Regina mayor's first full year in office dominated by COVID-19, homelessness

The mayor of Regina says her first full year on the job has been an encouraging but stressful experience. 

"The other thing I've learned is that pandemics are hard," Mayor Sandra Masters told CBC News. 

"One of my takeaways is just how tiring and kind of there's a fatigue associated with it, both mentally but socially."

Late in 2020, Masters became the first woman ever elected to hold the office of mayor in Regina by defeating two-term incumbent Michael Fougere. 

A first year plagued by COVID-19 

2021 would've been a difficult year for any elected official with the challenges posed by COVID-19 in Saskatchewan, but for a newly-elected mayor it was a year full of growth.

She said there was no shortcut to learning the ins and outs of the political system as well as the day-to-day operations of a major city — which she refers to as "the beast."

"I do tell people that my head hurts often at the end of the day because there's just so much information getting crammed in there," Masters said. 

The mayor says she commends the city's residents in how they responded to COVID-19 in 2021. 

The first months of the year were dominated by restrictions that only applied to Regina. Then came the summer of no restrictions, before the fourth-wave of the pandemic saw the city attempt to implement a vaccine passport in its own facilities, ahead of Saskatchewan bringing in a requirement of their own.

"Every incident that we go through, it seems like [for] the residents, sort of, there's a bit of a reaction and then a deep breath and then sort of everybody kind of calms down," Masters said. "It's like, 'Okay, what do we have to do now?' And then they go ahead and do it."

Jurisdictional issues 

2021 also saw the establishment and eventual tear down of Camp Hope in Regina's Pepsi Park. The camp was a community-driven solution to a developing homelessness crisis in Regina. 

Although the camp has since been replaced by an interim emergency shelter, the issue of homelessness in the city remains. 

The shelter's 40 beds, which have been paid for by the City of Regina and the provincial government, is consistently full and has a waiting list of at least 20 people. 

Masters admits there is no broad brush that can solve the issue of homelessness in the city. 

"Part of the difficulty is is that social services, education, justice and health are not the jurisdiction of the city and we don't have multi-billion dollar budgets in order to deal with it," she said. 

That means the city's solution to the crisis is reliant on the provincial government and co-operating with community organizations. 

Masters envisions the city government playing a role in facilitating solutions and gathering data that will allow them to act with the information needed to deal with social issues. 

Part of that will be through the city's recently passed community safety and well-being plan.

The plan aims to bring together a variety of community organizations in an attempt to address issues such as poverty and other roots of crime.

A non-profit organization will be set up to implement the community safety and well-being plan, and Masters says that will be key in responding to issues and planning for the future. 

"If all I have is anecdotes, I can't advocate for a program development. I can't advocate for what works and what doesn't work unless it's incredibly blatant or there's easy, easy misses that are recurring," she said. 

LISTEN | Regina police chief Evan Bray reflects on 2021:

Police and a plane 

One of the most controversial topics that came up during the annual budgeting process was the potential purchase of a plane and the creation of a aerial unit for the Regina Police Service. 

The plane is expected to cost about $1.6 million.

Masters said the financial incentives to purchase the plane this year were too good to pass up. 

"I think that people are looking for for, for politicians and for administrations to be fiscally responsible," she told CBC.

The Saskatchewan government is putting forward more than $1.3 million for the aerial project, with the City of Regina chipping in around $275,000. 

Although the criticism of the program was focused on the plane, Masters pointed out that the largest part of the $1.6 million price tag was actually for the technology they'll be using inside the aircraft, not the aircraft itself. 

"If we [framed the topic as] we're investing in software ... I'm not sure they would be as big of a cry because everybody gets in the age of the internet, in the age of technology, we all have to invest in that," she said. 

Aquatic facility still in the works

In the year-end interview, Masters once again voiced her commitment to creating a new aquatic facility in Regina. 

It was a key plank of her campaign for mayor, although it came with the caveat of an estimated $85 million price tag and the likely closure of the aging Lawson Aquatic Centre. 

She says that is still on the agenda for council and that a report should be coming back sometime in 2022.

Masters said COVID-19 has laid bare the issues of not investing in facilities geared toward youth and that includes a new aquatic facility. 

But there's no doubt funding for a facility will need to come from the province and the federal government. 

"We're kind of hopeful because I think we're all kind of telling the federal government similar things," Masters said.