Council Wrapup: Extending Councillor Terms and Some Early Budget Items

Tonight's council meeting was a pretty low-key affair. Nothing contentious on the agenda -- at least, not among councillors.

The one item that did raise a few eyebrows among some prairie dog folk (last night, while we were waiting to see Collapse at the RPL) was Councillor Clipsham's motion that council contact the provincial Minister of Muncipal Affairs and inform him that Regina's council favors changing the Local Government Act so that urban councils will be elected to four-year terms instead of three.

The motion was seconded by Councillor Fougere and passed unanimously. There was no debate, rather, Councillors Clipsham, Fougere, Murray, Bryce and Browne spoke in favour of it.

The rationale on offer was that three years goes by pretty quickly, and because of the complexity and longer-term nature of the projects that a council shepherds through, an extra year will help them get things accomplished. Councillor Murray pointed to the two month gap around election time where things slow down dramatically. And Bryce suggested four year terms would be more cost effective. Browne noted that longer terms may improve the quality of candidates that come forward as when someone takes a position on council they may have to give something else up for only a one-term guarantee of extra employment -- the extra year may make council work more interesting for some potential councillors.

Councillor Browne then brought forward a follow-up motion (seconded by Clipsham) which was passed. It amended the original motion such that council will be asking that any change in term lengths will take effect as of the next election in 2012.

Personally, if council terms are extended, I'd be surprised if anyone in Regina will much care, let alone notice. (If you think I'm full of crap, there is a comment button at the bottom of this post.) But a couple things Councillor Browne brought up made me take notice. First, he pointed out that around elections a lot of general public consultation takes place and this is valuable. Cutting down on the frequency of this sort of consultation will be a loss to the system.

On the other hand, one of his reasons for supporting the motion was that the work of council matters and extending its term will help council get that work done and done well.

True. Maybe. But the thing is, I'm a total election junkie, and as old fashioned as it makes me sound, I think participating in elections -- often and with enthusiasm -- also matters. I recognize that upending the system to hold elections is inconvenient and disrupts the continuity of projects. But at the same time, a) that's why you hire competent city staff and b) governments aren't supposed to run efficiently. Comparing them to corporations is unfair (and ignores the fact that the idea corporations run efficiently is a complete myth). Trying to get everyone involved in governance is an inherently inefficient proposition. But we accept it because that's what's fair. And because tyranny sucks.

Still, we're not talking here about an unprecedented length of time to hold elected office. So maybe anyone getting their knickers in a knot over this is a little overreacty. And, judging by the hilariously low voter turnout numbers in our last municipal election (let alone, provincial and federal), it's clear I'm in a tiny minority as far as enjoying election time is concerned. So, I guess democracy is in effect speaking: Bring on the four year council terms!

Also on the council agenda was a collection of capital budget items that need approval now before the whole city budget is debated later this year. Discussion here focussed on money for the new Housing Incentives Policy, the relocation of the transit hub and the purchase of new buses.

I was left a little perplexed at one point with regard to the housing incentives money as Director of City Planning, Bob Bjerke, remarked that they didn't anticipate a big increase in the amount of uptake on our affordable housing encouragment scheme. Council, I think, was heartened by this as it meant city coffers wouldn't be overly taxed by housing. (Once again, it was repeated that housing is NOT part of the city's mandate. Ahhh. I never get tired of hearing that.)

B-b-b-but! Housing is in crisis! Both the province and the feds have essentially told us they're broke!. And! I thought the whole point of this policy was to encourage a big increase in the number of affordable housing starts in the city! Am I just confused on all this? (grumble grumble)

As for the transit hub relocation, that's being done to accommodate the WOW project. No longer will the stretch north of Victoria Park be our eastbound transit hub. Instead, I was surprised to discover, that will be moved to the stretch of 12th north of the central library and city hall. Apparently, the library board has been contacted on this and they are seeing about incorporating the new transit hub into their redesign.

And, as for the new bus purchases, seems these are NOT meant to replace the buses that we lost last week when 13 were removed from service after failing inspection. The two being bought with these funds are just part of the usual updating of the transit system. According to city staff, we can expect a report by the end of the week regarding the loss of those 13 buses. But staff did assure council that no service has been lost as a result of this situation.

Everything else on the agenda passed unanimously and with minimal discussion.

The meeting, by the way, was kicked off with a speech by the Mayor congratulating Councillor O'Donnell and the Olympic Host Committee for bringing the Torch to Regina.

