Regina, Saskatchewan

Regina is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province and a cultural and commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. It is governed by Regina City Council. Regina is the cathedral city of the Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox Dioceses of Regina and the Anglican Diocese of Qu'Appelle. Citizens of Regina are referred to as Reginans. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Sherwood No. 159. In 2013, Regina was named the 6th best Canadian mid-sized city (17th best overall) in which to live by MoneySense magazine.

Regina was previously the seat of government of the North-West Territories, of which the current provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta originally formed part, and of the District of Assiniboia. It was named in 1882 after Queen Victoria, Victoria Regina, by her daughter Princess Louise, wife of the Marquess of Lorne, then the Governor General of Canada.

Unlike other planned cities in the Canadian West, on its treeless flat plain Regina had few topographical features other than the small spring run-off Wascana Creek. Early planners took advantage of such opportunity by damming the creek to create a decorative lake to the south of the central business district with a dam a block and a half west of the later elaborate 840 ft long Albert Street Bridge across the new lake. Regina's importance was further secured when the new province of Saskatchewan designated the city its capital in 1906. Wascana Centre, created around the focal point of Wascana Lake, remains Regina's signal attraction and contains the Provincial Legislative Building, both campuses of the University of Regina, the provincial museum of natural history, the Regina Conservatory (in the original Regina College buildings), the Saskatchewan Science Centre, the Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery and the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts.

Residential neighbourhoods in Regina are largely indistinguishable from those in other western Canadian cities, but several precincts beyond the historic city centre are historically or socially noteworthy - namely Lakeview and The Crescents both of which lie directly south of downtown. Immediately to the north of the central business district is the old warehouse district, increasingly the focus of shopping and residential development; as in other western cities of North America, the periphery contains shopping malls and big box stores.

In 1912, the Regina Cyclone destroyed much of the town; in the 1930s, the Regina Riot brought further attention and, in the midst of the 1930s drought and Great Depression, which hit the Canadian Prairies particularly hard with their economic focus on dryland grain farming. The CCF (now the NDP, a major left-wing political party in Canada), formulated its foundation Regina Manifesto, 1933 in Regina. In recent years, Saskatchewan's agricultural and mineral resources have come into new demand, and it is widely expected to enter a new period of strong economic growth.

Founding
Regina was established in 1882 when it became clear that Edgar Dewdney, the lieutenant-governor of the North-West Territories, eschewed the previously established and considered Battleford, Troy and Fort Qu'Appelle (the latter two both some 30 mi to the east), as the territorial seat of government: these were widely considered more amiable locations for what was anticipated would be a far more major metropole for the Canadian plains than actually eventuated, situated as they were in amply watered and treed rolling parklands whereas "Pile-of-Bones," as the site was then called, was in the midst of arid and featureless grassland.



Lieutenant-Governor Dewdney had acquired land adjacent to the route of the future CPR line at Pile-of-Bones, which was distinguished only by collections of bison bones near a small spring run-off creek, some few kilometres downstream from its origin in the midst of what are now wheat fields. There was an "obvious conflict of interest" in Dewdney's choosing the site of Pile-of-Bones as the territorial seat of government. and it was a national scandal at the time. But until 1897, when responsible government was accomplished in the Territories, the lieutenant-governor and council governed by fiat and there was little legitimate means of challenging such decisions outside the federal capital of Ottawa. There, the Territories were remote and of little concern. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, wife of the then Governor General of Canada, named the new community Regina, after her mother, the Queen.

Commercial considerations prevailed and the town's authentic development soon began as a collection of wooden shanties and tent shacks clustered around the site designated by the CPR for its future station, some two miles (3 km) to the east of where Dewdney had reserved substantial landholdings for himself and where he sited the Territorial (now the Saskatchewan) Government House.

North-West ("Saskatchewan") Rebellion
Regina attained national prominence in 1885 during the North-West Rebellion when troops were mostly able to be transported by train on the CPR from eastern Canada as far as Qu'Appelle Station, before marching to the battlefield in the further Northwest – Qu'Appelle having been the major debarkation and distribution centre until 1890 when the completion of the Qu’Appelle, Long Lake, and Saskatchewan Railway linked Regina with Saskatoon and Prince Albert. Subsequently, the rebellion's leader, Louis Riel, was tried and hanged in Regina – giving the infant community increased and, at the time, not unwelcome national attention in connection with a figure who was generally at the time considered an unalloyed villain in anglophone Canada. The episode, including Riel's imprisonment, trial and execution, brought the new Regina Leader, later the "Leader-Post," to national prominence.

Incorporation
Regina was incorporated as a city on 19 June 1903, and was proclaimed the capital of the 1905 province of Saskatchewan on 23 May 1906, by the first provincial government, led by Premier Walter Scott; the monumental Saskatchewan Legislative Building was built between 1908 and 1912.

