Downtown Regina church takes down fencing due to lack of quorum for decision to put it up | CBC News

The fencing surrounding the Knox-Metropolitan United Church in downtown Regina is now gone.

The fence was put up last week after a string of fires started by people living on the property threatened the building, according to officials with the church. 

Barbara Shourounis, the secretary of the church’s board of trustees, told CBC on Thursday that earlier this week the board of trustees was advised by the Regional Council of the United Church that their decision to put up the fencing was invalid.

“When we kind of dug down into the facts we agreed that yes, we didn’t have a quorum because we forgot to count an inactive member that hadn’t been hasn’t been coming to meetings for years,” said Shourounis.

“So immediately we realized our mistake and made a motion to take down the fencing.” 

The fencing came down Thursday morning and there are no plans to immediately put it back up. 

Shourounis said the board would be meeting on Thursday afternoon and she’d be recommending a joint meeting of the church’s board of trustees congregation.

“[The goal is] to talk about what we’ve been experiencing here at the front steps over the past four years and how we might address the issues that that’s caused and how we go forward as a church in downtown Regina,” Shoruounis said. 

Shourounis told CBC last week there were four fires on church property since June and that the fences were put up because the board of trustees had a legal duty to protect the property. 

She said there have been issues since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020 and things have only gotten worse with changes to the controversial Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program. 

Advocates have blamed SIS changes for the increase in unhoused people in the province.

The fencing at Knox-Metropolitan United Church was not the only location to remove fencing Thursday that had been put up due to safety issues.

The City of Regina also removed fencing it had placed at city hall after tearing down a homeless encampment located at the building.