Regina Construction II

[casper]

Originally Posted by Treesplease

In the most recent QS university rankings the UofS came at 393rd spot which is pathetic. I would much rather see money directed to maintain at least one quality institution than directed at two substandard schools. Yes, the people in the south of the province deserve access to a quality university education - so do the people in central and northern areas.

I think people try to read more into these ranking that is warranted. The QS one is at least a little bit better that Maclean's rankings.

The UoS is almost twice as old and has some of the more expensive programs to operate (e.g., the medical and vet program). It obviously needs more funding and the population of the province is just not big enough to support two universities with those specialised schools. That said the University of Regina needs to focus on its specialised area and can become very successful in those area. Over time its endowment will grow. Some of the general programs should be duplicated between the two but many of the specialities need to live in one or the other institutions.

Wikipedia at least say the UofS has around aprox. 17,000 students with 3,000 as grad students while the UofR has aprox 12,000 students with just over 1,500 as graduate students.

[skphc08]

Originally Posted by Goose

Rent control would be the worst policy that the province could implement. As study after study has shown, rent controls decrease the incentives to invest in rental property. Less supply in rental property leads to greater demand per available unit and in turn, higher rents per unit.

The Regina housing market is responding to the housing shortage by seeing enormous increases in housing starts, with 2012 seeing more housing starts than we've seen since the mid 70's.

http://www.leaderpost.com/business/Regina+housing+starts+surged+2012/7799090/story.html

Implementing rent controls and jeopardizing this progress is not something the province should pursue. Let the market take care of things.

I have not read any studies about this, but I definitely agree with this premise [laissez-faire].

[Festivus]

Originally Posted by casper

I think people try to read more into these ranking that is warranted. The QS one is at least a little bit better that Maclean's rankings.

The UoS is almost twice as old and has some of the more expensive programs to operate (e.g., the medical and vet program). It obviously needs more funding and the population of the province is just not big enough to support two universities with those specialised schools. That said the University of Regina needs to focus on its specialised area and can become very successful in those area. Over time its endowment will grow. Some of the general programs should be duplicated between the two but many of the specialities need to live in one or the other institutions.

Wikipedia at least say the UofS has around aprox. 17,000 students with 3,000 as grad students while the UofR has aprox 12,000 students with just over 1,500 as graduate students.

Agreed. Some programs that are very costly may be better served by having them focused on by one university. However, general programs like education, engineering, sciences, arts, etc. are best served by being at as many locations as possible because of the demand in all areas of the province.

[StealthGirl]

Originally Posted by Dougler306

Quote from article: For the first two months, residential building permits valued at $58.5 million were issued, compared with permits valued at $33.5 million for the same two-month period in 2012.

That's a good sign, it would be amazing if we had another year like 2012 with respect to housing, since 2012 was our best in 30 odd years. But it goes on to say non-residential is down by nearly half of 2013 numbers?

Wasn't there a significant amount of construction through Evraz and the GTH last year that we don't have this year? That could account for the difference. Similarly, when the stadium build starts, there would be another big bump in non-residential numbers.

[Treesplease]

Originally Posted by Festivus

Agreed. Some programs that are very costly may be better served by having them focused on by one university. However, general programs like education, engineering, sciences, arts, etc. are best served by being at as many locations as possible because of the demand in all areas of the province.

Its important to keep an eye on the quality of education provided. An education isn't quite the same as a big mac or a venti latte - or it shouldn't be. As it is we can tell the difference between UofS grads and UofR grads.

[Drofmab]

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

To put it simply, the University of Saskatchewan serves as the official university for the province of Saskatchewan; and therefore gets the extra attention.

It's a familar case across the country, with the U of Alberta, U of Manitoba, UBC. They were originally established as provincial universities as they were the first, and had time to grow into such fine institutions of higher education.

