What to know about city's proposed 2025 budget as Reginans brace for tax increase
As city council prepares for a week of budget talks starting Monday, there are several key facts and figures to know heading into those discussions.
The Leader-Post has flipped through the 200-page budget book and pulled out some of the most interesting numbers, including specific areas where cuts and trims are always possible.
On the table is a city budget totalling $653.7 million for 2025, including an 8.5-per-cent mill rate increase and a 5.82-per-cent utility rate increase put forward to help generate needed revenues.
If passed, the two bumps combined would cost around $320 more per year for the average taxpayer.
Approximately 4.25 per cent of that increase is to accommodate funding requests from the city's various partners, including the Regina Police Service (RPS) and Regina Exhibition Association Ltd. (REAL). Those two groups are responsible for the city's largest funding requests once again this year.
Plans for the capital budget are at $209.6 million in spending, if approved as outlined with no changes. Highlighted investments for this year include:
$21.1 million for the third year of the four-year 11th Street Revitalization project;
$23 million for ongoing transit and paratransit fleet replacements, including 20 new electric buses;
$6.3 million to build a new southeast fire station;
$10 million for the Speaker's Corner drainage fix;
$1.15 million to implement a Vision Zero pedestrian safety framework;
$5.9 million for replacing lead water service connections.
Tourism Regina's budget is also positioned to double — from $937,000 to $1.8 million — now that the organization has been reabsorbed as a city department from its previous home at REAL.
A connective downtown pathway, identified by the city's catalyst committee in 2022 as a priority project, has been delayed again to 2026. It was pushed ahead during 2024's budget deliberations as well.
All of the major capital projects that are moving forward add a combined two per cent onto the overall proposed mill rate, including 0.5 per cent for a new indoor aquatic facility.
The utility operating budget is outlined at $187.4 million and the utility capital budget at $170.8 million, including $73.2 million for the eastern water network expansion project set to begin this year.
Regina police have laid out a $122.4-million plan for 2025, seeking $6.9-million more in operational funding from the city than last year's budget.
At a meeting in February, the Board of Police Commissioners agreed to reduce its original ask by $800,000 and placed several capital projects on hold to deliver a zero-per-cent increase onto its capital funding request.
RPS also prepared a $130-million budget for 2026 — a $7.6-million increase year-to-year — that was to be tentatively approved as part of a two-year budget planning process the city adopted in 2023 but paused this year due to the recent municipal election.
According to RPS's submission, the increased funds needed for both years are attributed to salaries under a new collective bargaining agreement and 'uncontrollable operating costs.'
'All requested increases have been limited to those essential to the operation of the Regina Police Service,' reads the budget report sent to council.
The two-year capital budget outlines $8.4 million in 2025 and $7.6 million in 2026, with the largest investments going into IT infrastructure, video upgrades to RPS facilities and vehicle replacements.
RPS's budgets, if approved, would account for matching 2.2-per-cent increases to the mill rate in both 2025 and 2026. Approximately $13 million of RPS's operating expenses will be funded by provincial, federal and other sources in both years.
Regina's two business improvement districts (BIDs) are proposing slight increases to their special levies in 2025, which apply only to commercial properties inside each designated district's boundaries.
Regina Downtown BID has outlined a $3.95-million operating budget — an increase of $1.4 million from 2024 — which requires a three-per-cent increase to the levies. The organization plans to land $2.6 million in grants to fund the remainder.
Regina Warehouse BID is asking for $638,593 in 2025 — an increase of $159,388 from 2024 — due to what the organization describes as a 'conservative approach' to planning its revenues.
Tank: Massive property tax jump in Regina should surprise nobody
Regina city council passes budget in quick-fire motion to end lengthy debate
REAL has outlined a $12.7-million ask from the city, which is more than double what the entertainment district received in 2024's budget ($5.6 million). But it's still less than the $17.7 million the city inevitably provided throughout last year in a series of funding top-ups.
Board chair Jaime Boldt told city council in February there would be very little fat to trim in an effort to reduce the request, unless it comes from the $4.2-million operating line included in the overall total.
