Regina city council votes against renaming Dewdney Avenue
Councillor raised concerns over potential cost
Regina city council has rejected an effort to rename a street that bears the moniker of a man who helped institute Canada's reserve system and establish Indian residential schools.
Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Stevens and Ward 6 Coun. Dan LeBlanc brought a motion calling for a renaming of Dewdney Avenue to Regina city council, which opens every meeting with a land acknowledgement honouring the Indigenous people of Treaty 4 territory.
LeBlanc said it was "improper" in the 21st century to have a major street named after Lord Edgar Dewdney, who he described as a "settler-colonialist racist" in an interview in May.
On Wednesday, LeBlanc urged council to support the change in the spirit of truth and reconciliation.
Only three councillors voted in favour of the motion, while seven voted against.
Only Ward 9 Coun. Jason Mancinelli explained his opposition during the council meeting.
Mancinelli said he would have no problem supporting the change if it was a one-kilometre-long street or a simple bay, but that the size of Dewdney Avenue gave him pause.
"It's the actual physical characteristics and the outcomes, and the number of addresses and the number of people put to a type of displacement in their everyday life that is going to cause me not to support [this]," said Mancinelli.
City manager Niki Anderson said administration's research pointed to little or no cost for residents.
Canada Post had informed the city that there would be no cost as a result of any change to the street's name. Saskatchewan Government Insurance said any requirement to update an address on an individual's licence would also come at no cost.
Anderson said businesses would have to pay a $100 fee for reissuing the title of their business.
The cost for the city, such as replacing each street sign, would be negligible, she said.
"What we have learned so far is the financial cost wouldn't be the hurdle to stop it going ahead," said Anderson.
Earlier in the day, residents in favour of the proposed change, as well as a potential move to revisit a homeless shelter, gathered in front of Regina city hall.
One woman handed out stickers with a buffalo and the text "Tatanga Ave" on it, a reference to a proposed name to replace Dewdney Avenue. Tatanga is the Nakota/Lakota word for buffalo.
Kale MacLellan, a community organizer, described renaming Dewdney Avenue as "very low-hanging fruit" for the city to show its efforts in reconciliation.
"We're standing across the street from what used to be the Court of Queen's Bench. It's now the Court of King's Bench. So this idea of a name change of something significant isn't that unfathomable. It's doable and it's easy," she said.
The city has even previously stripped the Dewdney name off civic assets.
In 2021 a pool and park were renamed Buffalo Meadows, after Joely BigEagle-Kequahtooway helped organize and submit a petition requesting that the city remove the Dewdney name from its property.
City council has also endorsed an Indigenous framework, a document meant to be a concrete commitment to reconciliation by the city's government.
Dewdney served as commissioner of Indian Affairs and lieutenant governor of the North-West Territories, much of which is now part of the Prairie provinces, in the late 19th century.
He selected Regina as the capital before Saskatchewan became a province.
Dewdney also withheld food and rations from Indigenous communities, which resulted in starvation.
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