Pick of the Day: Regina City Council Meeting

I was almost prepared to admit defeat. I mean, it had to happen some time, right? I've been doing this pick-of-the-day thing since mid-September. At some point you'd have to figure that I'd come up dry trying to find an activity to recommend. My default option has always been to pick a film playing at one of the multi-plexes, which is fair game as technically it is something to do. It just doesn't show very much imagination on my part.


Still, I'm not writing this in Montreal or Vancouver, I'm writing it in Regina. Today's Monday. It's the dead of winter. Did You Hear About the Morgans? here I come, right? Well, not so fast. I don't know what will be on the agenda, but tonight City Council happens to be meeting for the first time in 2010.

2010 promises to be another interesting year in Regina. For the last few years, the city's been engaged in a ton of studies to inform future growth and development. Soon, some of them will hopefully begin to bear fruit. Then there's the looming dust-up with the province over the latter backing away from its promise in last year's budget to direct a one-per cent share of the PST to cities to give them another source of revenue. And the housing crunch. And downtown revitalization. And the injection of new blood on Council with Chris Szarka and John Findura being elected -- okay, you get the idea.

Bottom line, there's a lot going on in Regina at present. To ensure we achieve our stated goal of being being a sustainable, progressive, inclusive city we all need to keep up to date on what's happening at City Hall. So if you get a chance, drop by City Hall tonight. Things kick off at 5:30 p.m.

NFL Football

So we're down to four teams. Next Sunday at 2 p.m. the upstart New York Jets will be in Indianapolis to play the Colts for the AFC crown. Then at 5:40 p.m. the Minnesota Vikings will take the field against the Saints in New Orleans in the NFC title game. I don't have TV at my place, so I don't watch a ton of ball, but I do keep tabs on the NFL each season, and generally manage to catch a game or two here or there.

As it happens, I caught the last half of the Arizona Cardinal vs New Orleans Saints game on Saturday afternoon, and all of the Baltimore Raven vs Indianapolis Colt game after that. And based on what I saw, New Orleans and Indianapolis are going to be very tough to beat.

New Orleans was dominant in its victory. As I mentioned, I missed the first half. By that point, the Saints were already up 35-14. They ended up trampling the Cardinals 45-14.

If the game was in Minnesota, who admittedly did look impressive in demolishing the Tony Romo "led" (yes, those are sneer quotes) Dallas Cowboys 34-3, I'd probably give them a shot. But the game's in New Orleans. And as compelling as the story of Brett Favre in the twilight of his Hall of Fame career gunning for his third Superbowl is, it's dwarfed by the idea of the Saints playing and winning in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. On the other hand, neither team has yet proven itself capable of winning the really big game. Still, I have to go with the Saints.

In its game, Indianapolis went toe-to-toe with a tough Baltimore squad, and looked pretty strong. Yeah, the final score was only 20-3. And the Colts scored 14 of their points in a three minute spurt at the end of the first half when the Ravens botched clock management a bit and took a couple of bad penalties. But they were in control throughout. Baltimore committed several turnovers, had a lot of catchable passes dropped, and couldn't get anything going on offense; while Peyton Manning was surgical in dissecting the defence with a pin-point short-passing game that the Ravens had no answer for.

As for the Jets, I don't know much about them. For most of the season, they were a non-entity. They only squeaked into the playoffs with late season wins over Indianapolis and the Cincinnati Bengals when both teams were resting key personnel. In week one of the playoffs, they won 24-14 in Cincinnati. But like the Saints and Vikings, the Bengals don't exactly have a reputation for winning big games. Pulling off a 17-14 road victory in San Diego against the Chargers, though, that was an accomplishment.

Going into the game, the Chargers had won 11 straight. Judging by the stats, and from what little I've heard about the Jets, they play tough D and rely on a strong running game. Again, if this game was being played outdoors in New York instead of indoors in Indianapolis, I'd give the Jets a shot. But it's not. Which sets up an Indianapolis Colts vs New Orleans Saints Superbowl on Feb. 7.

This Week at City Hall

Monday, January 17
Crime Prevention Committee (12:15 pm): Considering the November 2009 crime statistics, the Crime Prevention Week and Crime Prevention Awards and setting meeting times for 2010.

City Council (5:00 pm): First meeting of 2010! Excited? Well, you would be if you'd read this week's agenda. Boy howdy, what a way to kick off the year! Shuffling the city's boundaries! Preparing for capital expenditures! Suggestions of budgetary hijinks to come! Hydrogen from garbage! Let's get to it, shall we?

