11/23/2025
Save this Sanctuary!
On November 20, the City of Regina quietly slipped a recommendation into its budget documents: close the Regina Floral Conservatory in June 2026. After more than 35 years of operation entirely supported by the volunteer labour of the Regina Garden Associates in partnership with the City this cherished indoor green space is apparently expendable.
Let that sink in.
This is the only year-round tropical oasis in a city that routinely plunges to -40°C. A place that welcomes 23,000 visitors annually, teaches 3,000 school children every year about horticulture and ecology, and gives thousands of us a proven antidote to the soul-crushing reality of Saskatchewan winter. But sure, let’s decommission it to “save” money.
Regina seems to have developed a bizarre civic hobby: systematically destroying the few genuinely nice, unique things we have. We pour taxpayer dollars into seasonal flower beds that are spectacular for exactly twelve weeks and then freeze solid, yet a living, breathing, educational conservatory that operates 12 months a year is suddenly unaffordable. Perhaps if we installed a wave pool and a waterslide among the palms, Council would find a spare million in the couch cushions.
This isn’t fiscal responsibility; it’s a complete failure of imagination and priorities. The same administration that can always find funding for yet another road-widening project or consultant report has apparently lost the ability to recognise genuine community value when it’s staring them in the face quite literally blooming under glass.
Contact your councillor. Contact the Mayor. Do it today.
Tell them, clearly and firmly, that Regina has lost enough of what makes it livable. We are not willing to lose the Floral Conservatory too.
Save Our Conservatory.
Because apparently some things are too important to leave to a Council that seems utterly lost.
