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A popular feature in Regina’s Wascana Centre has been shuttered while the agency that oversees the park considers what to do with the space.
The gate to the Waterfowl Display Ponds has been padlocked, and a sign tells visitors the ponds will not be open in 2026.
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“It’s just been more and more difficult for us to keep up with the maintenance of the area, making sure that it’s going to be safe and accessible for everyone who wants to use it,” Jenna Schroeder, executive director of the Provincial Capital Commission (PCC), explained in an interview.
“So, we did make the decision this year just to close for the 2026 season, and then we’re going to pause and take some time to really think about what is the future of this place and what should it be for the community.”
The ponds, located on Lakeshore Drive between the Conexus Arts Centre and Wascana Lake, were originally established in 1971 to display captive and injured waterfowl.
Ducks, geese, and even swans and pelicans spent their summers in the landscaped pond area, where visitors could feed them and read interpretive panels.
The birds then spent their winters in an overwintering structure on the east part of the lake near the Ring Road.
But Schroeder says that building reached the end of its life in 2015 and was torn down.
“Without that overwintering structure, there was just no spot to keep those birds over the winter. So, since 2015 there hasn’t been a captive flock of birds in the waterfowl display ponds,” she said.
Wascana’s Waterfowl Display Ponds opened in 1971 as a showcase for captive water birds like ducks, geese, swans, and pelicans, but haven’t had birds to display since 2015. (Geoff Smith/980 CJME)
The ponds had remained open since then, with wild birds free to come and go.
But now their future is uncertain, as the PCC focuses on other priorities in Wascana Centre like pathways, picnic sites, and washroom structures.
“We don’t know what the future is going to look like,” Schroeder said.
“We haven’t gotten to a point where we’ve developed what that plan is, so we wanted to give ourselves this year to make sure that the space was secure, and then we can spend some time figuring out what the long-term future is going to be.”
While it’s early, she said there are some options for moving forward with the space. The PCC could work with contractors to conceive a design, with the cooperation of the board.
Or, one of the partners in the PCC — the City of Regina, the provincial government, or the University of Regina — or even a third party could bring forward a proposal. But a full redevelopment of the site would face a 38-step development process.
Any proposal would also have to align with the Wascana Centre Master Plan.
In the meantime, the ponds are adjacent to the Wascana Lake Migratory Bird Sanctuary, which encompasses much of the east lake between Broad Street and the Ring Road, and where waterfowl can be seen in a natural habitat.
And Schroeder stresses there are still many things to do across the 1,900-acre Wascana Centre.
“We do take a lot of pride at the Provincial Capital Commission on the beautiful space that we are fortunate to look after,” she said.
“We are working on focusing and prioritizing our actions, so we are going to have to figure out when the display ponds, when that fits into our long-term capital plan.”
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