New Year's celebrations begin in Regina

Regina’s New Year’s Eve party has been 150 years in the making.

The city will be putting on a variety of activities New Year’s Eve to help kickoff the celebration for Canada’s 150th anniversary.

The celebration will be held at the Conexus Arts centre, Wascana Centre and Saskatchewan Science Centre beginning at noon and will end with a fireworks display around 6 p.m.

The event is just the first of a series of events the city has planned to help celebrate Canada’s milestone.

“We take time to look at the past where we come from and look to the future where we will be going,” Regina Mayor Michael Fougere said. “We have a wonderful country and we should be celebrating our birthday.”

The celebration will be free for families to enjoy, thanks to funding from the federal government. It was announced the province will receive $2.7 million dollars for the many different projects taking place in celebration of Canada’s anniversary. The City of Regina is receiving $150,000 for the New Year’s Eve kick-off.

“I think each and every one of us would feel really sad and sorry if a family said ‘we would love to have come but we couldn’t afford it,’” Saskatchewan MLA Laura Ross said.

Neil Donnelly, CEO of the Conexus Arts Centre, said the many different activities are for all ages so no one feels excluded. He also said the activities will be done in time for people to get to their other New Year’s Eve parties.

“We wanted something to appeal to as many people as possible,” Donnelly said.

Transit will be free for people to travel between the three venues.
 
Ding in the New Year

Beginning at 7 p.m., city transit will be free for people to use during the evening until 2:15 a.m.  It’s a part of the 29th annual ‘Ding in the New Year’ initiative.
 
“We know there’s so many tragedies that we’ve heard recently of people drinking and driving throughout the year and there’s just absolutely no reason for that to happen when you have a free service that’s so accessible,” Fougere said.
 
Last year, there were seven people killed and 33 more injured in 119 crashes related to drinking and driving in the province.