‘Time is of the essence’: Mayor Bachynski says federal funding must be expedited

After meetings in Ottawa, Regina’s mayor says cities need faster access to federal infrastructure money. Donovan Maess reports.

Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski is calling recent talks in Ottawa with the Prime Minister “productive,” but adds cities across the country are feeling the pinch of delayed federal funding.

It comes after the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Big City Mayors’ Caucus met with Prime Minister Mark Carney late last week on a series of topics.

“One of those is infrastructure,” Mayor Bachynski said Monday. “We know infrastructure is a massive challenge, not just new infrastructure to grow and to achieve goals in terms of housing requirements, but also the maintenance of existing infrastructure that has been put in.”

City officials have constantly highlighted Regina’s aging infrastructure and a massive deficit in funding as a key pressure point on its recent budgets and as a factor in growing the city.

As costs to build new infrastructure continue to grow, so too does the challenge of keeping what is already in the ground in working shape.

Bachynski says its partner in the federal government is willing to step up and assist.

“We have infrastructure that is over 100 years old,” the mayor added. “Part of that conversation, the good in my view, with Minister [Gregor] Robertson was there is a pretty clear direction from the Prime Minister to look at how [cities] can get funding announced from the federal government to municipalities quickly.”

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As part of the 2025 federal budget, Ottawa is allocating $51 billion over 10 years, followed by $3 billion per year ongoing, to revitalize local infrastructure – the hospitals, universities, and colleges that serve our people, the roads and bridges that move our goods, and the water and transit systems that sustain our towns.

“There’s different complexities and different provinces have different experiences,” Carney said at the meeting with the mayors Feb. 4. “But we’re here to emphasize the programs we’re putting in place, Canada’s new governments put in place and how we can work together.”

“We’re going to get down to brass tacks in terms of what’s working, what’s not and how we can hit the ground running,” the Prime Minister added.

According to FCM, there is a sense of urgency to have that funding in the hands of Canadian cities.

“We know economic growth, housing affordability and public safety all run directly through Canada’s cities,” said London, Ont. Mayor and Big City Mayors Caucus chair Josh Morgan. “We’re here to talk about pragmatic delivery, focused, conversation on governments programs and how we as partners, alongside your government and provincial and territorial partners, can make real progress for Canadians.”

Mayor Bachynski says the city is hoping to apply for its portion of funding soon, but eligibility requirements are still being assessed.

“The dialogue in Ottawa was around, ‘What can we do?’ And I think there’s a lot of work being put into having projects move forward that aren’t going yet,” he added. “Whereas the conversation was really, we have projects that are already in flight. Is it a phased project? Can we get money for something that’s already going to unlock the future potentially? Because to start something brand new today, to have to design and procure would take time.”

“Time is of the essence. There may be projects already planned to go this year funded through our budget process but we might be able get [federal] funding for. That unlocks our capacity to be able to build more and catch up faster on our deficit,” Bachynski said.

Over the next five years, Regina has nearly $1.2 billion in planned projects.

In 2026, $223.58 million is earmarked for capital spending, including the 11th Avenue Revitalization Project, Indoor Aquatic facility and eastern water network expansion.