REGINA - As was widely expected, the issue of whether to declare a houselessness emergency in the City of Regina will see the issue return to council on Sept. 13.
The Notice of Motion on the houselessness emergency was read into the record at Wednesday’s council meeting in Regina, as was another Notice of Motion on the issue of notice requirements to call special meetings of council. But that was the extent of what transpired on either issue at the meeting.
Councillor Shanon Zachidniak had moved at the start of the meeting to have the notice of motion on the houselessness emergency waived, so the matter could be discussed immediately that afternoon by council. But that failed to come close to receiving the unanimous consent needed, with seven votes cast against.
The two notices of motion were signed by councillors Zachidniak, Cheryl Stadnichuk, Andrew Stevens and Dan LeBlanc, and all except LeBlanc (who was temporarily away from the meeting) were the only votes in favor to waive notice of motion. The end result is the issue will come back to council Sept. 13.
In speaking to reporters at City Hall after Wednesday’s meeting, Mayor Sandra Masters spoke further about what declaring a houselessness emergency would entail for the city.
“The thing about declaring an emergency is that it lasts for seven days,” said Masters. “It gives the city rights to expropriate for seven days. We have to provide compensation. So, I think understanding that, we also can’t interfere the Fire Safety Act, council has no jurisdiction as it relates to the Fire Safety Act. So there are elements to it which are budgetary in nature.”
City Manager Niki Anderson expanded further to reporters on what it means. “To give you a couple of examples within those seven days of the things the city would be able to do, is we would be able to move people from property. We would be able to say you cannot come in these places, you cannot leave these spaces. We would be able to actually take things from residents. I think a mistake that often occurs when there’s people interested in declaring a state of emergency is that somehow money will magically fall from the sky just by declaring a state of emergency. And in general, (with) any kind of federal funding tied to that, the province has to actually take that state of emergency past the seven days, and then it’s a special fund is generally tied to natural disasters like extreme flooding and helping with infrastructure repairs. So declaring a state of emergency on homelessness doesn’t magically give you a new pot of money.”
On the houselessness situation Mayor Masters said the city continues to “work with the province and the federal government on the issue. Clearly, it’s ongoing.” She said they would “continue to do the work we were already doing.”
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