REGINA - The ribbon was cut Thursday morning to open a new community centre located in Regina’s Heritage neighbourhood.
It is the Mitakuyé Owâs’ā Centre, a neighbourhood centre that will be located in the building that used to be the Municipal Justice Building. The Municipal Justice Building was built in 1930 had been the former home to Regina Police Service until 1978. In 2021, it was declared a municipal heritage property.
The idea was to transform the venue into a community centre and recreation venue. Dignitaries and Heritage community members were on hand to finally mark the completion of that upgrade Thursday.
According to the City's news release, the completed building now features a multi-use stage and classroom, a community kitchen, meeting rooms, as office space for the Heritage Community Association, as well as a gymnasium and multi-purpose room that can be used for programs including drop-in basketball; Regina Police Service will also have access to that area for their fitness training as well.
The venue is home to the Heritage Community Association’s Harvest Moon Festival and the plan is to offer a variety of programs.
"The Centre really offers a space for the community to come in and rent so we really encourage the community to program here", said Bobbie Selinger, Manager of Community Programs for the City of Regina. "The city of Regina itself will also be offering programs. We'll be offering an afterschool youth program, will be offering an evening team program, and they will be more pop-up programming, things like our Indigenous story telling."
Wendy Miller, Executive Director of the Heritage Community Association, said there had had been a lot of consultations within the community and within the funding partners and construction in the leadup. "It's been a real collaborative effort to make sure that this building a state of the art for this community and for the city at large," said Miller.
She said HCA itself is moving out of the old Fire Hall, which is another heritage property, to this new space. "It offers a lot of opportunity within our community and really for all the agencies around us."
The name Mitakuyé Owâs’ā comes from the Dakota language and means “all my relations” -- that we are all relatives and connected to one another. The name was chosen as a nod to reconciliation efforts and to the history of the area, but also is a pertinent phrase to describe the purpose of the venue itself.
"It really is about bringing community together to keep them connected,” said Regina Mayor Sandra Masters. “It is about offering all types of programming some fun, some feeling, some educational, and the activity. I think that we know the community has been underserved for community space, and this type of project is exactly how these things should come to pass when you have the provincial government, which I think had about 66 per cent of the funding in the building, the federal government with the Heritage status providing a half a million, the city providing the balance, and Heritage Community Association contributing, and then private companies like the Co-op providing funding. So that bringing together all of that funding to produce something like this is a good news story."
To fund the renovation, the city received a contribution from the province’s Municipal Economic Enhancement Program of $7.5 million as part of their no-strings-attached $150 million funding to municipalities during the pandemic; this is the same program that also funded the renovated Wascana Pool.
"Whatever the city of Regina, the community wanted, is where that money could go and I think they picked an excellent venue for rehabilitation for this community," said Minister of Government Relations Don McMorris at the event Thursday.
The project in Heritage also received funding from the federal Canada Cultural Spaces Fund for $0.5 million, and from the Regina Police Service Campus Development project for the RPS space. The city of Regina was in for about $5 million as well as operational costs.
The Heritage Community Association also received a $75,000 grant from the Co-op Community Spaces Program toward the community kitchen and garden box.
Mayor Masters also noted there were energy efficiencies for the renovated building including solar panels to provide some of the heating as well as LED lights and energy efficient windows.
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