In addition to regular operating needs, REAL also requires $2.7 million to fulfil its debt responsibilities this year, $1 million in capital funding and a $4.7-million cash contingency to cover additional expenses as needed.
REAL's budget request accounts for 2.21 per cent of the overall proposed 8.5-per-cent mill rate increase.
After several years of low to no mill rate asks, the Regina Public Library (RPL) is asking for a 4.58-per-cent increase to the library mill rate in 2025, plus a 5.5-per-cent dedicated mill rate increase to begin raising funds for the future Central Library renewal project.
Both increases combined amount to one per cent of the city's overall proposed mill rate increase, and would mean an extra $21.12 per year for homeowners on their property taxes.
Economic Development Regina (EDR) is seeking an annual budget of $2.1 million in 2025, which is an increase of 24 per cent (or $405,000) from 2024 — and its first increase in at least three years.
EDR's budget request accounts for 0.13 per cent of the 8.5-per-cent mill rate increase, or about $3.12 per month for the average taxpayer.
The Provincial Capital Commission is also seeking $2.7 million from the city, an annual ask that folds into its $14.4-million maintenance plans as stewards of Wascana Centre.
The request represents zero change from the city's contribution in 2024, as established by legislation that dictates the province pay 55 per cent, the city 30 per cent and the University of Regina 15 per cent of the commission's operations.
lkurz@postmedia.com
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'The Sahel — that's where we consider the epicenter of terrorism — Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are confronted with this each and every day; they're in crisis. The terrorist networks affiliated with ISIS and al-Qaeda are thriving, particularly in Burkina Faso,' said Langley. During his tenure, the U.S. was largely kicked out of the region, forced to abandon key nodes of its archipelago of West African bases and many secret wars across the Sahel that were largely unknown to members of Congress as they played out. Langley noted that, since the U.S. left Niger in September of last year, AFRICOM has observed a rise in violence across the Sahel. 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U.S. war in Somalia which has ramped up since President Donald Trump retook office, also got top billing. The U.S. 'is actively pursuing and eliminating jihadists,' said the AFRICOM chief. 'And at the request of the Somali Government, this year alone AFRICOM has conducted over 25 airstrikes — double the number of strikes that we did last year.' The U.S. military is approaching its 23rd year of operations in Somalia. In the fall of 2002, the U.S. military established Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa to conduct operations in support of the global war on terror in the region, and U.S. Special Operations forces were dispatched to Somalia. They were followed by conventional forces, helicopters, surveillance aircraft, outposts, and drones. By 2007, the Pentagon recognized that there were fundamental flaws with U.S. military operations in the Horn of Africa, and Somalia became another post-9/11 stalemate, which AFRICOM inherited the next year. U.S. airstrikes in Somalia have skyrocketed when Trump is in office. From 2007 to 2017, under the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the U.S. military carried out 43 declared airstrikes in Somalia. During Trump's first term, AFRICOM conducted more than 200 air attacks against members of al-Shabab and the Islamic State. By the end of his first term, Trump was ready to call it quits on the sputtering conflict in Somalia, ordering almost all U.S. troops out of the country in late 2020. But President Joe Biden reversed the withdrawal, allowing the conflict to grind on — and now escalate under Trump. The Biden administration conducted 39 declared strikes in Somalia over four years. The U.S. has already carried out 33 airstrikes in Somalia in 2025, according to AFRICOM public affairs. At this pace, AFRICOM is poised to equal or exceed the highest number of strikes there in the command's history, 63 in 2019. Despite almost a quarter-century of conflict and billions of taxpayer dollars, Somalia has joined the ranks of signature forever-war failures. While fatalities from Islamist attacks dropped in Somalia last year, they were still 72 percent higher than 2020, according to the Africa Center. AFRICOM told The Intercept that the country's main militant group, al-Shabab, is now 'the largest al Qaida network in the world.' (Langley called them 'entrenched, wealthy, and large.') The command called ISIS-Somalia 'a growing threat in East Africa' and said its numbers had tripled from 500 to an estimated 1,500 in the last 18 months. The U.S. recently conducted the 'largest airstrike in the history of the world' from an aircraft carrier on Somalia, according to Adm. James Kilby, the Navy's acting chief of naval operations. That strike, by 16 F/A-18 Super Hornets, unleashed around 125,000 pounds of munitions. Those 60 tons of bombs killed just 14 ISIS members, according to AFRICOM. At that rate, it would take roughly 13,000,000 pounds of bombs to wipe out ISIS-Somalia and about 107,000,000 pounds to eliminate al-Shabab, firepower roughly equivalent to four of the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Troubles loom elsewhere on the continent as well. 