Regina, RM officials sign boundary agreement

Improved relations between the city and the RM of Sherwood are being credited with an agreement, signed on Friday, altering the boundary between the two.

Regina Mayor Michael Fougere described Friday’s signing as “a smooth transition of annexing land into the city of Regina,” enabling continued growth of the Harbour Landing and Harbour Landing West neighbourhoods.

“It’s a transition that’s been made very easy,” he said. “It shows we have a strong relationship with the RM of Sherwood, with the staff administratively and politically. We see the same vision together. So it’s a small parcel of land, but it’s symbolic of a much larger relationship where things are going very, very strongly for us.”

That wasn’t always the case, but Fougere said he’s confident “those days are behind us.”

“We have questions of course and don’t always agree, but the relationship is very, very strong and we’re very pleased with that,” he said. “So those days of issues are behind us thankfully and we’re going ahead very strongly.”

Sherwood Reeve Jeff Poissant described the land involved in the agreement as encompassing seven hectares or 17 acres. The compensation, he said is about $1,450, which he described as equal to about 15 years worth of taxes.

While the amount of land and compensation isn’t large, Poissant said the value is in the continued relationship building between the two municipal governments.

“We’ve grown together over the last several years with that relationship and we understand that being collaborative is the best way to go about things rather than fighting with each other ...,” he said. “Unfortunately, yes, the relationship between the city and the RM did suffer in years previous. There were some issues there. The RM wanted things and the city wanted things and those things weren’t the same. Nowadays, me and the mayor see eye to eye on a lot of issues and that helps quite a bit, I believe, in the relationship we’ve built.”

Fougere said the land has been purchased by Dream Development Corp., with a view to more residential development in the area.

The agreement has to be submitted to the province for final approval, but Fougere wasn’t anticipating any issues.

BRANDON HARDER RM of Sherwood Reeve Jeff Poissant and Mayor Michael Fougere sign a boundary agreement between Regina and the RM of Sherwood at city hall in Regina. The deal involves a seven-hectare parcel of land that was bought by a developer, who plans to build...