Court Ruling on Homelessness Item in Regina Budget

A Regina City Councillor took his own municipality to court this week. 

I wrote about the issue last week in Canadian Dimension.
https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/regina-has-a-plan-to-end-homelessness-so-whats-stopping-it

On Tuesday December 13th Leblanc was before Justice John Morrall asking him to force the city administration to include $24.9 million for homelessness in the city budget.  A review of that budget began yesterday (December 14th).
 
LeBlanc was pushing for a mandamus order.  Such an order from a court obligates a government official to properly fulfill their official duties.

“Basically, three points are all agreed upon,” LeBlanc told reporters outside the courthouse afterwards as reported by sasktoday.ca. on Tuesday.

“One is the city manager’s duties are outlined in the bylaws. I say that makes it public.

Second is we gave clear direction in June to put this money in the budget.

Third is she didn’t want to do that, so decided not to. I think that’s enough for mandamus, that’s the application we’re seeking.”
https://www.sasktoday.ca/provincial-news/arguments-heard-in-court-fight-against-city-manager-6240813

City manager Niki Anderson, was represented by Milad Alishahi. 

Alishahi’s argument was that the case for mandamus had not been made.  This isn’t a legal issue.  It is a political issue and other options were available to Council members than going to court. https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/city-hall/judge-wont-decide-on-application-to-include-homelessness-plan-in-city-budget-until-wednesday

Judge Morrall agreed with lawyer Alishahi. 
 
“I find that the court should be quite leery of being involved in the political machinations and debates between members of municipal, provincial or federal decision-making bodies,” wrote Morrall.
 
More details can be found at https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/city-hall/judge-dismisses-application-to-add-funding-for-ending-homelessness-to-city-budget
 
"This application is about the principle, not the politics," said LeBlanc. "If unelected officials can choose to not implement the decision of elected bodies then the system simply falls apart," LeBlanc told the CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/regina-ending-homelessness-court-1.6683016
 
From talking with Councillor LeBlanc, I anticipate that he will attempt to get money back into the budget to address the homelessness crisis but in a smaller amount.

Councillors Take City to Court

Earlier this week Canadian Dimension published a story I wrote on city politics in Regina. It is not quite a man-bites-dog story but neither is it something that happens every day.   

Daniel LeBlanc, a Regina City Councillor is taking his own municipality to court.  Here is that story. https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/regina-has-a-plan-to-end-homelessness-so-whats-stopping-it

Councillor Daniel Leblanc

There have been some developments since that article was published.   On Tuesday most of the Regina Council signed on to a notice of motion that the Councillors who initiated the lawsuit have violated the Regina code of Ethics by-law.MN22.7 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/regina-city-council-mayor-manager-lawsuit-homelessness-1.6675651

To consider such a motion at yesterday’s (December 7th) Council meeting required unanimous support of Council.  That was received yesterday as the two Councillors who were involved in the suit did not vote because of what, I believe, would be a conflict of interest in Saskatchewan municipalities. https://regina.ctvnews.ca/regina-city-council-passes-motion-of-confidence-in-city-manager-niki-anderson-1.6185099 

In part the motion read: 

 “affirm and convey [council’s] continued confidence in City Manager Niki Anderson” and “express its disappointment over the negative impact on City Council’s operational integrity and oversight that the initiated court action has created.” 

Court proceedings are scheduled for next Tuesday ahead of Regina’s December 14th budget meeting.