Transportation
Regina, the capital of the province of Saskatchewan, is the Canadian city closest to the geographical centre of North America and is the major commercial centre of southern Saskatchewan.
We believe the Regina region has a significant opportunity to grow as a commerce centre for western Canada. The combination of various modes of transport along with recent announcements of funding for a multimodal hub has given Regina a huge boon in terms of enhancing opportunities both in business generally as well as specifically around transportation, distribution, warehousing, and assembly.
Air
The Regina International Airport (YQR) is a recently renovated and expanded state-of-the-art facility that serves as an impressive gateway to or from the Regina region. Located on the western side of the city just seven kilometres from downtown, the Regina International Airport is very accessible to all parts of the Regina region and surrounding communities. The airport is served by Northwest Airlines, Air Canada, WestJet and a number of regional carriers.
Looking forward, the Regina airport (YQR) is well positioned to develop new cargo transportation links to North American and, in the longer term, to overseas markets due to its central location and the current and potential characteristics of its airfield and airside amenities.
Road
Regina is centrally located in Canada and is just 90 minutes from the Canada-US border. Highways #11 and #33 link Regina with the Can-Am Highway #6 heading south to the United States. With access to domestic destinations via road along with quick access to the United States, Regina is a transportation hub for Western Canada.
Rail
The Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railway lines also run through Regina for distribution of goods throughout North America. Of note, the SOO line of Canadian Pacific links Regina into the United States and connects through the major metropolitan centres of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Chicago, Illinois.
Multimodal Hub
Including several stakeholders from local, provincial, and federal government along with industry partners, the City of Regina and RREDA have worked for five years to bring this incredible investment into the Regina region. Recent announcements committed federal funding for the creation of infrastructure around a multimodal transportation and distribution complex just west of the city. The funding is coming under the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative and is a substantial investment in the future of Regina as a growing North American trading centre. The federal government, under this initiative, has committed $27 million of the estimated $93 million dollar project. This is the start of a massive project that will dramatically and positively alter the Regina region and enable not only North American trade but distribution, transportation, and commercial connections throughout the world.
This infrastructure project consists of building a new Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) inter-modal facility west of Regina; the upgrading of Pinkie Road connecting to Highways #1 and #11, both National Highway System routes and connects to the City of Regina road network, which will provide direct access for international trade traffic to this facility. For more information on the specific announcement, please see this exciting news release here.
The multimodal concept is an important part of the Regina region’s growth and is a major building block to the emergence of a global trading hub in the region. We are very excited about this long-awaited development and the potential for the expansion for our economy. We believe that the businesses already in the Regina region and those who are in the process or will relocate will be able to take advantage of the tremendous opportunity surrounding this development.
In fact, recent announcements have brought the first major business to the planned transportation and distribution hub. On July 29, 2008, it was announced that Loblaw Companies Ltd. would be the first anchor tenant leveraging the CP intermodal facility within the planned distribution and logistics park. The new facility when completed will be nearly a million square feet in size and is expected to generate 750 jobs within two years and as many as 1,500 jobs by 2017.
Click here to read the press release, or here to read a news story on this announcement.
