Sleepy summer? Not in this city’s hall
City Hall | Paul Dechene | June 30, 2002
Life is short and so is summer. Even councillors have gardens. There can’t possibly be anything going on at city hall.
Right?
Wrong.
There is… so much. Let’s start with the elephant in the room.
De-Shaw Vu
Trust ward seven’s Councillor Terina Shaw to turn what should be a good news item for city council into a PR nightmare.
At its June 15 meeting, council considered a motion on Ending Homelessness that was brought forward by ward six’s Dan LeBlanc and ward three’s Andrew Stevens. It calls on city administration to figure out how much it will cost to fully fund a Housing First solution to homelessness. The information is intended to inform the 2023 budget process.
Historically, efforts like this that propose to increase the city’s involvement in housing the un-housed have gone poorly. The prevailing wisdom has been that housing is a provincial and federal concern and that the city has neither the mandate nor the budget to deal with it. As such, the strategy has been to resist further downloading of social issues onto the city’s back and focusing instead on lobbying for better supports
LeBlanc’s motion, however, acknowledges that upper levels of government aren’t going to move on solving the city’s homelessness problem until council takes the first step.
A few years ago, this would have failed soundly. But with this new council, the friggin’ thing passed unanimously! That’s all anyone should have been talking about.
But it wasn’t because as I alluded to above, a line of questioning from Councillor Shaw eclipsed the motion’s success.
“I heard this once by an Indigenous person from Regina Treaty/Status Indian Services [RTSIS],” began Shaw. “She talked about people within Indigenous culture that don’t want to have homes… Until I’d heard that from her, I had no idea that there was people like that that existed.
“And I guess that does exist,” said Councillor Shaw while addressing Sheila Wignes-Paton from Phoenix Residential Society, the organization that has been running Regina’s Housing First program.
It was an awkward moment and not the first time that Shaw has raised this idea that some homeless people don’t want housing.
The awkwardness might have ended here but after a CBC story in which Shaw defended her remarks, RTSIS, alongside File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council (FHQTC) and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), released a statement on June 24 in which they revealed that the Indigenous person Shaw had been talking to was Erica Beaudin, RTSIS executive director.
The release relates a Nov. 11, 2021 discussion about homelessness between Beaudin and Shaw.
“In this setting, I was being asked my opinion on the state of homelessness… I stated that, within the subculture of the population of homeless people, there are those who prefer not to have the responsibility of their own home. They could be called wanderers. I further stated that ‘those would be a very small minority,” said Beaudin.
In other words, Beaudin wasn’t talking about Indigenous culture but rather speaking as a homelessness expert.
But Shaw appears to have conflated a mention of wandering homeless people as being about Indigenous homeless people.
Beaudin further comments: “Upon hearing how Councillor Shaw applied a conscious or subconscious bias to add in ‘Indigenous,’ it is most likely due to the statement coming from an Indigenous person.’”
Later in the release, File Hills tribal chief Jeremy Fourhorns, calls on the City of Regina to address Shaw’s misrepresentation and says that letting her remarks go unchecked could put “the relationship and the current FHQTC and City of Regina Protocol Agreement at risk.”
Then, FSIN chief, Bobby Cameron writes, bluntly: “What Councillor Shaw said was racist and she heard what she wanted to hear.”
It is a stunning rebuke of a sitting councillor. Beaudin notes in the press release that she reached out to meet with Shaw about her remarks. Shaw, Beaudin said, responded that her lawyer would have to be present but then ended up cancelling the scheduled meeting anyway.
At press time, apart from Shaw saying in a CTV report that her remarks have been “mischaracterized,” this incident has not been further addressed by her, the city or the mayor.
Real Changes
At their June 22 meeting, executive committee passed with very little discussion a report on changes to the Unanimous Membership Agreements between the city, Economic Development Regina (EDR) and Regina Exhibition Association Ltd (REAL). EDR and REAL are two arms-length, municipal corporations. While each has their own governance board,* they both ultimately answer to city council and are supposed to work for the betterment of the city as whole.
The change contemplated in the new UMAs is a major shift in power between these two organizations.
REAL will be taking over all marketing and tourism activities for the entire city of Regina. This portfolio was formerly handled by the Tourism Regina unit within EDR.
No other non-REAL [un-REAL?] tourist attraction or event was consulted about this change. However, according to acting city manager Jim Nicol, the shift was suggested by administration because it makes sense.
While REAL’s mandate has until now been to promote their own facilities, as a 500-person organization with experience attracting and managing large events Nicol argues they can be trusted to change their focus to promoting everything else in the city and not play favourites.
“REAL is a 100 per cent city-owned entity. We’ll take great care to make sure it’s not cannibalizing anything. If everything ends up going to REAL and no one else, we’ve actually shot ourself in the foot,” said Nicol.
“REAL, when it assumes these functions for tourism, is working with all the players in the city,” he continued. “This is not to provide them with any kind of monopoly. It’s to say they’re the biggest kid on the block and they know how to play in the big leagues. Let’s all benefit from that and work together.”
The new UMA also gives REAL the authority to develop city-owned land beyond the confines of the exhibition grounds. What land, exactly? Well, according to Nicol, the UMA would allow council to direct REAL to manage and develop city-owned land for functions related to their current mandate: recreation, hospitality, sporting and entertainment.
And if that makes you think about things like the Railyard land and the old Taylor Field site, Nicol says nothing has been decided just yet.
However…
No Rest For The Council Addicted
While writing this, reports upon reports were posted to upcoming Regina Planning Commission and Executive Committee agendas. There’s a ton of stuff in there including reports on residential density and urban intensification. There’s also a recommendation in there to end transit fares for kids 13 and under.
But notably, there are reports on a strategy for a new hockey arena (a.k.a. Brandt Centre 2.0), a new aquatics facility and a recommendation to undertake a baseball facility needs assessment.
Does it sound like REAL might be asked to flex that new UMA sooner rather than later?
Yeah. It does.
* EDR’s board of directors has members from Harvard Diversified, Farm Credit Canada, JCK Engineering, MLT Aikins, CNT Management, the University of Regina, York Plains Investment, Mitchell Developments, Hillberg & Berk, Atlas Hotel and Viterra. REAL’s board of directors was chaired by Sandra Masters before she became mayor. Its board pulls people from Westjet, The Morsky Group of Companies, File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council, ISC, Viterra (again), Harvard Developments, the Roughriders, the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association, MLT Aikins, Protein Industries Canada, Sinclair Wealth Management, Deloitte and NEI Investments. So, you know, regular people.