Regina city council approves police budget after close vote on first day of budget talks

Regina city council approved the Regina Police Service’s 2026 operating budget Monday following a lengthy debate.

Council voted 6-5 to approve the police budget, which includes a 2.2 per cent increase to the police portion of the mill rate and a proposed net operating budget of just over $116 million. Councillors initially began deliberations on a proposed mill rate increase of more than 15 per cent.

Speaking to council, Regina police Chief Lorilee Davies said the service’s budget represents 17.6 per cent of the city’s overall operating budget and is designed to maintain around-the-clock policing operations.

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The approved plan includes funding for 11 new civilian positions, while more than 30 additional police officers would be funded through provincial support. Davies said the additional civilian roles would allow sworn officers to spend more time on frontline duties.

Several councillors questioned why the police service could not present a status quo budget during a year of financial pressure.

“When we created our budget, we did not get any direction that this was a status quo budget with no increases,” Davies told council. “We built our budget based on what we need to ensure that we have 24-7 operation.”

“I appreciate that the council has some very tough decisions to make, and I expected a lot of healthy debate and lots of questions around our budget,” she said. “I just think it shows that we cannot let off the gas in terms of ensuring that we are literally analyzing every penny that we spend, because we are accountable to the taxpayers of Regina.”

With the police budget approved, council will now turn its attention to the rest of the city’s spending plan.

More than 80 delegations are scheduled to appear before council this week, many of whom are expected to speak about potential impacts to transit, recreation and other community services.