"Regina Cyclone"
The "Regina Cyclone" was a tornado which devastated the city 30 June 1912 and remains the deadliest tornado in Canadian history, with a total of 28 fatalities, the population of the city having been 30,213 in 1911. Green funnel clouds formed and touched down south of the city, tearing a swath through the residential area between Wascana Lake and Victoria Avenue, continuing through the downtown business district, rail yards, warehouse district, and northern residential area.

The Thirties
Regina grew rapidly until the beginning of the Great Depression, in 1929, though only to a small fraction of the originally anticipated population explosion as population centre of the new province. By this time, Saskatchewan was considered the third province of Canada in both population and economic indicators. Thereafter, Saskatchewan never recovered its early promise and Regina's growth slowed and at times reversed. In 1935, Regina gained notoriety for the Regina Riot, an incident of the On-to-Ottawa Trek. (See The Depression, the CCF and the Regina Riot.) Beginning in the 1930s, Regina became known as a centre of considerable political activism and experiment as its people sought to adjust to new, reduced economic realities.

And also see List of neighbourhoods in Regina, Saskatchewan

Post-World War II
The disappearance of the Simpson's, Eaton's and Army & Navy retail department stores in or near the central business district and Simpsons-Sears to the north on Broad Street, left only the Hudson's Bay Company as a large department store in Regina-centre. This with the proliferation of shopping malls beginning in the 1960s and "big box stores" on the '90s on the periphery, together with a corresponding drift of entertainment venues (and all but one downtown cinema) to the city outskirts, had depleted the city centre. The former Hudson's Bay Company department store (previously the site of the Regina Theatre) has been converted into offices; Globe Theatre, located in the old Post Office building at 11th Avenue and Scarth Street, Casino Regina and its show lounge in the old CPR train station, the Cornwall Centre and downtown restaurants now draw people downtown again.



Many buildings of significance and value were lost during the period from 1945 through approximately 1970: Knox United Church was demolished in 1951; the Romanesque Revival city hall in 1964 (the failed shopping mall which replaced it is now office space for the Government of Canada ) and the 1894 Supreme Court of the North-West Territories building at Hamilton Street and Victoria Avenue in 1965. More recently older buildings have been put to new uses, including the old Normal School on the Regina College campus of the University of Regina (now the Canada Saskatchewan Production Studios) and the old Post Office on the Scarth Street Mall. The Warehouse District, immediately adjacent to the central business district to the north of the CPR line, has become a desirable commercial and residential precinct as historic warehouses have been converted to retail and residential use. The long-imperilled Government House was saved in 1981 after decades of neglect and returned to viceregal use, the former Anglican diocesan property at Broad Street and College Avenue is being redeveloped with strict covenants to maintain the integrity of the diocesan buildings and St Chad's School and the former Sacred Heart Academy building immediately adjacent to the Roman Catholic Cathedral has been converted to tony townhouses.

Events of national political importance which occurred in Regina include
 * the trial of Louis Riel (followed by Riel's execution) in July 1885;
 * the adoption in 1933 by the new CCF (now the NDP) of the Regina Manifesto, which set out the new party's goals;
 * the Regina Riot on 1 July 1935;
 * the 1944 election of the CCF under T.C. Douglas, the first social democratic government in North America and a pioneer of numerous social programs – notably of course Medicare – which were later adopted in other provinces and nationally; and
 * the Saskatchewan Doctors' Strike in 1962 when medical doctors withheld their services in response to the introduction of Medicare with the enactment of the Medical Care Insurance Act, 1961 (Sask.)

Geography and climate
The city is situated on a broad, flat, treeless and largely waterless plain – at the time of its founding, a matter of national scandal and notoriety as to corrupt dealings at the time, since it is immediately adjacent to amply watered and treed rolling parklands.

There is an abundance of parks and greenspaces: all of its trees — some 300,000 — shrubs and other plants were hand-planted. As in other prairie cities, American elms were planted in front yards in residential neighbourhoods and on boulevards along major traffic arteries and are the dominant species in the urban forest.

In recent years the pattern of primary and high school grounds being acreages of barren prairie sports grounds has been re-thought and such grounds have been landscaped with artificial hills and parks. Newer residential subdivisions in the northwest and southeast have, instead of spring runoff storm sewers, decorative landscaped lagoons.

The streetscape is now endangered by Dutch elm disease, which has spread through North America from the eastern seaboard and has now reached the Canadian prairies; for the time being it is controlled by intense pest management programs and species not susceptible to the disease are being planted; the disease has the potential to wipe out Regina's entire elm population.

