REGINA - A lengthy council meeting in Regina is now on, and the agenda is so long that already several listed items have been put off to a future meeting.
A revised agenda for Sept. 25 was released and several items were immediately tabled to the Oct. 9 meeting, along with the related delegations and communications. Those items include the flag and proclamation protocol, Senior men's hockey ice time at Brandt Centre, the Regina Exhibition Association Ltd. facility asset management update, and the ka-nasihtikawin framework.
Staying on the agenda, at least at that point, was the proposal for a permanent shelter at 1600 Halifax Street, with 17 delegations scheduled to appear live. The borrowing bylaw related to the shelter also remained on the agenda as was a motion to reconsider renewal of the central library, and the cash flow update from REAL. Tabled motions still scheduled to come up at that point included a motion to establish respectful communications towards the City Manager and city staff, and there were other items as well.
The council meeting started at 1 pm with recognition of the Henry Baker Scholarship winners. For much of the afternoon, council heard delegations and discussed the Official Community Plan - Office Development Policies Review.
That item ended up taking much longer than expected and discussion of the permanent shelter, which was expected to be the most contentious item of the day, did not get under way until late in the afternoon. Delegations spoke up to around 6:45 p.m. when council recessed for dinner, and the question and answer session with administration commenced at 7:30 pm.
By that point, some more items were tabled to a future meeting. As of 8:30 p.m. the permanent shelter issue was still being discussed, raising the prospect that the remaining agenda items might all need to be tabled to a future meeting. The indication so far is that council is prepared to at least hang in until the permanent shelter issue is decided one way or another.
