REGINA — Here are highlights from a long and packed day of items from Regina City Council’s regular meeting Wednesday.
Catalyst Committee approval
Council has given its official stamp of approval to terms of reference for the Catalyst Committee — a committee of 16 members who will guide the development of major new projects in the city. Projects the committee will be considering include a potential new arena, new baseball stadium and aquatic centre.
The committee composition is meant to represent a cross-section of interests in the city. But there were some minor tweaks approved Wednesday to the composition of the board: instead of a “next generation leadership” representative, the board will have a member from an inner-city community organization.
That representative has not been named yet and a representative from the development community is also still to be chosen.
So far 14 of the 16 members have already been made public. Those already announced as committee members are as follows:
Lisa McIntyre of the downtown BID;
Jeff Boutilier of the Warehouse Improvement District;
Jeff Keshen, president of University of Regina;
Tiffany Stephenson, representing REAL;
Melissa Coomber-Bendtsen, of YWCA Regina, representing the social profit sector;
Edmund Bellegarde, File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council, as Treaty 4 representative;
Cindy Kobayashi, representing Regina Public Library;
Kyle Jeworski, president and CEO, Viterra;
Ruth Smillie, representing arts and culture; and
Chris Lane, president and CEO, Economic Development Regina.
Councillor Bob Hawkins and REAL CEO Tim Reid are the co-chairs of the committee, with the council representatives being Councillor Lori Bresciani and Councillor Andrew Stevens.
There was not unanimous support on council for the Catalyst Committee, however. Ward 8 Councillor Shanon Zachidniak voted no to the terms of reference and the list of nominees, citing the need to slow down the process while also expressing concerns she heard from residents that the process was being rushed. Zachidniak was the only “no” vote.
The committee is set to be in place until March 2023 and has until the end of the year to prepare a report to council. Following the council meeting, Mayor Sandra Masters expressed confidence to reporters that the committee would be able to meet its tight timelines, given the work already done.
“The arena work is in large part done and that recommendation is put forward,” Masters said. “The aquatic centre has money being invested from the city on feasibility and what that could possibly look like and some investigation into geothermal heating for that pool. The needs assessment has been done for the ball diamond … there’s a whole bunch of community engagement that still needs to happen and stakeholder engagement and feedback that is going to be sought. But that committee is going to get right to work.”
Shaw withdraws from Community Safety and Well-being Committee
Council also approved a new 10-member Community Safety and Well-being Committee. But one member of council has backed out of sitting on the committee.
Ward 7 Councillor Terina Shaw, who has been subject of an ethics complaint over questions she posed at a previous council meeting on the homelessness issue, has withdrawn her name from the board. Her letter of withdrawal was read into the record.
Shaw’s letter stated: “the nature of my previously well-intentioned question was misappropriated to represent something completely counter to my values on very important issues such as homelessness and Indigenous relationships that this committee will be working on. I feel at this time I must work on rebuilding trust with the Indigenous community on growth I will be working on. My actions and long-standing will prove my dedication to seeking improvements on these important issues.”
Antenna systems protocol
One of the items that took up a large portion of the day at council was a discussion at council of the city’s antenna systems protocol.
The protocol is to guide city decisions on the purchase and lease of city lands for antenna systems and on cell tower locations.
However, in the end the issue has been tabled and sent back to administration with a number of recommendations for further changes, and they will report back with a supplemental report.
This move is in response to feedback and concerns raised from the public, including from a lengthy number of delegations who appeared before council Wednesday.
A number of those speakers voiced concerns about the environmental or health effects from cell tower locations; there was also a delegation from SaskTel who made it known they did not think the towers posed any health risks.
Fair wage policy discussed, eventually defeated
Another issue that took up a large amount of discussion at both Wednesday’s council meeting, and at Executive Committee the previous week, was the city response to procurement.
The main motion, which included local and Indigenous procurement policies designed to support those sectors, passed unanimously.
Debate centred over a separate motion on whether the city should also include a fair wage policy, which would set a living wage as a requirement for city projects.
Council heard a range of opinions from delegations both pro and con on the issue, with labour organizations including Saskatchewan Federation of Labour voicing support for a fair wage policy, while industry and business including the Saskatchewan Construction Association and Regina Chamber of Commerce did not support it.
When it came to a final vote at council Wednesday, it ended up evenly split, 5-5, and was defeated. A major issue for those voting against was that they saw the fair wage motion as too proscriptive, but there was support expressed for an approach where companies that supported a fair wage receive additional points when bidding for contracts.
It was also noted that bidders were already paying well above a fair wage in a tight market. "The information that was shared with council is that we are providing a solution for a problem that may not quite exist right now," said Masters.