Not at all accurate. Neither Univeristy is the "official" one. When the UofR became an independant University in 1974 (rather than the UofS Regina Campus), the government explicitly attempted to ensure there was little to no overlap between the programs offered at each university (aside from undergrad Arts & Science). The rationale was/is that it made little sense for two publicly funded institutions in a small province to be in direct competition with each other.

The Prov Gov reviews new programs very carefully before giving the greenlight. Better to have 1 healthy/sustainable program, than 2 weak/unsustainable programs. This is part of the reason that:
- it is the University of Saskatchewan College of Nursing - Regina Campus (rather than a UofR Nursing Faculty); and
- that the Master of Public Admin (and all Public Policy programs) are offered jointly through a UofR/UofS partnership (the JSGS of Public Policy).

(Similar logic to housing the Western College of Vetinary Medicine at a single University, rather than having a couple competing programs across Western Canada (BC, AB, SK & MB have had an agreement/funding in place through which the UofS is responsible for VetMed programs for all 4 provinces))

Of course, over the years, each university has inched into the grey areas & we now have direct overlap, and some partial overlap.

UofS does get more funding, and often more attention, but that's also due to the fact they offer a number of fairly resource intensive/high profile programs (e.g. Medicine, Law, Dental, Nursing, VetMed).

[Festivus]

Originally Posted by Treesplease

Its important to keep an eye on the quality of education provided. An education isn't quite the same as a big mac or a venti latte - or it shouldn't be. As it is we can tell the difference between UofS grads and UofR grads.

I wouldn't agree with that. Two people taking the same program (say, B.Admin) at both universities would be fairly comparable, and it would depend more on the student that the programs in terms of differences. In other areas they teach quite different things (for example, with engineering the U of S has a more standard engineering program while the U of R has a systems engineering program, and both offer advantages and disadvantages).

I haven't seen people make any reasonable arguments that one school produces better students than another. Anecdotally, I've known students from each (and some that have attended both) and none have ever thought one was better than the other, except of course that they may offer programs the other does not, obviously.

[Pfeifer80]

Originally Posted by Mike328

Interesting project my friend told me about potentially going up in Greens on Gardiner.

http://www.reginacondo.com/gateway/

Anyone know a possible location?

Edit: he was told first floor will be commercial

This project is going ahead, should be in the ground late April. Not another Capital Pointe here. Will be going in on Chuka Bvld, which is the entrance off to the Creeks. The city will be dragging Chuka north of Arcola in the spring and the project will be a few blocks north of Arcola. Expect more details about the project in the next few weeks, but it is looking like the commercial space will include a coffee shop, gym, engineers office and a architects firm. Nothing officially confirmed but looks promising. I have added a few extra renderings that I have below which are on their site but haven't been posted yet. Building also includes some available ground level indoor parking and storage in the basement for each unit.




Edit: sorry tried to post the images but looks like they didn't work. If you go to http://www.reginacondo.com/gateway/regina_condos_2/ they are there.

Edit #2: if anyone knows how to post those images on here that would be great, I'm not sure how to do it. Long time viewer but just registered today to post this. Thanks

[socialisthorde]

Originally Posted by Dan0myte

"Official" University huh?

It's just that simply there are two tiers of universities across Canada: Doctoral schools and everyone else. Doctorals always have an 'air' about them that they're better than the primarily undergraduate universities, stemming from the fact that they're graduating Doctors, Lawyers and Politicians (see: people with money who regularly give charitable donations to their alma mater) More funds means a bigger university, and bigger universities get the bulk of the research dollars, leading to more attention to the campus. It's about as simple as that. Most provinces can only support one doctoral school due to population, so if that's what you mean by "official university" then OK. That theory doesn't really work in Ontario though where they have three doctoral schools (U of T, Queens and McMaster). Four if you include Western Ontario.

