14-03-2025
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.
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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.
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