Climate
Regina experiences a dry humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb, USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 2a ) with warm summers and cold, dry winters, prone to extremes at all times of the year. Average annual precipitation is 388 mm and is heaviest from June through August, with June being the wettest month with an average of 75 mm of precipitation. The average daily temperature for the year is 2.8 C. The lowest temperature ever recorded was −50.0 C on 1 January 1885, while the highest recorded temperature was 43.3 C on 5 July 1937.

Demographics
In absolute numbers of Aboriginal population, Regina ranks seventh among Census Metropolitan Areas in Canada with an "Aboriginal-identity population of 15,685 (8.3% of the total city population), of which 9,200 were First Nations, 5,990 Métis, and 495 other Aboriginal."

2011
According to the 2011 Canadian Census, the population of Regina is 193,100, a 7.7% increased from 2006. The population density is 1,327.6 people per square km. The median age is 37.1 years old; 48.5 for women and 38.5 for men, which is lower then the median age of Canada at 40.6 years old.

Most residents in Regina can speak English (98.1%), and only a small number can speak French (1.3%). 12.3% of the populations mother tongue was something other then English or French; German (1.4%), Tagalog (1.3%), Chinese (1.0%), Ukrainian (0.8%), Urdu (0.6%), Punjabi (0.5%), Spanish (0.5%) and Vietnamese (0.5%)

According to the 2011 National Household Survey, 94.0% of Regina residents are Canadian citizens, and about 5.5% of residents are recent immigrants (from 2001 to 2011). The racial make up of Regina is White (78.6%), Aboriginal (9.9%); First Nations (5.8%) and Metis (3.9%), Southeast Asian (3.5%), South Asian (2.6%), East Asian (2.2%), Black (1.6%), Latin American (0.7%) and Arab & West Asian (0.6%).

Religiously speaking, 27.1% of Regina's population does not affiliate with any religion. For those who do, the religious make up is Christian (67.9%), Muslim (1.9%), Hindu (0.8%), Sikh (0.5%), Aboriginal Spirituality (0.5%) and Jewish (0.2%).

As far as education goes, for those who are 25 to 64 years old, the highest levels of education are as followed; 61.6% of people have a post-secondary schooling degree, 27.6% have a high school degree (or equivalent too) and 10.8% have nothing. The unemployment rate is 5.0% in Regina which is lower then the national average at 7.8%. The median household income before taxes is $69,192, and after taxes at $59,727, which is a bit higher then the national average at $54,089.

There are 83,179 dwellings with an occupancy rate of 95.7%. The median value of a household in Regina is $299,748 which is about $20,000 higher then the national average at $280,552.

Religion
The 2006 Census reported
 * Protestant, including United, Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian and several others, being professed by 41.5% of the total population;


 * Roman Catholic, 32.3%;


 * Eastern Orthodox, 1.8%;


 * other Christian denominations (including Oriental Orthodox, Jehovah's Witness, and Mormonism), and other religions (including Sikhism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism) (the very large synagogue on Victoria Avenue at Osler Street is long closed and replaced by a small one in south Regina with no resident Rabbi, this accounted for by Regina Jews moving elsewhere for better business opportunities but it at least as substantially due to substantial marriage of Regina Jewish men to gentile women going back well over a half century), 2.9%;


 * no specific religious affiliation professed, 19%.

Considerable ecumenical engagement of assorted Christian denominations pertained in the latter part of the 20th century; as religious commitment has waned in the general population apparent from the latter 1960s, some churches and clergy have withdrawn from such mutual engagement, while numerous United and Anglican churches have closed as elsewhere in Canada, through shifting of both ethnicity and economic vitality of various sub-communities, notwithstanding social interaction and intermarriage in Regina as in other Canadian cities. It is clear that the declaration of no specific religious affiliation, clearly growing by the late 1960s, is increasingly substantial, doubtless as elsewhere in Canada. The once-significant synagogue on Victoria Avenue and Osler Street is long-closed, the reduced Jewish population often having been attributed to moving elsewhere to pursue economic opportunities, but certainly being at least equally attributable to inter-marriage with fellow irreligious western Canadians.

Neighbourhoods
Residential areas, apart from the remaining residential portion of the original town between the CPR tracks and Wascana Lake to the immediate south of the central business district, are largely typical of western Canadian cities: unremarkable post-World War II single-family dwellings on substantial lots. Some neighbourhoods of note include:
 * 1) the downtown business district (latterly and — to those acquainted with Regina history — confusingly) deemed "Market Square";
 * 2) the West End (latterly deemed the "Cathedral Area");
 * 3) the historic and affluent Crescents area, immediately to the north of Wascana Creek west of the Albert Street bridge and dam which creates Wascana Lake);
 * 4) Germantown, originally an impoverished and ill-serviced ghetto of continental Europeans;
 * 5) Lakeview, adjacent to the provincial Legislative Building and office buildings, a neighbourhood of imposing mansions dating from the before the First World War through the post-War '20s boom; and
 * 6) the Warehouse District, formerly the reception zone for freight arriving from eastern Canada and the USA for sale by Regina wholesalers, and latterly, with the eclipse of rail shipping, being redeveloped as desirable residential accommodation, upscale restaurants and fashionable shopping precincts.