'One of the terrorists' new objectives is gaining access to West Africa coasts. If they secure access to the coastline, they can finance their operations through smuggling, human trafficking, and arms trading,' Langley warned, not mentioning that U.S. counterterrorism failures in the Sahel led directly to increased attacks on Gulf of Guinea nations. Togo — which sits due south of Burkina Faso — saw a 45 percent increase in terrorist fatalities in 2024, according to the Africa Center. Langley also referenced trouble in Africa's most populous nation. 'We're observing a rise in attacks by violent extremist organizations, not only in Niger but across the Sahel to include Nigeria,' Langley warned. He offered a somewhat garbled plan of action in response: 'The scale and brutality of some of these incidents are really troubling. So we're monitoring this closely and these events, and offering of sharing intel with the Nigerian and also regional partners in that area remains constant. We are committed to supporting one of the most capable militaries in the region, in Nigeria.' U.S. support to the Nigerian military has been immense, and Nigerian people have suffered for it — something else that Langley left unsaid. Between 2000 and 2022, alone, the U.S. provided, facilitated, or approved more than $2 billion in security aid to the country. In those same years, hundreds of Nigerian airstrikes killed thousands of Nigerians. A 2017 attack on a displaced persons camp in Rann, Nigeria, killed more than 160 civilians, many of them children. A subsequent Intercept investigation revealed that the attack was referred to as an instance of 'U.S.-Nigerian operations' in a formerly secret U.S. military document. A 2023 Reuters analysis of data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based armed violence monitoring group, found that more than 2,600 people were killed in 248 airstrikes outside the most active war zones in Nigeria during the previous five years. That same year, an investigation by Nigeria's Premium Times called out the government for 'a systemic propaganda scheme to keep the atrocities of its troops under wraps.' In his conference call with reporters, held as part of the 2025 African Chiefs of Defense Conference, Langley took only written, vetted questions, allowing him to skirt uncomfortable subjects. AFRICOM failed to provide answers to follow-up questions from The Intercept. During the call, Langley offered a farewell and a pledge. 'This will likely be my last, final Chiefs of Defense Conference as the AFRICOM commander. A nomination for my successor is expected soon,' Langley told The Intercept and others. 'But no matter who holds this position, the AFRICOM mission remains constant. AFRICOM will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with African partners into the future.' Langley's pleas at the conference suggested less certainty. For years, AFRICOM — and Langley in particular — has been paying lip service to a preference for 'African solutions for African challenges' or as Langley put it last week: 'It's about empowering African nations to solve African problems, not just through handouts but through trusted cooperation.' But he has seemed less than enamored with African solutions that include severing ties with the United States. In April, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he accused Burkina Faso's leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, of misusing the country's gold reserves 'to protect the junta regime.' Langley partially walked back those comments last week and appeared to seek reconciliation. 'We all respect their sovereignty,' he said. 'So the U.S. seeks opportunities to collaborate with Burkina Faso on counterterrorism challenges.' For more than two decades, the U.S. was content to pour billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars into failed counterterrorism policies as deaths mounted across the continent. Today, the dangers of terrorism loom far larger, and the U.S. finds itself shunned by former partners. 'I've been charged by the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to mitigate threats to the U.S. homeland posed by terrorist organizations,' said Langley. 'It's about the mutual goal of keeping our homeland safe, and it's about long-term capacity, not dependence.' The current Pentagon official said that Langley had used up what good will he once had. 'I don't think many will be sad to see him go,' he told The Intercept. Langley's tenure may not have sown the seeds of AFRICOM's dissolution, he said, but if the command is ultimately folded into European Command — as some have proposed — he likely helped to hasten it. 'He's been part of this problem,' the official said. 'Maybe him leaving could be one solution.'