This week, council will be considering the operating budget for the Regina Police Service and $25,000 in funding allotted to the Transit Fare Assistance Program.

Also, council will be looking to expand the city's boundaries by absorbing a portion of the Rural Municipality of Sherwood, for which said rural municipality will be compensated for lost tax money to the tune of a whopping $9,450. No, there are no zeroes missing on that number. Or at least I assume there isn't as it's written that way twice in the report. Man, if I'd known annexing land was this cheap I could've got this on my line of credit.

Council will also be passing recommended changes to the Local Government Election Act. Among the changes are provisions to allow for alternative voting methods such as on-line voting, a requirement that voters have to provide identification before being issued a ballot and provisions so that special polls (such those at hospitals or personal care facilities) can be held on days other than election day.

Looks like the Youth Advisory Council will be getting its name changed to the Youth Advisory Committee and its numbers shrunk to 12 so that it can reach quorum at meetings. (Formerly, it had 40-some members and that proved unworkable.)

Council will also be considering canceling its contract with the Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation (SHEC). We ran a news brief about this in the latest print p-dog; but, even briefer: SHEC had an agreement with the city to buy methane off-gassing from our landfill and it would turn that into hydrogen. Then the economy went to crap and it's apparently not a viable project at present so they want to back out. Have to say I'm not entirely surprised. I'm pretty skeptical of this hydrogen economy thing. And when someone comes a-knocking saying they can spin my straw -- or garbage as the case may be -- into gold, I'm inclined to ask "what's the catch, Rumpelstiltskin?"

Council is also looking at the capital projects for which it will have to give advance approval. This gives a good pre-budget glimpse at city priorities for the year so this item probably warrants a whole blog post of its own.

Finally, Councillor Clipsham is bringing a motion forward to extend council terms to four years as opposed to three.

Tuesday, January 19
Community Services Advisory Committee (5:30 pm): Considering a report from an attendee to the Canadian Urban Transit Association conference in 2009 and setting meeting times for 2010.

As always, complete agendas and reports can be downloaded from the city's website.

Pick of the Day: Going for a Walk Around Wascana Lake

I'm writing this a couple of days in advance, but the weather report for the weekend looks pretty favourable. We've essentially been cooped up for an entire year with shitty weather -- except for September, which was awesome, and November, which was pretty good too. But otherwise, frigid with a capital F. So if you get a chance today, head down to Wascana Lake for a brisk walk. Pathways are kept pretty clean in the winter, there's no bike and roller blade traffic to deal with, and we can all do with a bit of fresh air and exercise this time of the year.

Heads up to all the bachelors out there though who are tottering on the brink of making a life-time commitment to the woman of their dreams (or man of your dreams, I suppose). If your sweetie suggests a walk around the lake, and you find yourself in the vicinity of the Conexus Arts Centre, be forewarned that's there's a Wedding Expo on today. So proceed with caution.

Further south on the Wascana Parkway at the university, the Department of Music is partnering with the Theatre Department to present a concert of music and spoken word focussing on composers and writers from the 19th and 20th century. The concert is being held at Riddell Centre at 3 p.m.

And if you're looking for something to do tonight, playing at the RPL at 7 p.m. is the Australian film Three Blind Mice. It's about three sailors enjoying a last day of shore leave in Sydney before shipping out to Iraq. Here's the trailer. (YouTube) At 9 p.m., there's a U.S. documentary called Collapse about a real gloomy Gus named Michael Rupert who thinks the world is headed to hell in a hand-basket. Here's the trailer. (YouTube)

La Dolt Vita

Recently in Regina, a couple or three glossy lifestyle magazines like the one pictured have popped up. It's a business model that's been popularized in larger cities, and now that Regina (and Saskatoon up north) have supposedly "arrived" as prosperous and sophisticated urban centres we too get to have our own lifestyle magazines.

Through two different avenues I've been privy to a solicitation from the editor of Fine Lifestyles Regina seeking people to write for the magazine. Here's the form the pitch takes: He's looking for two kinds of writing: features (longer stories not tied to a particular advertiser) and advertorial (typically business profiles, these are part of an advertising package purchased by a client and subject to the client's approval).

As a business model, I suppose whoring a significant portion of your "editorial" content to garner advertising revenue might work. Although you'd think Reginans would have better things to do with their time than read what amounts to a glorified advertising insert. Or maybe not. But as far as any claim these magazines might make to journalistic credibility, forget about it.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

Jackie Chan's latest dismal watered down kung fu kid's movie The Spy Next Door opened in theatres yesterday with a naturally lousy 7% on Rotten Tomatoes. So today's cartoon is the 1970's Hanna-Barbera Productions Hong Kong Phooey.