Crime rates
Though somewhat high by Canadian standards, crime rate in Regina for 2008 was the lowest in ten years according to statistics released by the Regina Police Service. Criminal Code offences in Regina totaled 21,942 in 2008. In 1999, there were approximately 16,000 crimes for every 100,000 people, compared to 15,400 in 2003 and 11,500 in 2008. While the rates are still high compared to national averages, crime numbers decreased in areas including motor vehicle thefts, break and enters to residences, thefts, robberies, assaults and sexual assaults, but were up for mischief and break and enters to nonresidence structures like sheds and unattached garages.

Police Services
The Regina Police Service is the primary police service for the city of Regina and holds both Municipal and Provincial Jurisdiction. The following services also hold jurisdiction in the city and are in partnership: Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canadian National Railway Police Service and the Canadian Pacific Railway Police Service.

Economy
Oil and natural gas, potash, kaolin, sodium sulphite and bentonite contribute a great part of Regina and area's economy. The completion of the train link between eastern Canada and the then-District of Assiniboia in 1885, the development of the high-yielding and early-maturing Marquis strain of wheat and the opening of new grain markets in the United Kingdom established the first impetus for economic development and substantial population settlement. The farm and agricultural component is still a significant part of the economy – the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool (now Viterra Inc., ), "the world's largest grain-handling co-operative" has its headquarters in Regina — but it is no longer the major driver; provincially it has slipped to eighth overall, well behind the natural resources sectors.

Modern transport has obviated the development of a significant manufacturing sector and indeed, until recently re-vivified, local petroleum refining facilities: the General Motors assembly plant north on Winnipeg Street, built in 1927 – when Saskatchewan's agricultural economy was booming and briefly made it the third province of Canada after Ontario and Quebec in both population (at just under one million people, roughly the same population as today ) and GDP – ceased production during the depression of the 1930s. It was resumed by the federal crown during World War II and housed Regina Wartime Industries Ltd., where 1,000 people were engaged in armaments manufacture. It was not returned to private automotive manufacture after the war and became derelict. Imperial Oil long maintained a large refinery on the northern outskirts of Regina and IPSCO Inc., a leading world producer of steel plate and pipe and as of July 2007 a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swedish steel company SSAB, began in Regina in 1956 as Prairie Pipe Manufacturing Company Ltd; while the bulk of its assets and customers are now in USA and it has its operational headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, it retains its registered office and substantial manufacturing facilities in Regina. Imperial Oil (the Canadian subsidiary of Standard Oil, now ExxonMobil), for many years maintained a refinery in Regina; today with high world petroleum prices making the exploitation of Saskatchewan oil resources an unprecedentedly lively proposition, Federated Co-op maintains an 103000 oilbbl/d refinery and, together with the Province, an upgrading operation for heavy oil.

Crown Life, a significant Canadian and international insurance company, transferred its national head office from Toronto to Regina in 1996 but was acquired by Canada Life in 1998 and the corporate head office returned to Toronto, though with assurances that the company would retain a strong presence in Regina.

On 19 May 2009 it was announced that Viterra (formerly Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, becoming Viterra after acquisition of Agricore United), the largest grain handler in Canada, would acquire ABB Grain of Adelaide, South Australia in September 2009. The Head Office would be relocated to Regina, with the worldwide malting headquarters remaining in Adelaide. The two companies together are responsible for 37 percent of the world's exports of wheat, canola and barley.

The provincial government continues to be a major driver in the civic economy, though its relative importance is declining. The Regina Research Park immediately adjacent to the University campus hosts several science and technology companies which conduct research activities in conjunction with University departments.

Culture
Regina has a substantial cultural life in music, theatre and dance, supported by the fine arts constituency at the University of Regina, which has faculties of music, theatre and plastic arts. At various times this has attracted notable artistic talent: the Regina Five were artists at Regina College (the University's predecessor) who gained national fame in the 1950s. The long-established MacKenzie Art Gallery once occupied cramped quarters adjacent to Darke Hall on the University of Regina College Avenue Campus; it has long since been relocated to a large building at the southwest corner of the provincial government site, at Albert Street near 23rd Avenue. Donald M. Kendrick, Bob Boyer and Joe Fafard, now with significant international reputations, have been other artists from or once in Regina. The Regina Symphony Orchestra (Canada's oldest continuously performing orchestra ) performs in the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts (now the Conexus Arts Centre). Concerts and recitals are performed both by local and visiting musicians in the Centre of the Arts and assorted other auditoriums including at the University of Regina. The Regina Conservatory of Music operates in the former girls' residence wing of the Regina College building. Annual festivals in and near Regina through the year include the Cathedral Village Arts Festival; the Craven Country Jamboree; the Regina Folk Festival; Queen City Pride; the Regina Dragon Boat Festival; and Mosaic, mounted by the Regina Multicultural Council, which earned Heritage Canada’s designation of 2004 "Cultural Capital of Canada" (in the over 125,000 population category). As in other cities and towns across Canada the annual Kiwanis Music Festival affords rising musical talents the opportunity to achieve nation-wide recognition. The city's summer agricultural exhibition was originally established in 1884 as the Assiniboia Agricultural Association and since the mid-1960s has been styled "Buffalo Days".

