Queen City Pride Parade route change about safety: Regina police

A major change to the route for the Queen City Pride Parade in 2026 is being attributed to safety, with Regina police saying it’s made changes to a lot of different events recently for the same reason.

Previously, the parade has started on 12th Avenue, went up Broad Street, across College Ave., up Albert St., past the legislative building on Legislative Dr. and then along the lake to finish on Hill Blvd.

This year, it’ll start in the park near the Conexus Arts Centre, and go along 23rd Ave, north up Albert St, turning on to Legislative Dr. past the legislative building, continue along the lake shore and end just past Hill Blvd.

The 2026 route for the Queen City Pride Parade (Queen City Pride Facebook page)

Inspector Chris Jackiw, an expert in public safety coordination and emergency preparedness with the Regina Police Service, said there are a lot of advantages to the new route.

“The streets that are chosen are chosen because they are divided — there’s a centre median, which creates safety. There’s less cross streets, so there’s less chance of somebody coming across and hitting the parade,” explained Jackiw.

“And then Albert Street, going with the flow of traffic, so they really weren’t coming the opposite way down Albert Street, which we don’t like, especially on the bridge — we call that a fatal funnel, for lack of a better term, and that’s where an incursion could happen, we want to avoid that.”

He said a lot of parade routes have changed with the deadly vehicle attack last year at the Lapu Lapu Day festival in Vancouver.

An operational planning committee in Regina includes police, fire department, city engineers and planning professionals, the Provincial Planning Commission, traffic experts and engineers.

All parade permits go through the Regina Police Service, and Jackiw said there are a lot of considerations.

“We do look at them individually, and whether it’s a walking one, we look at the size, the attendees, whether there’s vehicles, floats. So it all depends on size and structure, how long they are, where they want to go — because they usually put in a parade preferred route — and we look at it from a safety perspective, and then work with the organizers to bring some feedback,” he said.

Inspector Chris Jackiw, an expert in public safety coordination and emergency preparedness with the Regina Police Service. May 25, 2026 (Geoff Smith/980 CJME)

Besides parade safety, Jackiw said there were concerns about how the old route affected emergency responders. He said there was potential for delay getting to the General Hospital from Broad Street and delays in the police response from east to west across the route at those times.

The new route was agreed to by Queen City Pride, according to Jackiw. He said he’d been in communication with the event coordinator quite often and was told the committee approved of the route.

The police try to come up with a fixed route for parades because Jackiw said it allows them to prepare resources better and police it more effectively.

He said he hopes this route is successful for Queen City Pride and meets all the requirements, and can then be used for others in the future.