HOW TO DO YOUR PART TO KEEP REGINA GROWING
I moved to Regina from Alberta in 1992. This was a time when Saskatchewan and Regina citizens were moving to Alberta in record numbers, especially young people. Most of my friends in Calgary and Edmonton asked, “Why on earth are you moving to Regina? They seem to all be moving here.”
What was even worse was when I arrived in Regina, most local people I met would ask, “Why on earth would you be moving to Regina? Don’t you know everyone is moving there?”
What I saw in Regina in 1992 seemed to be very different than what I experienced in several much larger cities of the time. Regina provided those who wanted to make a go of it here opportunity blended with a great quality of life. In other centres it seemed to me that you had to make more of a choice between opportunity and quality of life.
It was a great decision to move to Regina in 1992, as I have watched this city continue to get better and better every year since. This has been especially true in the past decade, where the transition of our city has been remarkable. The growth of our city has created so much opportunity and our civic pride has grown with it. I no longer hear Regina citizens ask why people would move here. Instead I hear and see people welcomed and encouraged to stay.
As a city, we should be proud of how far we’ve come and excited for where we’re headed. After all, we are on track to become one of Canada’s greatest cities. This did not happen by accident. It happened because our city grew, and with growth came the opportunity of reimagining our city.
Regina’s growth has meant more jobs so families can stay right here. For local business, growth has meant more customers, making a whole lot of business more viable, which has led to more choices for all of us. Growth has meant new homes and neighbourhoods to welcome new families and create the opportunity for existing Regina citizens to move into a new home, because there was someone to buy their existing home. The new neighbourhoods have added significant new park and green space to our community that all can choose to use. We have more health care options as our growing city attracted more health care professionals. I am blown away at the amount of small entrepreneurial business that has opened, especially in the last five years. The revitalizing of our downtown has been remarkable. More restaurants, more shops, more business, more homes, more cultural events, more innovation and more of a lot of great things. Ultimately it has led to a higher standard of living for the majority of Regina citizens.
I will be the first to admit that the growth of our city does create other challenges and the benefits are not distributed completely equitably. Housing has become significantly more expensive, but that is not solely because of growth, mostly it is simply more expensive to build a home. Traffic is an increasing problem, but putting the brake on growth will not fix that problem, planning and investing in transportation solutions solves traffic problems. It is true, growth benefits some more than others, but at least with a growing city the opportunity to continue to improve the standard of living for Regina citizens exists. I challenge anyone to find an example of a city that is losing population that is also increasing the standard of living of their citizens at the same time.
We should not take the growth of our city for granted. We have experienced a lot of growth over the past decade and it is easy for our city to assume that will just continue under its own perpetual momentum. This I can assure you is not true. Growth is precious and it requires our leaders and our citizens to believe growth is important. If you don’t agree, close your eyes and picture Regina 20 years ago. Now open them and look at how far we’ve come. Going backwards doesn’t make much sense.
The Regina & Region Home Builders Association and the Regina Chamber of Commerce have started an initiative to better discuss growth in our community and share some of the positive aspects and challenges when our city continues to grow. From now until the municipal election on Oct.26, we are hoping Regina voters will join a movement to promote the growth in our great city to the leaders who will take office.
If you believe your employment, business, family and lifestyle are positively impacted when our community grows you can participate and learn more at www. KeepReginaGrowing.ca. At this website there is an opportunity to join the movement and share how you see the growth of our community. Another step you can take, when candidates in the upcoming municipal election bang on your door or shake your hand, let them know you want to see policies and practices in Regina that keep the city growing and not act as a brake on investment in the community. In addition we will also be inviting all city council candidates to share their ideas on how they will Keep Regina Growing, with the opportunity to share those views publicly.
So let’s keep Regina growing. In this upcoming municipal election be sure to vote for growth. For more information visit www. KeepReginaGrowing.ca.
As a city, we should be proud of how far we’ve come and excited for where we’re headed. … we are on track to become one of Canada’s greatest cities.