Catching up with our city's new mayor
Regina saw a number of big changes in 2020, including a new mayor. Two-term incumbent Michael Fougere was defeated by newcomer Sandra Masters on Nov. 9. Reporter Alec Salloum spoke with the newly minted mayor about her brief tenure so far and what is ahead for her and the city of Regina in 2021.
Q You've been in the role for about a month now. Can you tell me: How has it been?
A It is very busy, which may be an understatement. It's a massive amount of learning and not necessarily just the procedural stuff or the process stuff, which is in a way straightforward, once you do it once or twice. It's so very fulfilling, very overwhelming and I'm really looking forward to 2021.
Q On that subject, before we look forward, this time last year, was it even a thought in your head that you'd be mayor this time? That you'd be in this role?
A No, it was, it was literally in November of 2019. There was a, like, maybe a 30-minute conversation about running for mayor, that I frankly didn't take all that seriously. And then a year later, I'm the mayor.
Q There's no end to big issues that are coming down the pipe for council, so how do you feel about the task at hand? What are some of the big issues that the city is going to need to address in 2021?
A When I talked about it being overwhelming, that's a big piece of it. So you're managing a city during a pandemic, you're overseeing the governance of a city during a pandemic.
Health and safety has to be No. 1 coming out of the COVID distribution of vaccines, and doing everything we can to help the Saskatchewan Health Authority and the provincial government execute on that, that has to be goal No. 1.
And I think the second issue is kind of an entangled one, so to speak. Because, for example, we were packing food-bank hampers (recently), several members of council and myself, and they're seeing 20 new families a day — a 46-per-cent increase year over year, from last year at this time to this year.
And one of the comments that John Bailey, the CEO of the Food Bank, was saying is that when your economy tanks, when you have higher unemployment rates, you'll see `x' per cent increases at the food bank. So economic recovery and getting people back to work. Everything from our poverty reduction strategy, and coming out of 2021, with an actual plan and actionable items.
Q When it comes to the opioids crisis in the city, how do you plan to address the exponential rise in fatal overdoses?
A I'm not an expert in this is. I truly struggled with this, because when I talk about it being an entangled, wicked problem, that really is the truth of the matter. You'll probably see some stuff come out in the next four weeks or so just in terms of efforts to support the community organizations in lobbying the government and specifically the health authority to help with some of that. I did reach out to Saskatoon, and Mayor Charlie Clark has been a good touch point.
Q When it comes to safe injection sites or decriminalization
as we've seen recently in Vancouver, how do those options or how do those avenues for treating an overdose crisis sit with you?
A I am really open-minded, and if the science and the data and if it's there in terms of success stories, I think we have to look at everything. Will we get support on everything? No, we won't. I don't want to get out in front of things like the Regina Police Service.
If we can partner with Saskatoon, we're dealing with more than half the province's population in terms of advocating for solutions, and seeing what we can get support for from either the provincial and federal governments.
Q We've seen economic downturn in the city. So when it comes to the upcoming budget, what can people expect?
A We're significantly aware of maintaining or not having costs rise in any significant fashion for property taxpayers in the City of Regina — understanding that some of the costs do just go up naturally, like your household costs sometimes just go up, which is completely out of control. So we want to be stable, we want to be steady. And we want to be really mindful of the fact that that economic recovery is going to be a long haul and to not off-load too much onto the citizens of Regina. You know, my hat's off to the citizens of Regina.
Q You've emphasized you want to collaborate and I was wondering, what kind of response have you received from your fellow council members?
A I think there's a level of understanding that we're just not going to agree on everything, and we get to make our points. Some of that is based on personal principle, some of that is based upon our understanding of the issues, or the information. But I have respect for anybody who is thoughtfully approaching an issue. And I think that's reciprocated.
I don't expect people to agree with me all the time. Because I don't agree with people I like all the time either. And everyone's coming to it earnestly. They're very intelligent. They're very dedicated. And I have a ton of respect for that.
Q What are you listening to?
A I find music for me is, it's either one of two moods for me, I either need a pick-me-up or I need some kind of reflective time. I like old Springsteen, and I like a lot of the Eagles stuff. Seriously, I'm more of a classic-rock sort of person.
Q Have you picked up any pandemic skills?
A I paint. I paint when I have downtime actually.