There's a group of schools that are classified as "Comprehensives" that include substantial MBA and other graduate programs and have a large research facility, who are basically bridging the gap between being a Doctoral school while not having a doctoral program. The U of R falls into that category.

medical and doctoral are two different things. A medical degree is not a doctoral degree (Ph.D.). Lawyers and politicians rarely have either a medical or doctoral degree. The reason medical/doctoral institutions get more money has more to do with the cost of running a medical school than the wealth and power of their alumni. I would expect that doctoral programs actually produce a net financial benefit for universities redcuing the cost to provincial governments because graduate students and their supervisors typically bring in significant research funds from the federal government and private industry.

[Devon]

Originally Posted by Pfeifer80

This project is going ahead, should be in the ground late April. Not another Capital Pointe here. Will be going in on Chuka Bvld, which is the entrance off to the Creeks. The city will be dragging Chuka north of Arcola in the spring and the project will be a few blocks north of Arcola. Expect more details about the project in the next few weeks, but it is looking like the commercial space will include a coffee shop, gym, engineers office and a architects firm. Nothing officially confirmed but looks promising. I have added a few extra renderings that I have below which are on their site but haven't been posted yet. Building also includes some available ground level indoor parking and storage in the basement for each unit.




Edit: sorry tried to post the images but looks like they didn't work. If you go to http://www.reginacondo.com/gateway/regina_condos_2/ they are there.

Judging by the contacts on the site it looks like you likely have something to do with this Pfeifer80. The scale is actually much larger than I expected and I am kind of surprised to see what appears to be a street fronted condo in suburban Regina. Quasi New Urbanism dipping its toes finally?

[Pfeifer80]

Originally Posted by Devon

Judging by the contacts on the site it looks like you likely have something to do with this Pfeifer80. The scale is actually much larger than I expected and I am kind of surprised to see what appears to be a street fronted condo in suburban Regina. Quasi New Urbanism dipping its toes finally?

You are correct Devon I am involved with the project. It will be facing Chula Bvld and I do believe this is going to be something new to Regina.

[thefourthtower]

`

[Treesplease]

Originally Posted by Festivus

I wouldn't agree with that. Two people taking the same program (say, B.Admin) at both universities would be fairly comparable, and it would depend more on the student that the programs in terms of differences. In other areas they teach quite different things (for example, with engineering the U of S has a more standard engineering program while the U of R has a systems engineering program, and both offer advantages and disadvantages).

I haven't seen people make any reasonable arguments that one school produces better students than another. Anecdotally, I've known students from each (and some that have attended both) and none have ever thought one was better than the other, except of course that they may offer programs the other does not, obviously.

I agree with you in the sense that there isn't a right answer to the question of quality vs. breadth and accessibility - both have merits. Its a choice.

[Mike328]

Originally Posted by Pfeifer80

You are correct Devon I am involved with the project. It will be facing Chula Bvld and I do believe this is going to be something new to Regina.

What will the middle area be filled in with? A park or will it be a parking lot

[Pfeifer80]

Originally Posted by Mike328

What will the middle area be filled in with? A park or will it be a parking lot

Both, small courtyard and tenant parking. Commercial parking is at the front of the building to help eliminate commercial customers from parking in owners stalls. Hoping that I have a better render in the next few days for the site.

[thefourthtower]

`

[Pfeifer80]

Originally Posted by thefourthtower

You have your self one handsome looking complex , how many units are there , thank you

Roughly 140 residential plus the commercial units which are yet to be determined.

[thefourthtower]

`

[jigglysquishy]

I'm an engineering student at the U of S. U of R was never a real option. It's widely considered to be a bad school among the engineering community, I was told to go to the U of S by U of R guidance counselors, and almost every industry person I've talked to recommended the U of S.

Outside of petroleum, the U of S absolutely dwarfs the U of R engineering program.

[Dan0myte]

Wow, arrogant much?

Originally Posted by jigglysquishy

I was told to go to the U of S by U of R guidance counselors, and almost every industry person I've talked to recommended the U of S.

I'm guessing the guidance counselor recommended the U of S because you either had an interest in Mechanics or Civil construction, which the U of R can't help you with, not because he preferred the U of S's programming.