I sat in on last night’s city council meeting, and before we go any further, I’d like to acknowledge that I was just a tourist. Typically, Paul Dechene reports from City Hall, and does a bang-up job of it too. But he wasn’t able to attend last night, and I was interested in one particular point on the agenda (which I’ll get to in a moment), so there I was, craning my neck and bothering the nice man sitting behind me for help in identifying city councilors. There were some very interesting moments – some of which I’ll outline here for your light perusal.
Early in the evening, a representative from the Royal Regina Golf Club presented his argument for a two year tax abatement because of the flood damage they’ve weathered over the past year. Councilor Bryce indicated that she thought exempting the golf course would set a dangerous precedent. In the end, however, council recommended a one-year exemption. Feel free to discuss this in our comments section.
Regina Water Watch’s Jim Holmes also presented last night, calling for an independent provincial oversight of the upcoming Waste Water Treatment Plant referendum. The Leader-Post has a good article about this here. Following the meeting, Mayor Fougere indicated that he didn’t think this type of oversight is necessary.
“I stand by us having a very clear and transparent and open process, so the minister can respond any way he’d like to, but we are not going to ask him to do that,” Fougere said.
And finally, residents neighbouring a future townhouse development on Edward St might be up to their eyebrows in sewage water every time it rains, but council voted to allow the development to go ahead, even though a public works report on what impact this development will have on the existing sewer system isn’t expected until February. Prairie Dog will be following this story in a future print edition.
