Regina residents sound off on recommended city cuts

People in Regina are weighing in on some of the recommendations being made to city council.

On Monday night, city council will be deciding on how they will fill the over $10 million hole left by a cut in funding coming from the province.

One of the recommendations is to no longer run city buses on stat holidays.

“I think that’s really difficult for people that don’t have their own private vehicle,” said one Regina woman.

Another recommendation is to have solid waste collection move to a biweekly schedule in the fall.

“My garbage can gets full, I’ve got four kids that live at home as it is already,” said Les Francis. “We use recycling as much as possible as well so I’ve got two bins that are constantly bombarded with stuff in them, so now they’re going to cut it back to two weeks. Am I just going to leave them down on the curb and they’re going to take the extra bags?”

The Regent golf course is also on the chopping block tonight.

“Certainly the last time when I went out to Regent golf course with my young son and it was in terrible shape,” said one Regina man. “They’ve been talking about closing that for a number of years. If it’s not being kept up, maybe in fact, it should be closed.”

And of course, there’s the recommendation for a tax increase.

“They’re never really anything any of us enjoy, but I think that we have to look at the bigger picture and, they said something about using some of the reserves, but when we really, really need it, we won’t have it,” said Susan Weist.

For some, a tax increase should be a last resort.

“Council and administration should take a serious look at what services are they offering, what services can be cut back on, what’s their staffing levels and are they appropriate for what they are providing the citizens of Regina,” one Regina man said.

City council meets Monday night to determine what recommendations they will approve.