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What is next for Regina’s Brandt Centre?
That question is one step closer to having an answer as the Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) moved forward on Tuesday with public consultation regarding the multi-use event centre.
People in Regina can now have their say regarding the 44-year-old facility through an online survey.
President and CEO of REAL, Tim Reid, says this is the first phase in determining the centre’s future.
“This is truly where the heart of our community happens in live entertainment, but it’s an ageing building, and we are truly at the crossroads with the future of the Brandt Centre,” Reid said. “So, today we’re launching public engagement. And we’re asking for your opinion about your experiences with the Brandt Centre.
“This won’t be the end of public engagement, but this is the start. Today we want to talk about how you engage with this facility, and then how you interact with this facility. But in the future, we’re going to ask you about what it should look like for the next generation of entertainment seekers.”
The city’s executive committee has discussed the future of the multi-use event centre on multiple occasions. In 2020, an Arena Planning Strategy Committee (APSC) was created, including community leaders and stakeholders in presenting city council with a greater scope of what they feel needs to be done with the Brandt Centre moving forward.
The committee was instructed by council to move onto the next phase of its work and come back in a year with a plan around a new arena — what it would look like, where it would go, what it would cost and how it would be funded.
Public consultation is the next part of the committees’ process.
“We want to hear from the public on everything from how often they come to the Brandt Centre to their experience with concessions,” said Tiffany Stephenson, co-chair of the APSC. “This will help guide and inform our next steps.”
“In future rounds of consultations, a question that will be going back to the community is if they would prefer a new facility and where the location of that facility might be.”
In previous city reports from April, building a new event centre that would meet the needs of Regina could cost $100 million.
Reid says whether or not a new arena ends up being built in Regina, something needs to be done to ensure the Brandt Centre meets the city’s needs moving forward.
“I do think as a community, if we want to be competitive, we want to see continued investment in our city, and more importantly long-term sustainability of that investment,” he said. “We have to make our home as competitive as any other city in Canada. Sure, we might be smaller, and there are lots of advantages to that.
“But the opportunities around arts, culture, entertainment, sport, people demand those. Those are basics of quality of life today and we need to make sure that we’re not competing at a 1977 level, we are competing for the next 50 years of city-building.”
If the public has questions about the survey or the project, officials from REAL will be available to answer questions at the
following locations and times:
• Main Concourse – Cooperators Centre, January 18, 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
• Cornwall Centre – January 20, Noon – 2 p.m.
The results of the survey will be released in late February. It will be followed up with a more detailed public survey in March, which will go deeper into design options for the Brandt Centre, potential locations, and funding options.