Despite "[t]he Regina Little Theatre [having begun] in 1926, and performed in Regina College before building its own theatre in 1981," Regina lacked a large concert and live theatre venue for many years after the loss to fire of the Regina Theatre in 1938 and the demolition of the 1906 City Hall in 1964 at a time when preservation of heritage architecture was not yet a fashionable issue. But until the demolition of downtown cinemas which doubled as live theatres the lack was not urgent, and Darke Hall on the Regina College campus of the university provided a small concert and stage venue. (See Regina's historic buildings and precincts.)

The default was remedied in 1970 with the construction of the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts (now the Conexus Arts Centre) as a Canadian Centennial project, a theatre and concert hall complex overlooking Wascana Lake which is one of the most acoustically perfect concert venues in North America; it is home to the Regina Symphony Orchestra (Canada's oldest continuously performing orchestra ), Opera Saskatchewan and New Dance Horizons, a contemporary dance company. The Royal Saskatchewan Museum (the present 1955 structure a Saskatchewan Golden Jubilee project ) dates from 1906. The old Post Office at Scarth Street and 11th Avenue, temporarily used as a city hall after the demolition of the 1906 City Hall, is now home to the Globe Theatre, founded in 1966 as "Saskatchewan's first professional theatre since 1927." Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Cathedral and Knox-Metropolitan United Church have particularly impressive Casavant Frères pipe organs, maintain substantial musical establishments and are frequently the venues for choral concerts and organ recitals.

The Regina Public Library is a city-wide library system with nine branches. Its facilities include the RPL Film theatre which plays non-mainstream cinema, the Dunlop Art Gallery, special literacy services and a prairie history collection. The Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery in Wascana Centre and the Dunlop Art Gallery have permanent collections and sponsor travelling exhibitions.

Parks and outdoor attractions
Regina has a substantial proportion of its overall area dedicated as parks and greenspaces, with biking paths, cross-country ski-ing venues and other recreational facilities throughout the city; Wascana Lake, the venue for summer boating activities, is regularly cleared of snow in winter for skating and there are toboggan runs both in Wascana Centre and downstream on the banks of Wascana Creek. Victoria Park is in the central business district and numerous greenspaces throughout the residential subdivisions and newer subdivisions in the north and west of the city contain large ornamental ponds to add interest to residential precincts such as Rochdale, Lakewood, Lakeridge, Spruce Meadows and Windsor Park; older school playing fields throughout the city have also been converted into landscaped parks.

The City operates five municipal golf courses, including two in King's Park northeast of the city. Kings Park Recreation facility is also home to ball diamonds, picnic grounds, and stock car racing. Within half an hour's drive are the summer cottage and camping country and winter ski resorts in the Qu'Appelle Valley with Last Mountain and Buffalo Pound Lakes and the four Fishing Lakes of Pasqua, Echo, Mission and Katepwa; slightly farther east are Round and Crooked Lakes, also in the Qu'Appelle Valley, and to the southeast the Kenosee Lake cottage country.

Wascana Centre is a 9.3 km2 park built around Wascana Lake and designed in 1961 by Minoru Yamasaki — the Seattle-born architect best known as the designer of the original World Trade Center in New York – in tandem with his starkly modernist design for the new Regina Campus of the University of Saskatchewan. Wascana Lake was created as a "stock watering hole" — for the CPR's rolling stock, that is – in 1883 when a dam and bridge were constructed 1½ blocks to the west of the present Albert Street Bridge. A new dam and bridge were built in 1908, and Wascana Lake was used as a domestic water source, to cool the city’s power plant and, in due course, for the new provincial legislative building.

By the 1920s, with Boggy Creek as a source of domestic water, Wascana Lake had ceased to have a utilitarian purpose and had become primarily a recreational facility, with bathing and boating its principal uses. It was drained in the 1930s as part of a government relief project; 2,100 men widened and dredged the lake bed and created two islands using only hand tools and horse-drawn wagons.

