Tim Reid talks Experience Regina for the first time since report

It was a few weeks ago that the final report came out about the Experience Regina incident, but the CEO of Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) only spoke about it for the first time this week.

When asked questions about it, Tim Reid said he was going to be cautious in commenting.

“Without a doubt, this hasn’t been an easy process but I think it is a process and I think it’s an important one,” he said.

Reid wouldn’t say whether he thought the report was good or bad, and said it was up to REAL’s board of directors and other leaders to make decisions on outcomes.

“What I can say is I think I was able to participate in the process freely, I think we provided as much information as I had available to me and I would say we were fully disclosed,” explained Reid.

He said he was pleased there were some recommendations that came out of it.

“They’re never easy processes but it’s where you get that matters the most,” said Reid.

The rebranding of Tourism Regina to Experience Regina was announced March 16, but people quickly started complaining about slogans like “Show us your Regina” and “The city that rhymes with fun.”

The online response prompted Reid to issue an apology and Mayor Sandra Masters to call the messaging “tone deaf.” An independent consultant, George Cuff, was hired to examine the fiasco and issue a report.

In response to those who feel the report’s scope wasn’t wide enough, Reid said the investigators have “fulsome” terms of reference.

“I think the boundaries were fairly wide on what Mr. Cuff could review,” Reid said.

As for the sexualized slogans themselves, Reid said REAL and Tourism Regina engaged with almost 30 organizations and didn’t get any feedback telling them to stop going in that direction.

“(That) actually may have been part of the problem and it was something that we should have recognized,” said Reid.