FIGHT OVER WASCANA
Conexus Credit Union CEO Eric Dillon stands in front of construction next to Darke Hall on College Avenue where the new Conexus building is being built, a project that stirred controversy over the park’s intended use. How did we get to this point?
The fight is on for the jewel in the crown of Regina — Wascana Centre.
The war of words, sparked by approvals for buildings owned by private companies, has opened up a chasm of differing opinions over the purpose and intent of those who decades ago set aside the park space in the heart of the Queen City.
Protests have become a regular part of the summer scene as the group No Business in the Park raises its voice against commercial interests — namely the Conexus Credit Union and Brandt Industries — building in Wascana. But others, citing pragmatism, support the plans as the means to preserve iconic Darke Hall and allow reconstruction of a dilapidated Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) building.
“What happens with a building that has been deemed heritage property (Darke Hall) when nobody’s got any money to maintain it?” asks Ken Dockham, retired Wascana Centre Authority director of operations. “I think that the right decision was made.”
But Lorraine Weidner, speaking at a June protest against Conexus, offers the counterpoint: “Any commercial interests are not good in the park ... The park is owned by the people. We pay for the park.”
Both sides are left searching for what the Wascana Centre’s founders were thinking.
From the provincial government and the Legislative Library to the archives and a local historian, the Leader-post digs deep into the history of Regina’s beloved park.
Uncovering the story of Wascana Centre is no easy task, with some original documents — like a copy of the park’s 1962 master plan — proving elusive.
After a hunt across the city and provincial archives, the Provincial Capital Commission (PCC), and the U of R, Leader-post, Legislative and public libraries, the closest to that original document was a 1977 printing of a 1962 report, unearthed at the Legislative Library. But still the pieces came together.
For more than 70 years — from 1913 to 1987 — the focus of planning around Wascana Lake was on development, expansion and construction. The Wascana Centre and CBC Saskatchewan headquarters were built, a restaurant was established, the CNIB building went up and plans were laid for the Saskatchewan Science Centre to be created in the old city power plant.
Then the 1987 Wascana Centre Master Plan saw a shift in thinking, with concerns raised about potential over-development of the park.
But let’s backtrack and take a look at those first 74 years.
The official opening of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building and the first building of the College Avenue Campus made 1912 a dramatic year on the then rather bare park landscape. A year later, English landscape architect Thomas Mawson was hired to prepare a plan for the Legislative grounds.
Mawson’s plan outlined a lane of buildings to the south of the Legislative Building and a number of structures along College Avenue. The plan was generally well received, but the First World War put park development on the back burner.
The next move was the city’s 1927 Zoning Plan, which carried the park for 20 years and saw Darke Hall built in 1929.
In 1948, the city released a new plan intended to guide development until the 1970s, but this was interrupted by the University of Saskatchewan’s hunt for a Regina campus location in the ’60s.
From this search was born the idea of creating Wascana Centre.
In 1962 the Wascana Centre Act formally created the Wascana Centre Authority ( WCA), bringing the provincial government, City of Regina and then University of Saskatchewan Regina Campus together into a single, autonomous park-governing body.
That same year, architect planner Minoru Yamasaki and landscape adviser Thomas Church drafted the first Wascana Centre Master Plan. It carried over much of Mawson’s design and included the Museum of Natural History (now the Royal Saskatchewan Museum) that had already been built. It also made several development proposals, including another museum, two restaurants, an aquarium and a 3,000-seat auditorium. A new university campus plan in the institution’s current location was also outlined.
Years of master plans focusing on development followed, but 1987 brought changes as the public raised concerns about overdevelopment.
“At the centre of the (Wascana Centre Act) agreement was a vision of Wascana Centre as a series of institutional development sites distinguished and linked by a well developed landscape,” reads the 1987 plan.
“However, the fear has risen that this vision means unlimited development ... The concern is that the original vision of the Centre places an undue value upon development, and that the role of the Centre as a community and regional recreational resource is thereby threatened,” it went on to say.
