The City of Regina says about 1,000 residents attended this week’s catalyst committee public consultations, which wrapped up on Thursday.
Eight public information sessions were spread out from Monday to Thursday as residents were able to get a closer look at five large-scale recreation and culture facility projects proposed for the city.
Those projects include the modernization of the central library, new indoor aquatic facility, replacing the Brandt Centre with a new arena, a new outdoor synthetic soccer pitch and a new outdoor baseball stadium.
“I think this has been (a) wide open process and has been transparent as any public process that I know of, so I am pleased by that,” said committee co-chair and city councillor Bob Hawkins on Thursday following their final public session.
While this phase of public consultation is finished, Hawkins noted that the catalyst committee will continue to gather information from the public, experts and previous studies among other sources.
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“We will take input from architects, designers, engineers. There are certain feasibility limitations and financial considerations. All of this will be seriously considered by the catalyst committee before it goes to city council,” Hawkins added.
“We’ll collect it, we’ll digest it, which will be a big job. We’ll debate amongst ourselves, fill in gaps where needed and get recommendations ready for council.”
This includes an online survey which residents have until Nov. 10 to share their thoughts on the proposed projects.
According to the City of Regina, more than 2,200 response have been submitted to the community survey.
Project presentations are available on the site as well as video recordings of each project’s first session on the catalyst committee website.
“I think this was a good opportunity to bring our conversations together and allow it to happen in a greater city planning conversation,” said Tim Reid, committee co-chair and Regina Exhibition Association Limited president and CEO.
Funding, location and sequencing of the projects remain the big questions — questions the committee says they do not have a lot of time to answer.
The short timeline is a result of a mid-March deadline for federal funding that could be used for the aquatic facility.
“I walked away from these sessions thinking the aquatic centre has an immediate need and we need to make that decision pretty quickly. Based on that decision, we have four other civic infrastructure projects that need to find a home,” Reid mentioned.
Next for the catalyst committee will be a meeting between its members on Tuesday.
City council is set to receive a report from the catalyst committee by the end of the year.
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