REGINA – With time running short and a heap of items still to be dealt with, a special meeting of Regina city council has been called for Oct. 1.
The meeting begins at 11 a.m. and according to the city’s news release it will deal with the following items:
MN24-15 – Reconsideration of Motion adopted on July 9, 2024 Respecting the Renewal of the Central Library; and related delegations and communications,
CR24-110 – Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) Cashflow Update; and related delegation,
CR24-116 – Multi-Year Budgeting,
MN24-7 – Establish Respectful Communication towards City Manager and City Staff; and related communication,
MN24-10 – Dissolving the Human Resources Sub-Committee of Regina City Council,
MN24-12 – Nuisance and Underutilized Properties,
CM24-14 – Housing Supply and Revitalization Initiatives Update; and related communication.
These items had all been on the agenda of the Sept. 25 council meeting but were tabled due to time. Several other items have been tabled to the Oct. 9 council meeting which is the final scheduled council meeting before the Nov. 13 municipal election. Among the items coming up Oct. 9 are the flag and proclamation protocol, as well as the contentious issue of senior men’s hockey ice time at Brandt Centre where a long list of delegations is set to give presentations.
Wednesday night’s meeting began at 1 p.m. and ended up lasting ten hours, despite the huge number of items that ended up being tabled.
The early portion of the meeting was dominated by discussion of the office development policy, which took up three hours of time in the afternoon. That was followed by the permanent emergency shelter proposal for 1600 Halifax Street, which took up an even longer chunk of council time before it ended up passing, followed by a few more items of council business. The proceedings did not adjourn until close to 11:30 p.m. at night.
Council backlogs have been an issue at City Hall for the last few months, with a number of meetings going well into the night. There was already one special meeting held earlier this summer to try and make headway the number of items that still needed to be dealt with.
In speaking to reporters following Wednesday’s meeting, Mayor Sandra Masters was asked if council would be able to get through all of the outstanding items still left before the end of the term.
“No,” said Masters. “ I don’t think there’s enough days left to get through them. Gosh, what did we table today? 15 items? And we’ve already got 10 to 12 items booked into Oct. 9.”
Masters did note there were some items that do not need to be dealt with this term. “There are some new initiatives, there are some reports on receive-and-files that if they don’t get dealt with, they can get dealt with by the next council.”