To address this worry, the 1987 plan said open spaces could be given a “land use status,” reserving them specifically for recreation or another use and taking them off the table for other future developments.
Since then, the master plan has recognized the importance of balancing open space with development, with minor amendments made as development changes and progresses.
The Provincial Capital Commission, which announced its takeover of the WCA in March 2017, has committed itself to the master plans and the continuation of them as expressed in the Provincial Capital Commission Act.
This is the gem of the city. It’s the most beautiful thing we’ve got in Regina, and now they’re trying to take it away from us.
LORRAINE WEIDNER, protester
Development in Wascana Centre is guided by five key purposes. As set out in the 1977 Master Plan — the furthest back the Leader-post could find mention of them—the purposes are: Development of the seat of government, enlargement of educational opportunities, advancement of the cultural arts and improvement of recreational facilities. Conservation of the environment was later added. These same purposes are still listed in the most recent master plan, released in 2016.
Nothing in any of the master plans specifically bars commercial interests in Wascana Centre, as long as the enterprise falls under one or more of the key development purposes.
Commercial interests in the park are not new, said Bill Brennan, are-tired U of R history professor who sat on the Wascana Centre Authority Heritage Property Advisory Committee from 1988 until 2011.
He noted a restaurant was established in Wascana Centre in 1975 to welcome visitors to the first Western Canada Summer Games, hosted in Regina. After some changes, that business has been the Willow on Wascana since 2004.
Ken Dockham worked for the WCA for 39 years, first as a landscape architect and then as director of operations for 20 years until his retirement in 2012.
“There were always comments about ... should we allow a commercial enterprise of some kind in the park,” he said.
“If it was something that the ( Wascana Centre) Authority board thought would benefit the public and be consistent with one of those original purposes, like recreation or something like that, then they might be able to.”
But he added that “commercialization was not something that anybody (at the WCA) wanted.”
He cited the CBC Saskatchewan headquarters and the Soundstage as examples of long-standing commercial interests in the park.
The CBC opened in 1982 after getting approval from the WCA. The 1977 master plan states, “Plans have been approved by the Authority for the construction of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Headquarters and Production Studios in the cultural area of Wascana Centre. This is expected to expand the present opportunities for performances in the cultural arts.”
“There were people that said, ‘Wait a minute, you’re going to permit the cbc to build a building in Wascana Centre ?’ One of the original purposes was culture,” said Dockham. “That’s how the CBC ended up there, and that’s how the Soundstage eventually got approved.”
Opened in 2002, the Soundstage is a commercial film and television production facility occupying the old Normal School, a heritage building dating back to 1914 along College Ave.
The Normal School “badly needed an ongoing use to maintain it,” stated the 2006 plan, but the WCA had struggled to find a use suited to the centre. in the end, the soundstage made the cut.
“A commercial sound stage has been approved ... on the basis that the preservation of an architecturally and historically important building could be seen as serving two of the purposes defined by the (Wascana Centre) Act,” reads the plan. The two purposes given were the advancement of the cultural arts and furthering educational opportunities.
It went on to note that “similar reasoning ” was used to justify the restaurant and the tenants of the Regina Research Park — part of the U of R campus—both also considered commercial interests.
Protests have greeted approvals of both Conexus Credit Union’s construction and the Brandt Industries building in partnership with the CNIB.
The U of R sent out a request for proposals to help with its College Avenue Campus renewal project in January of 2016, and Conexus answered the call. The partnership between the cash-strapped university and the financial institution will see Conexus contribute up to $8.25 million toward the renewal of the College Avenue Campus. In turn, the agreement includes a proposed 80,000-square-foot building for Conexus immediately west of dark eh all and east of wascana Drive; plans for a business incubator site; and Conexus contributing separately to upgrades at darke hall.
The WCA approved the project in December of 2016, with opponents crying foul.
Florence Stratton, a mainstay of the protests, said corporate interests have no place in Wascana Centre. “It’s a public park, and it should not be commercialized by big businesses. that’ s, in my view, a form of privatization,” she said.
