Regina residents and city council are at a crossroads over where to put a new multi-purpose event centre.
Through many public consultations and surveys, most residents have opposed seeing the centre in the City’s downtown. However, Regina’s city council voted last month to pass all of the City’s catalyst committee recommendations, including putting the replacement of the Brandt Centre in the “greater downtown area.”
That vote means the City will start looking at funding options and finalizing the initial design plans. Council will still have to vote on the project’s budgets, locations, and designs.
Despite not being finalized, residents are concerned about seeing a downtown arena.
To look at the impact of a downtown event centre, a long-time rival of the Queen City shared a similar experience over a decade ago.
In 2001, Winnipeg’s City Council approved demolishing the 96-year-old Eaton’s building to make way for a new sports arena in the heart of the City’s downtown.
Jino Destaio, a professor of urban geography at the University of Winnipeg, said while residents’ main concern was the destruction of the iconic Eaton’s building in the Gateway to the West; they also shared many concerns that Regina residents currently have.
“The number one issue was parking and or traffic congestion before and after games and safety,” he said. “There was most about interactions with the downtown economy.”
Destaio said that another big question was if the arena would transform or revitalize the rest of downtown.
“That was a real big question for Winnipeg that had a downtown that was struggling mightily,” he said. “The idea was, here is this new arena coming downtown. Will it be the saviour?”
The area was being built when Winnipeg’s downtown started recovering after decades of decline.
“Winnipeg is known as one of the largest North American cities to have a 20 or 30-year period of a sustained period of decline in our downtown. Between 1980 and 2010, there were few cities that struggled as much as Winnipeg did,” Destaio said. “The economy of downtown was just on the cusp of changing from significant years of decline to beginning to see a bit of turnaround.”
“As the rink came up, we were also investing in more downtown residents, some more condos, more rentals, more recreational kind of amenities,” he continued. “The rink became one part of a broader transformation of downtown Winnipeg. I would say since that opening in 2004; it has probably been one of the largest projects that leverage more activity in and around it.”
Destaio said Winnipeg residents would say the MTS Centre, now called Canada Life Centre, led to an improved downtown.
“I think people would say that this one little hockey rink in downtown Winnipeg did help support some transformation in and around the area downtown.”
He noted while he refers to the arena as a rink, he said a big reason for its impact was the ability to draw concerts and keep the arena activated year-round.
As for Regina’s future, he said residents shouldn’t expect the rink to be the saviour of Regina’s downtown.
“Don’t look at the rink as being the saviour of downtown if there is other pressing social issues or economic issues. A rink is a rink. What it does is going to depend on many different factors,” he said. “I wouldn’t build a rink like a wouldn’t build a downtown mall, thinking the mall is suddenly going to have this transformative impact across economic and social kinds of lines.”
Destaio said while the arena helped revitalize Winnipeg’s downtown, there were also corresponding investments to help address the bigger issues.
“Cities have to have a real comprehensive strategy for developing the downtown, addressing complex social issues, dealing with homelessness, dealing with poverty and or the rise in addictions,” he said. “There is lots that go on in the downtown, but I think it’s fair to say that a rink isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s not on its own going to transform economies.”
As for some advice for Regina residents, Destaio said while he understands the opposition to a new event centre, it can be a good step in helping out a struggling downtown.
