earmarked from the reserve or found from other savings.
SaskToday reached out to the city for comment, but the city said they wouldn’t provide any further comments until council's decision.
