Regina city councillors support a Community Safety and Well-Being plan, but it was not approved at a special council meeting on Thursday.
The plan, which was developed in partnership with the Canadian Municipal Network, was designed to address Regina’s health, social, and economic concerns.
Mayor Sandra Masters put forward a motion for the council to discuss it at a later date. Council plans to meet in private to discuss more of the plan, but the plan will be back on the agenda at the December 8 council meeting.
Masters says the council had agreed in principle to endorse the Community Safety and Well Being plan but feels they to work out some more kinks in the plan.
“It is definitely something we want to advance and build upon. What that looks like and some of the questions around the governance and how it would work, I think that is a fulsome discussion among the council to happen on how they could see it could work or might work and that is our job to provide that direction back to the administration.”
“We have a framework right now which needs to be actioned; I am sincere in we have to get it right, it has to have proper governance,” she added.
The plan outlined six major priorities after in-depth community safety assessments such as:
-Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Violence
-Food Insecurity
-Problematic Substance Use
-Racism and Discrimination
-Safety
-Service System
Each of the priorities included a list of action items based on ideas proposed by community feedback, stakeholders, the CMNCP, and experts across the country.
Council did agree to parts of the recommendation brought forward to them. To delegate authority to the city manager to approve criteria for the expansion of transit and leisure pass distribution to organizations advancing the priorities outlined in the plan and consider approval of annual funding of $500,000 in the 2022 budget process for harm-reduction initiatives.