During the fall and winter of 2003–2004, Wascana Lake was again drained and dredged to deepen it while adding a new island, a promenade area beside Albert Street Bridge, water fountains, and a waterfall to help aerate the lake.

Downstream from Wascana Lake Wascana Creek continues to provide a lush parkland on its increasingly intensively developed perimeter; in the northwest quadrant of the city Wascana Creek has a second weir with a smaller reservoir in A.E. Wilson Park.

Bedroom communities
From its first founding, particularly once motorcars were common, Reginans have repaired to the nearby Qu'Appelle Valley on weekends, for summer and winter holidays and indeed as a place to live permanently and commute from. Since the 1940s, many of the towns near Regina have steadily lost population as western Canada's agrarian economy re-organised itself from small family farm landholdings of a quarter-section (160 acres, the original standard land grant to homesteaders ) to the multi-section (a "section" being 640 acre, one square mile) landholdings that are increasingly necessary for economic viability. Some of these towns have enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance as a result of the excellent roads that for many decades seemed likely to doom them; they – and to some extent the nearby city of Moose Jaw — are now undergoing a mild resurgence as commuter satellites for Regina. Qu'Appelle, at one time intended to be the metropole for the original District of Assiniboia in the North-West Territories (as they then were), enjoyed a temporary reprieve from its inexorable decline during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s when Regina cottagers passed through en route to the Qu'Appelle Valley; Highway 10, which bypassed Qu'Appelle, running directly from Balgonie to Fort Qu'Appelle off Highway Number 1, quickly ended this brief holiday; Fort Qu'Appelle and its neighbouring resort villages on the Fishing Lakes remain a summer vacation venue of choice; Indian Head is far enough from Regina to have an autonomous identity but close enough that its charm and vitality attract commuters – it "has a range of professional services and tradespeople, financial institutions, and a large number of retail establishments." It is the scene of outdoor filming sequences in the CBC television series "Little Mosque on the Prairie." White City and Emerald Park are quasi-suburbs of Regina, as have become Balgonie, Pense, Grand Coulee, Pilot Butte and Lumsden in the Qu'Appelle Valley, some ten miles (16 km) to the north of Regina. Regina Beach — situated on Last Mountain Lake (known locally as Long Lake) and a 30-minute drive from Regina – has been a summer favourite of Reginans from its first establishment and since the 1970s has also become a commuter satellite; Rouleau (also known as the town of Dog River in the CTV television sitcom Corner Gas) is 45 km southwest of Regina and in the summer months "bustles with film crews."

Sports
The Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League, the only professional sports team in Saskatchewan, play their home games at Mosaic Stadium in Regina. Formed in 1910 as the Regina Rugby Club and renamed the Regina Roughriders in 1924 and the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1950, the "Riders" are a community-owned team with a loyal fan support base; every game in the 2008 season was sold out; out-of-town season ticket holders often travel 300-400 kilometres (200–250 mi) or more to attend home games. The team has won the Grey Cup on three occasions, in 1966, 1989, and 2007.

Other sports teams in Regina include the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League, the Regina Thunder of the Canadian Junior Football League, the Prairie Fire of the Rugby Canada Super League, the Regina Red Sox of the Western Major Baseball League, and the University of Regina's Regina Cougars/Regina Rams of the CIS.

Regina's curling teams have distinguished the city for many decades. Richardson Crescent commemorates the Richardson curling team of the 1950s. In recent years Olympic Gold medal winner Sandra Schmirler and her rink occasioned vast civic pride; the Sandra Schmirler Leisure Centre in east Regina commemorates her.

North-east of the city lies Kings Park Speedway, a ⅓-mile paved oval used for stock car racing since the late 1960s. Regina hosted the Western Canada Summer Games in 1975, and again in 1987, as well as being the host city for the 2005 Canada Summer Games.

Visitor attractions
Regina is a travel destination for residents of southeastern Saskatchewan and the immediately adjacent regions of the neighbouring US States of North Dakota and Montana, and an intermediate stopping point for travellers on the Trans-Canada Highway. Attractions for visitors in Regina include:


