Regina - Geography.

Regina - Geography. I INTRODUCTION Regina, city, capital of the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, second largest city in the province next to Saskatoon. The Latin word regina means "queen," and the city is sometimes called the Queen City of the Plains because of its location in the heart of Canada's prairie region. Regina has a severe, dry climate, with cold winters and short summers, but is very well suited to growing wheat. The average daily temperature range in July is 12° C (53° F) to 26° C (79° F); the average January range is 22° C (-8° F) to -11° C (12° F). The average yearly precipitation is 364 mm (14.3 in). II PEOPLE Regina's first growth period occurred after 1900, when large numbers of pioneer farmers moved onto the prairies. The city had more than 30,000 people in 1914 but did not experience rapid growth again until Canada's great period of economic expansion in the 1950s and 1960s. By 1971 Regina's population had reached 140,000. The city has grown more slowly since then. In 1981 the population was 162,986 for the city proper and 173,226 for the metropolitan area; in 2001 it was 178,225 for the city and 196,800 for the metropolitan area. Regina has always been predominantly European in its ethnic composition. One-half of the city's residents (50.3 percent) have some British ancestry, and about onehalf of these (27 percent of the city's residents) are entirely of British origin. Other large ethnic groups are those of German origin (12 percent) and Ukrainian origin (4 percent). In addition, the proportion of Regina's residents who belong to indigenous nations (7 percent) is the highest of any Canadian city. III CITY LANDSCAPE Regina is a flat, nearly square city, occupying a land area of 114 sq km (44 sq mi) in a metropolitan land area of 3422 sq km (1321 sq mi). The city was largely shaped by railways, which divided it into three sectors. The northeastern sector is devoted to industry. The northwestern sector is chiefly residential but contains some important public facilities, including Taylor Field, home to the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL; see Canadian Football); Exhibition Park, a large complex of exhibition buildings and sports facilities where Canada Cup Hockey events have been held; and the academy and museum of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), where all RCMP recruits receive their training. The third sector, which grew up around the downtown district, is located south of the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Most of the downtown office buildings date from the 1960s and 1970s, but a number of older buildings have survived and been restored. Among them are the original post office, which now houses the Globe Theatre (Regina's principal theater company), and Union Station, which was recently converted into the Regina Casino. Victoria Square is an attractive downtown park. South of downtown is Regina's most notable feature, Wascana Centre. This 930-hectare (2300-acre) area of parks and public buildings surrounds Wascana Lake, which was formed by damming Wascana Creek, Regina's only natural stream. The Saskatchewan Legislative Building (where the provincial legislature convenes) is located in the centre, as are the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, and the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts (where the Regina Symphony Orchestra performs). Several educational institutions are also located in the area: the University of Regina (1974), Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (1977), and Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (1972). Wascana Park's recreational facilities, which include a waterfowl park and a bird sanctuary, are among the city's attractions. The park is also a popular setting for community events, such as Pile O' Bones Sunday, the opening event of the annual Buffalo Days Exhibition. The exhibition is a festival that includes rodeos, livestock shows, arts and crafts displays, and a parade. A major agricultural exhibition, the Canadian Western Agribition, is held in Regina each November. IV ECONOMY Regina is the principal trade, distribution, and service center for an agricultural region in which wheat and other farm products are grown. The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, a farmers' cooperative begun in 1924 to help farmers get the best price for their wheat, has its headquarters in the city. The Wheat Pool is now the largest grainhandling firm in Canada. Regina's chief manufactures include steel pipe and other steel products. Oil fields in the area have made oil refining an important part of the industrial economy. An oil pipeline cuts through the northern part of the city, connecting to the Regina terminal of Interprovincial Pipe Line; the same company has another major pipeline, from Edmonton to Montréal, that passes just south of the city. Potash and salt are also mined nearby; they are shipped out to be used in the manufacture of fertilizer and other chemical products. Regina is the primary financial center of the province and the seat of government and public administration. It contains the headquarters of government-owned utilities, such as SaskTel and SaskPower. An important transportation center for southern Saskatchewan, Regina is located midway between Winnipeg and Calgary on the TransCanada Highway and the transcontinental line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. A regional airport serves the city. V GOVERNMENT AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES Regina uses the council-manager system of city government. The council comprises a mayor, who is elected at large, and ten councillors, one from each of ten wards. The mayor and councillors serve three-year terms. Regina's senior administrative official is the city manager, who is appointed by the council. Poverty among indigenous people is Regina's most urgent problem. Health and housing conditions are often poor, and there is a growing dependence on food banks and other welfare agencies, especially in the inner city where indigenous residents are concentrated. Rates of drug and alcohol addiction and violent crime are high. These problems are serious everywhere in western Canada, but the situation has also worsened as a result of government cutbacks: The federal government, which has jurisdiction over Canada's indigenous population, no longer gives aid to those who have left their reserves to live in cities. VI HISTORY Southern Saskatchewan was once populated by great herds of bison (often called buffalo) and the indigenous nations who hunted them. By the 1800s these were mainly the Cree and Assiniboine nations. Wascana Creek, which gets its name from the Cree term for "bones" and was originally called Pile O' Bones Creek in English, was a favorite hunting area. The name came from the mounds of bones of slaughtered bison on the creek bank. According to the local story, the Cree built the mounds in the belief that the bison would not abandon the remains of their dead. In 1882, as the country's first transcontinental railway, the Canadian Pacific, was being built across western Canada, the railway company laid out the site of a town near the Wascana Creek crossing. Almost immediately the Canadian government decided to move the headquarters of the North-West Mounted Police (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) to this new settlement, which was named Regina in honor of Queen Victoria of Britain. Regina became the capital of the Northwest Territories in 1883, was incorporated as a city in 1903, and was made the capital of Saskatchewan when the province was created in 1905. The headquarters of the police force were moved in 1920 to Ottawa, the nation's capital, but the force's training facility remained in Regina. Regina has been associated with a number of important historical events. In 1885 Louis Riel, leader of the Northwest Rebellion, was tried for treason and executed there. In 1933 Canada's newly formed socialist party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), convened in Regina and issued the Regina Manifesto, a statement of rights for working-class Canadians. This was followed two years later by the Regina Riot of 1935, which erupted when police tried to arrest the leaders of a group of workers. Traveling through Regina on their way to Ottawa, the workers were protesting the government's failure to end unemployment during the Great Depression (the worldwide economic slump of the 1930s). In 1961 Saskatchewan's New Democratic Party, successor to the CCF, adopted the first provincial health plan, marking the beginning of state-funded health insurance in Canada. In the 1950s and 1960s Regina's economy was strengthened by abundant wheat crops, the building of oil refineries and pipelines, and the discovery of large deposits of potash at various locations in southern Saskatchewan. The city grew quickly: areas surrounding Regina were annexed, many large buildings were constructed, and the central section was redeveloped. After a lull caused by a recession, another construction boom began in Regina in the mid-1970s and continued into the early 1980s. Some of the buildings constructed during this period were the new City Hall, the Saskatchewan Government Insurance Tower, the Bank of Montréal Building, the Ramada Hotel, and the giant Cornwall Centre shopping mall. Contributed By: Peter J. Smith Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.