Phooey was a crime fighting dog in a world full of people. He worked as a janitor in a police station but nobody ever seemed to figure out that the only walking and talking dog in the city might be the walking and kung fu fighting dog. Voiced by Scatman Crothers, Phooey was comically incompetent and only succeeded with the help of his partner a striped cat named Spot.

Pick of the Day: Blue Rodeo

Chris Morin did a preview of this gig in our Jan. 14 issue where Blue Rodeo kind of come across as being a little full of themselves. I doubt, for instance, that they'll enjoy the same name-recognition at their upcoming Olympics gig as when they played Pariliament Hill on Canada Day 2008. For that to be true, Blue Rodeo would have to be world famous, and they're not.


That's not to say that the band doesn't rank as one of the best ever to emerge from Canada. I laboured to phrase that sentence, by the way. I originally thought about saying "best bands Canada has ever produced". But that would imply that Canada, as a country, takes credit for their existence.

To the extent that we provide reasonable levels of publicly-funded education and health-care for all our citizens, along with a smidgen of money to help nurture the arts, that's true. But for a band like Blue Rodeo to have endured as long as it has, and to have enjoyed the success that it has, is a testament primarily to their talent, dedication and drive as the lot of cultural producers in this country is difficult to say the least.

Blue Rodeo is at Conexus Arts Centre tonight. Cuff the Duke's backing them up. Here's video of them doing "The Ballad of Poor John Henry". (YouTube) And here's Blue Rodeo performing "Rain Down on Me" off their 1992 album Lost Together. (YouTube)

Also tonight, and on Jan. 23 too, Rick Harris is playing jazz at the Mediterranean Bistro from 6-9 p.m.

Friday Afternoon Kitty: Special Bad Tiger Edition

Tigers have been getting a bad rap in the media in Canada lately. In October, a tiger at the Calgary zoo named Vitali dined on drunks' arms (an after-hours zoo treat). Last week, a tiger at an exotic animal farm got rid of his keeper once and for all. There are all kinds of bad tigers, from the Tamil Tigers to you-know-who. (Rwoar!)

Our bad tiger of the day pick is Kenny, who lives at a sanctuary in Arizona. White tigers (the kind that usually eat ambiguously gay Vegas celebrity duos) are actually not a type of tiger, but descendants of one poor white male tiger named Mohan who was forcibly bred with his daughter Radha in 1951. The inbreeding has gone on to produce thousands of animals, which populate zoos and Vegas shows and large cat rescues. Inbreeding is never a good idea. Many are deformed (and subsequently destroyed). Kenny is mentally retarded; his siblings have knock knees and breathing problems.

Apologies for the hootenanny music, and for anything it implies. To Kenny, I mean.

UPDATE: prairie dog called for an update on poor Vitali, the drunk-eatin' Calgary Zoo tiger. We're happy to report that Vitali is just fine: no injuries to his mouth or paws, and no repercussions for the attack.

Pick of the Day: Volcanoless in Canada

As it happens, Canada is not volcanoless. True, there are no volcanoes currently erupting in our fair land, but according to National Resources Canada there is evidence of three volcanic eruptions in the last few hundred years. And numerous other volcanos could potentially erupt in the near future. Before everyone freaks out, keep in mind that we're talking geological timeframes here, so "near future" could mean hundreds of years down the road.

Most volcanos in Canada, as you might expect, are located in belts like the Garibaldi and Wrangell on the west coast. Many are less than five million years old, so still have plenty of life left in them. Then there's the threat posed by nearby American volcanos in Alaska and the Pacific north-west. Mount Baker, for instance, at an elevation of 3285 m, is an active Washington State volcano located less that 100 km southeast of downtown Vancouver. It blows, things could get pretty messy for residents of VanCity.

But enough geology. Tonight at O'Hanlon's Pub the Saskaton-based quintet Volcanoless in Canada is performing a free gig. Here's video of them doing their song "Tiptoes" at Cameron House in Toronto in 2008. Backing them up at O'Hanlon's are the Regina band Tinsel Trees.

Also on tap tonight is a show by Val Halla at the Gaslight Saloon. Fronted by former Reginan Val McLeod (who was featured in prairie dog's Dec. 31 My Music) the band is expected to hit the stage around 10 p.m. Here's a link to an earlier Blog post I did on Val.

And if your taste runs a little more retro, Canuck rock legends Lighthouse are at Casino Regina tonight.