REAL aiming to become self-sustaining by 2020
Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) is reducing funding requested from the city for 2019 by 50 per cent, in what it hopes is a step toward self-sustainability by 2020.
Instead of the $400,000 in funding that REAL — the non-profit corporation that runs Evraz Place — requested from the city in 2018 for operating costs, it has requested $200,000.
“What we’re trying to do internally is to push ourselves as efficiently as we possibly can and I think if we do that, we should be able to contribute back to the city versus necessarily draw from it all the time,” REAL president and CEO Tim Reid said in an interview Thursday.
On Friday morning, the city is expected to hold a news conference to reveal its proposed overall operating and capital budget for 2019.
But earlier this week, organizations that rely on city funding like REAL, the Provincial Capital Commission (PCC) and Economic Development Regina (EDR), were at an executive committee meeting submitting their budget requests.
At that meeting, Reid said he hopes their $200,000 request will go down to zero by 2020.
“Technically the city owns all the assets, all the land and us as an organization,” he said.
“But we’ve been built as an arm’s-length entity for the purpose of being entrepreneurial and driving greater economic good for our city.”
He says it still needs the city’s help to do that, just not through direct financing.
Reid hopes a strong partnership with the city in a couple of key areas will pave the road for success, including helping REAL build a long-term plan for the site that drives increased revenue and investing in drawing and hosting major events and large attractions.
A big part of that is connecting downtown Regina and other parts of the city to Evraz Place, making it easier to travel to and from events.
“How do we connect to our hotels that are downtown or in other parts of the city?” said Reid. “But I’d even expand on that to how do we connect with restaurants in other parts of the city, how do we connect to the airport?”
He said with limited parking and transit buses in Regina, “finding ways for alternative access to our site is of critical importance.”
In late October, REAL launched a campaign branded Evraz Place 2.0 that will rely on open houses, social media and a public survey to reach an anticipated 5,000 people or more and gather ideas for the future of Evraz Place.
Reid hopes the campaign will go a long way toward developing a long-term strategy for selfsustainability.
The Regina Public Library also presented at Wednesday’s meeting, requesting a modest mill rate increase of 1.8 per cent.
“There’s an overall increase in the cost of doing business,” RPL board chair Sean Quinlan said of why the increase was requested.
He said it will also help fund a number of 2019 initiatives, including developing a risk management framework that will lead into their internal audit process for 2019, an expansion of their physical collection and more.
In 2018, RPL started a pilot program that saw the library open on statutory holidays.
“We’re going to continue that program into 2019 so that our customers can access library programs and services,” said Quinlan.
He said an average household will only see a $3.31 increase to their property taxes if the mill rate increase is approved by city council.
Last year the RPL did not request any change in the mill rate, which was the first time in almost a decade.