REGINA - City Council has given the entire Regina Exhibition Association, Ltd. Board of Directors the heave-ho.
In a sweeping show of non-confidence in the current Board, Regina council voted 6-5 at their meeting Wednesday to begin the process of removing the voting members of REAL.
Soon after the vote, the City of Regina issued a statement in which they confirmed that all voting members of the REAL Board have officially submitted their resignations to the City. That would include board chair Wayne Morsky, vice chair Tiffany Stephenson, and all the other directors.
“City Administration’s next step will be to present special resolutions to Council for their consideration, proposing appointees to the REAL Board,” said the City of Regina in a news release. “As directed by Council, the proposed appointees will be nominated by City Administration and may be members of Administration, members of Council, or members of the public.
“The date on which special resolutions will be presented to Council is yet to be determined.”
The vote by council Wednesday came after last week’s 5-4 vote by Executive Committee to have a report come back in the second quarter on potentially dissolving REAL and having the city absorb it.
That vote had come on the heels of a damning report submitted to that same Executive Committee meeting by consulting firm MNP, which outlined the financial woes facing the entire REAL organization. That report essentially concluded that REAL's business model was not self sufficient now or in the future, and that if changes in the organization’s cost structure and revenues were not made that the city would need to explore significant subsidy amounts or additional debt.
The decision on whether to remove the whole REAL board proved contentious. Initially, Councillor Jason Mancinelli tried to table the REAL financial report for two months, out of concern that moving REAL to city administration control would overburden administration who had already been tasked with taking over Tourism Regina.
“Now we’re going to study moving another entity over to administration,” said Mancinelli. “I think a couple of months of thinking would be in order.”
His motion to table failed by a 6-5 vote, and it was after that that the dramatics really began.
Soon after, Councillor Andrew Stevens asked to go in-camera to ask questions of legal counsel. Council then voted to take their discussion behind closed doors. That in-camera discussion lasted for nearly an hour.
When councillors finally emerged and returned to open session, Stevens moved an amendment to the financial report which called for the existing board to be removed and replaced by Council appointments, to be nominated by City administration. The second part of his motion called for council to direct administration to bring back a report by quarter four and make any necessary changes to the Unanimous Members Agreement, and the third component was that these be interim measures until such time as administration provides council with their report on structural changes to the management of assets currently overseen by REAL.
Stevens made clear he had thought of this for quite some time. “I think for me the final moment was with the MNP report which casts doubt over the financial picture presented to us,” he said.
“To be honest, that means that I cannot, in good conscience, approve a financial ask in the upcoming budget without a change in the governing body that is required to answer to council in some capacity… At the end of the day it is the 11 of us who are responsible and accountable to members of the public, and I cannot go ahead with the current structure.”
Councillor Mancinelli pushed back against Stevens’ motion, calling this a “pretty radical measure” and an “insult to the people who gave their time” to the organization. Councillor Bob Hawkins also raised objections, while at the same time continuing to express confidence in the current board.
“If this goes forward we will lose senior people from the REAL organization. There will be chaos in terms of employees being uncertain.”
Hawkins also expressed deep concern that administration “does not have the capacity… to continue to run the operations at REAL as effectively as the current board is doing.”
“I’m going to go against everything Councillor Hawkins said,” responded Councillor Terina Nelson, who said the MNP report “showed us, showed the public what’s going on. And we have to dig in.”
Nelson said that now that they knew, council had “no alternative but to do something.“
“We have no other option but to vote in favour of this motion. Past behaviour will predict future behaviour. That is all I have to say,” Nelson said.
“The MNP report was the biggest wake-up for me,” said Councillor Lori Bresciani, who added “it’s unfortunate we have to make this call, but to dole out millions and millions and millions without truly understanding where these dollars are going —I can’t any longer.”
In the end, Stevens’ amendment calling to remove the board, and then the final main motion on the financial report itself, all passed by a 6-5 vote. Councillors Stevens, Nelson, Bresciani, Dan LeBlanc, Cheryl Stadnichuk and Shanon Zachidniak voted in favour; councillors Hawkins, Mancinelli, John Findura, Landon Mohl and Mayor Sandra Masters voted against.