 * Wascana Centre, a 9.3 square kilometre park around Wascana Lake bringing together lands and buildings containing contains government, recreational, cultural, educational and environmental facilities.
 * the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (a museum of natural history);
 * the Saskatchewan Science Centre, housed in the 1914 Powerhouse on east Wascana Lake;
 * the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery and numerous smaller galleries and museums;
 * the Roman Catholic cathedral on 13th Avenue in the West End, but also perhaps to a somewhat lesser extent the Anglican cathedral in downtown Regina and the Romanian Orthodox cathedral on Victoria Avenue in the East End;
 * Knox-Metropolitan United Church on Victoria Park in downtown Regina: the surviving downtown congregation of the United Church (Metropolitan Methodist and the now demolished or closed Knox, Carmichael and St Andrew's United Churches, previously Presbyterian, were its antecedents or now-defunct daughter congregations) with the largest pipe organ in Regina;
 * the Mormon Temple, a Mormon conventicle with a beautiful building and lovely grounds;
 * the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) national training centre and the museum;
 * Government House, where regular tours are available, conducted by guides in "period" costume and the Lieutenant-Governor holds an annual levée on New Year's Day;
 * Casino Regina, in the old Union Station;
 * the Globe Theatre in the Old Post Office building on the Scarth Street Mall;
 * events held at Mosaic Stadium sports stadium and the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts;
 * Evraz Place (formerly Ipsco Place, previously Regina Exhibition Park), the venue for the annual Buffalo Days Exhibition summer agricultural fair every August; and
 * the Canadian Western Agribition, a winter agricultural show and marketplace.

The former large-scale Children's Day Parade and Travellers' Day Parade during Fair Week in the summer, which were substantially supported by the Masons and Shriners, have been abandoned as (a) other summer civic events have been given a higher profile, (b) the central business district has waned and (c) such service clubs have lost vitality: the Regina Exhibition's travelling midway divides its time among other western Canadian and US cities and is perhaps no longer the attraction it once was in a more parochial community. However, a large Santa Claus parade is now mounted during the lead-up to Christmas.

Local media
The daily newspaper for the city is The Leader-Post, first published in 1883 and currently owned by Postmedia Network. The Regina Sun is published by The Leader-Post and distributed free of charge. Prairie Dog is a free alternative newspaper and blog produced by a Saskatchewan worker co-operative. L'eau vive is a weekly newspaper publishing in French and serving all of Saskatchewan's francophone community.

The thirteen radio stations broadcating from the city include CJME News/Talk 980, FM 90.3 CJLR-FM-4 MBC Radio First Nations community radio Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation, FM 91.3 CJTR-FM 91.3 CJTR community radio, FM 97.7 CBKF-FM Première Chaîne news/talk (CBC, French), and FM 102.5 CBKR-FM CBC Radio One news/talk (CBC).

There are four private and public television channels broadcasting from Regina: CKCK-TV (CTV), CBKT (CBC), CFRE-TV (Global), and CBKFT (SRC). Educational channel City Saskatchewan (formerly the Saskatchewan Communications Network) and a community channel owned by Regina's cable provider Access Communications are also available on cable.

University of Regina
In the years prior to the establishment of the University of Saskatchewan, there was continued debate as to which Saskatchewan city would be awarded the provincial university: ultimately Saskatoon won out over Regina and in immediate reaction the Methodist Church of Canada established Regina College in 1911. Regina College was initially a denominational high school and junior college affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan – the later-established Campion and Luther Colleges, operated by the Roman Catholic Jesuit Order and Lutheran Church respectively, operated on the same basis. The Church of England concurrently established St Chad's College, an Anglican theological training facility, and the Qu'Appelle Diocesan School on the Anglican diocesan property immediately to the east of Regina College on College Avenue. All were quasi-tertiary institutions.

Ultimately, the financially hard-pressed United Church of Canada (the successor to the Methodist Church), which in any case had ideological difficulties with the concept of fee-paying private schooling given its longstanding espousal of universal free education from the time of its early father Egerton Ryerson, could no longer maintain Regina College during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and Regina College was disaffiliated from the Church and surrendered to the University of Saskatchewan; it became the Regina Campus of the University of Saskatchewan in 1961. After a protracted contretemps over the siting of several faculties in Saskatoon which had been promised to the Regina campus, Regina Campus sought and obtained a separate charter as the University of Regina in 1974.

Campion College and Luther College now have federated college status in the University of Regina, as does the First Nations University of Canada; The Anglican St Chad's ultimately consolidated with Emmanuel College on the then-Saskatoon campus of the University of Saskatchewan, the United Church's Regina College having entirely consolidated with the University of Saskatchewan and identified with St Andrew's College there: despite the considerable historical involvement by the Methodist, Presbyterian and Anglican churches in antecedent institutions of the University of Regina, there is perhaps perversely no continuing official United Church or Anglican presence at the University of Regina. The Regina Research Park is located immediately adjacent to the main campus and many of its initiatives in information technology, petroleum and environmental sciences are conducted in conjunction with university departments. A member in the research park is Canada's Petroleum Technology Research facility, a world leader in oil recovery and geological storage of CO 2.

Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology
The Wascana campus of this province-wide polytechnical institute is adjacent to the University of Regina. It occupies the former Plains Health Centre, previously a third hospital in Regina which in the course of rationalizing health services in Saskatchewan was in due course closed. It offers diplomas in some 175 trade and semi-professional fields ranging from accountancy and auto-mechanical technician through corrections worker, dental hygiene, driving instructor, nursing and school secretarial qualifications.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Academy, Depot Division
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Academy, "Depot" Division, is on the western perimeter of the city. As capital of the North-West Territories, Regina was the headquarters of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (the RCMP's predecessor) before "the Force" became a national body with its headquarters in Ottawa in 1920. The city takes great pride in this national institution which is a major visitor attraction and a continuing link with Regina's past as the headquarters of the Force, together with longstanding substantial enrollment by trainees from across Canada, obtaining entertainment and recreation city-wide. The national RCMP music and "Depot" Division chapel (the oldest building still standing in the city) are major visitor attractions in Regina. The first phase of a RCMP Heritage Centre successor to the longstanding museum opened in May 2007.

Public, separate and private schools
The Regina Public School Board currently operates 45 elementary schools and 9 high schools with approximately 21,000 students enrolled throughout the city. The publicly funded Roman Catholic Separate School Board operates 25 elementary schools and 4 high schools, and has a current enrollment of approximately 10,000 students. Public and separate schools are amply equipped with state-of-the-art science labs, gymnasia and drama and arts facilities: already by the 1960s, Regina high schools had television studios, swimming pools, ice rinks and drama facilities. Such schools are regularly built and decommissioned and sold as populations in various residential subdivisions wax and wane.

A small number of parents choose to opt out of the public and separate school systems for home-schooling under the guidance of the Regina Public School Board. Private schools in Regina include Luther College High School, operated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; the Regina Huda School for Islamic education; Harvest City Christian Academy (occupying the former Sister McGuigan High School site); and the Regina Christian School (in the former Campion College premises). Historically there were eminent private schools long since closed: Regina College, now the University of Regina but originally a private high school of the Methodist Church of Canada (since 1925 the United Church); the Anglican St Chad's School; the Roman Catholic Campion College, Sacred Heart Academy and Marian High School. More recently, the Western Christian College High School operated by the Churches of Christ (using premises vacated by the former Canadian Bible College) has since closed.

Public transportation
Regina formerly had an extensive streetcar (tramway) network but now has no streetcars, trains or subways. The city's public transit agency, Regina Transit, operates a fleet of 110 buses, on 16 routes, 7 days a week with access to the city centre from most areas of the city. A massive fire at the streetcar barns, on 23 January 1949, destroyed much of the rolling stock of streetcars and trolley buses and helped to propel Regina's diesel bus revolution in 1951, although until well into the 1970s the streetcar rails remained in the centre of many major streets, ready to be returned to use should city transit policy change. Because of the 1949 fire, original Regina streetcar rolling stock was rare, though through later years a few disused streetcars remained in evidence – a streetcar with takeaway food, for example, on the site of the Regina Theatre at 12th Avenue and Hamilton Street, until the Hudson's Bay Company acquired the site and built its 60s-through-90s department store there.

The CPR no longer operates regular passenger services, though in the past railway passenger trains constituted the principal mode of inter-urban transit among Western Canadian cities. Its former station in downtown Regina – once the urban hub – has become a casino. Nowadays Regina can be reached by several highways including the Trans-Canada Highway from the west and east sides and four provincial highways from other directions. The city is served by Ring Road, a high speed connection between Regina's east and northwest that loops around the city's east side (the west side of the loop is formed by Lewvan Drive) with plans calling for another perimeter highway to encircle the city farther out.

The five decades-old bus depot on Hamilton Street immediately south of the Hotel Saskatchewan was replaced in 2008 by the current on at the corner of Saskatchewan Drive and Broad Street.

Regina International Airport is situated on the west side of the city and is the oldest established commercial airport in Canada. The current, continuingly expanded, 1960 terminal replaces the original 1940 Art Deco terminal; it has recently undergone further major upgrades and expansions to allow it to handle increases in traffic for the next several years.

Infrastructure
Domestic water, originally obtained from Wascana Lake and later the Boggy Creek reservoir north of the city and supplemented by wells, is supplied from Buffalo Pound Lake in the Qu'Appelle Valley, an artificial reservoir on the Qu'Appelle River, since 1967 with water diverted into it from Lake Diefenbaker behind the Gardiner Dam on the South Saskatchewan River. Electricity is provided by SaskPower, a provincial Crown corporation which maintains a province-wide grid with power generated from coal-fired base load, natural gas-fired, hydroelectric and wind power facilities.

Medical services are provided through two city hospitals, Regina General and Pasqua (formerly Grey Nuns) and by private medical practitioners, who, like hospitals, remit their bills to the public universal medical insurer, the Saskatchewan Medicare system.

Sister cities

 * Jinan, China (Regina's only official sister city)
 * Fujioka, Japan
 * Ulsan, South Korea
 * Ndola, Zambia