REGINA - A new motion introduced by Ward 5 Coun. Sarah Turnbull will enhance the playground and infrastructure accessibility policy.
Turnbull, who has been advocating for better accessibility for Regina's playgrounds for years, spoke about the importance of this motion.
"[This] changes the standards to create a higher level of accessibility and exclusivity to allow a wider range of people and abilities to use playgrounds."
As stated in the motion, Sask. has people with disabilities aged 15 or older at nearly 30 per cent of the population, which is higher than the national average of 27 per cent.
Despite the number of people with disabilities in the province, Turnbull said Regina only has six parks accessible for all abilities. A seventh park is currently in development to include all abilities.
Those six parks make up the over 150 playgrounds Regina has, which is only 4.6 per cent of them.
Thinking about her daughter Blake, who is paraplegic, she mentioned how disabled people can be left out of activities and how people are taught to do so.
"[People are thinking] It's okay to sideline them, and [we’re] teaching everyone that that's okay [to do], while raising the whole city that way," said Turnbull.
With Turnbull’s motion, she is directing city administration to make a handful of changes to the City of Regina Accessible Park Guideline.
One key change is "both destination and neighbourhood playgrounds are constructed with only accessible surfacing to meet ASTM1951 standards and remove engineered wood fibre as an acceptable choice."
The standard applies to all types of materials that can be used under and around playground equipment, including loose-fill materials like poured-in-place rubber surfacing or synthetic turf.
The issue with engineered wood fibre is that it can cause injury to those in wheelchairs, getting cut from falling, as Blake has dealt with.
With the chips, it can also be easy for wheelchairs to get stuck in the material.
In terms of costs, Evan Hunchak of Bright Communities Ltd. mentioned that while engineered wood fibre would be initially a lot cheaper over rubber surfacing, over two decades, the costs for the two would be closer once you factor in maintenance.
"Engineered wood fibre would come out to be around $80,000, while board-in-place rubber would be approximately $100,000."
Hunchak said that difference would be 1 per cent of a park budget.
Also included in the motion was for city administration to "develop a strategic playground plan to provide access to a destination playground for all residents within a maximum travel time of 25 minutes on a transit route or 8 minutes by car."
From her understanding, Turnbull said this is the first strategic policy plan for playground accessibility that includes transportation in Canada.
Full support
All of city council spoke highly of this motion.
"If I were a business person trying to serve my customers and I could go from 70 per cent satisfaction to 100 per cent satisfaction by spending [another] one percent, that is the definition of a no-brainer," said Ward 2 Coun. George Tsiklis.
"Thank you for this motion. I think we need to do more for our playgrounds in the city," said Ward 7 Coun. Shobna Radons.
Radons also put forward a friendly amendment, which was similar to the one she proposed during budget week.
The amendment directs city administration to include a consideration option as part of the 2026 budget of allocating $1 million towards a refurbishment fund for city-owned playgrounds.
Radons mentioned people in her ward were promised renovations to their playgrounds for years, but nothing ever transpired.
The motion eventually passed 10-0, which will direct city administration to report back before deliberations for the 2026/2027 budget on key areas of the policy.
Before the motion was passed, Turnbull said, "I do believe in celebrating the wins. And this would be a win for our community."
