Four Sask. players named to Canada world junior hockey championship team
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Berkly Catton, Brayden Yager, Caden Price and Tanner Howe were all named.
The timeline’s not clear yet but, thanks to a gift from the City of Regina, the YWCA has the land for its new, bigger and better, centre.
At Wednesday night’s city council meeting – a continuation of Monday night’s – council approved a gift to the association of the land at 1915 and 1955 Retallack Street. That’s the land in the Cathedral neighbourhood where Lucy Eley Park is and where the old Victoria Campus used to be.
The YWCA will build a new centre there which will allow it to continue the services it currently offers – helping women who are fleeing violence or homelessness – but it will also allow the association to add more.
Melissa Coomber-Bendtsen is the CEO of the YWCA. She was at Wednesday’s meeting and spoke to council about the gift. She said they hope to make the new centre a community hub, which will be designed around traditional indigenous healing and ceremony.
“So there’ll be ceremonial space for the community to use and gathering space as well.”
The hope is the YWCA will be able to house other community partners within in the building to offer their services together. Coomber-Bendtsen said Regina Mobile Crisis has already committed to a partnership.
“The most exciting piece is that now that we have the land is we can start actually looking at designing the space and figuring out what are some of the elements that come into it.”
Coomber-Bendtsen said they’re hoping the community will have a part in the project’s design.
Speakers from several different groups were at the council meeting to speak in favour of the new centre and the work it will do: REACH, All Nations Hope Network, Mobile Crisis, and the Regina Sexual Assault Centre.
Coomber-Bendtsen said the gift from the city is encouraging.
“The commitment from the city and the value that they see in our project and the kind of impact that it can have in the community is validated through a process like this.”
Mayor Michael Fougere called the new building a wonderful project, especially with the community hub element.
“This kind of focus on resources, I think, is leadership by the community, by the YWCA and their partners, and I think council has accepted that as being a great project.”
The YWCA is hoping for funding from the provincial and federal governments this spring. It will also have to do community fundraising for the project.
The land the current YWCA building is on was originally a gift from the City of Regina, with a caveat that when the association relocated, then it would be sold back to the city for $1.
The land on Retallack street is worth about $2 million dollars, according to a report from city administration.
Other work for city council
On Wednesday night, council cleaned up everything it had left over from the meeting on Monday night.
It approved $150,000 dollars to go to the Regina Exhibition Association Limited’s (REAL) hosting the outdoor NHL game in the city – $100,000 in cash and $50,000 in city services.
Tim Reid from REAL was at the meeting and said the event would go ahead with or without the money from the city, but the money would also show the city’s support of the event.
Mayor Michael Fougere agreed, saying $150,000 is a normal amount to give for an event like this.
Sticking with sports, city council also accepted the Recreation Master Plan, which gives an idea of the future of recreation in Regina.
With an amendment from Fougere, council also decided to send a letter to federal and provincial ministers to start discussions on infrastructure funding specifically for recreation.
“It is about building cities, you’re building cities, you’re building the country, you’re building the quality of life that attracts people here – it’s part of why people want to be in Regina, in cities – and it is one example of that,” explained Fougere.
Also on the agenda was a change to the Regina Community Standards Bylaw regarding parking on front lawns.
Brian Black stood to speak at the meeting about parking. He said he lives in the neighbourhood near the University and Sask Polytechnic and with an increase in rental properties along with students from the two schools, parking is a problem there.
He agreed with the change, saying some people in that area have taken to parking on their lawns because they can’t find parking on the street.
City council approved the addition to the bylaw of an offense for parking on any area of the front yard that isn’t a driveway. The necessary bylaw amendment is now being prepared.