“The Conexus deal with the university — it’s opened the floodgates for other such commercial developments, and Brandt has already been approved.”
Stratton clarified that she has no objection to public institutions like the CBC being in the park. It’s the private enterprises to which she’s opposed.
Lorraine Weidner agreed, speaking out during a protest in June. “This is the gem of the city. it’s the most beautiful thing we’ve got in Regina, and now they’re trying to take it away from us ,” she said.
But Conexus CEO Eric Dillon contends its new building fits with- in the five key purposes required by the centre’ s master plan and that it will contribute to the park.
“We just saw the university’s request as being super consistent with the master plan and ... we’ve been held to a pretty high standard in demonstrating how our project would meet some of the criteria of the master plan in supporting arts and culture and supporting continuing education,” he said.
“I think it absolutely contributes to what those guidelines (are),” added Dillon. “That was the only reason that we chose to even enter into the partnership with the university.”
Dockham isn’t quite as convinced that Conexus fits these key purposes. “If you just look at Conexus as a stand-alone, it probably is not consistent with the parameters of Wascana Centre,” he said. “What kind of public benefit is that going to be? None.”
But some kind of trade-off was required to restore Darke Hall, said Dockham, so he believes bringing in Conexus, although a tough decision, was the right decision.
“I’m not that upset,” he said. “I was involved with architectural and engineering reviews of the College Avenue Campus for years and years and years, and those buildings ... were in rough shape. And there was really no one with enough money to do the kind of restoration that was required.”
His only concern is that Conexus will prove to be a foot in the door, paving the way for other commercial interests not inline with the Wascana Centre’s stated purposes to enter the park.
But Brennan is less convinced this is the beginning of a slippery slope into commercialization.
“There’s been a restaurant operating in the park since (1975), and I don’ t see a bunch of other restaurants being built in the park too ,” he said.
“(Conexus is) going to end all the shortcomings of Darke Hall. There’ll be bathrooms on the main floor, there’ll be a place for people to congregate during intermission, which there hasn’t been to this point. They’ll be able to install a new heating system — all the things that Darke Hall needs to succeed.”
The new CNIB building in partnership with Brandt Developments has also faced public outcry.
The CNIB was seeking a funding partner to revamp its existing, 63-year-old building in Wascana Centre after it was condemned for safety reasons. Brandt became that partner, and the project was approved by the PCC this March.
The new building ’s footprint will be the same size as the existing facility, but will be one-and-a-half storeys taller. Brandt will own the building, and provide space for free to the CNIB, and also lease space to tenants.
The Leader-post recently reached out to Brandt for comment, but no one was available. In March, Shaun Semple, president of Brandt Group of Companies, said, “Like any project, not 100 per cent of the people are always in favour, but this one, when you consider the thousands of people ... that will have the benefit of this new facility, it really is supported widely in the community.”
Richard Murray is the province’s deputy minister of Central Services, which oversees the PCC. He noted every development proposal has to be submitted in writing to the PCC (or before 2017, to the WCA).
He said the Brandt project is different from Conexus because the original CNIB building was in the park before the WCA was formed, exempting it from some of the current use regulations.
“It was built in 1956 when none of those things were in place, so it was acknowledged that it’s a nonconforming use, but it’s a use that is in the park,” said Murray. “In a way you can see it as being grandfathered .”
Protesters have raised concerns over what type of tenants brandt might allow. The PCC has final approval of tenants and will consider these based on the key purposes of the park, Murray said, adding enterprises like retail stores or fastfood outlets would not be allowed.
“We love our park and I think folks want to make sure that the park remains a park and can be enjoyed by themselves and their families and the public forever. There is development, yes, and that development I don’t think makes any of that go away,” he said.
As for what the future may hold, Murray said there are currently no new commercial enterprises being considered in Wascana Centre.
There’s been a restaurant operating in the park since (1975), and I don’t see a bunch of other restaurants being built in the park too. (Conexus is) going to end all the shortcomings of Darke Hall.