While many stayed home during the pandemic, taggers seemed to be out more than ever.

Recent numbers revealed by the city show it cost Regina twice as much to remove graffiti in 2020 compared to previous years.

Brent Krahenbil with the city says the number is even more than people might think.

“Our number for the cost of removal for 2020 was $137,800,” said Krahenbil. “That was an anomaly to the other years, although it does vary greatly from year to year. That was much higher than what we normally see.”

That particularly high number compares to just under $72,000 in 2019.

Krahenbil says while they can’t pinpoint the COVID-19 lockdown as the main reason, it probably played a huge role.

“Obviously, the one difference last year was the pandemic, so the assumption would be it’s related to that in some way,” said Krahenbil. “Either people having too much time on their hands, or not as many people out to watch the areas, we just don’t know.”

He says cleanup costs in 2021 are trending back down to a normal rate, and he’s hoping it stays that way.

“We believe since the first six months of this year are kind of back on trend, we’re assuming it’ll continue at that, and we’ll be back to our normal levels,” said Krahenbil. “But we’ll continue to monitor it as the year goes on.”

As of the end of June, 2021 cleanup costs were sitting at $44,100.