Global Transportation Hub (Regina)

[dsmmace]

Has there been any noise about the SaskPower Logistics Building moving forward at the GTH?

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by dsmmace

Has there been any noise about the SaskPower Logistics Building moving forward at the GTH?

There's a hold on all discretionary spending in the crowns right now (I'm assuming the prov govt wants to be able to take a large dividend to help their books)... So I'm thinking things might be a little sketchier on that front. Or maybe they got the commitment for it early enough that they can still proceed?

[sask1982]

A new aerial shot of the GTH would be nice. Google is quite out of date.

[Stormer]

Not GTH, but it is a cool aerial of the interchange where the west bypass heads north to the GTH. This pic is looking west.





http://www.wfbotkin.ca/

[thefourthtower]

http://www.businessandindustry.ca/up..._2014_2015.pdf
Business and industry magazine

[SkydivePilot]

Two days ago, CTV did a story about the GTH and that is has slowed to a crawl. Potential tenants want to ensure that the infrastructure is in place first --- which is understandable. Otherwise, part of the West By-Pass is complete and just sitting there. Things are at an impasse for the time-being out there.

[BrutallyDishonest2]

Originally Posted by SkydivePilot

Two days ago, CTV did a story about the GTH and that is has slowed to a crawl. Potential tenants want to ensure that the infrastructure is in place first --- which is understandable. Otherwise, part of the West By-Pass is complete and just sitting there. Things are at an impasse for the time-being out there.

That story is here. But if we're being honest, you can thank me for the story, since it's clear that a CTV staffer read my post:

Originally Posted by BrutallyDishonest2

Is it really surprising that subsidizing land costs and promising billion dollar bypasses would attract a few companies to the GTH?

But since the early development of the Loblaws/CP/Fastfrate, what private companies have invested at the GTH or done so successfully. The bulk of the development in the last three years is all government related: Emterra (city contract), SLGA, SaskPower.

Sure Morguard went out there and built some warehouses but they're completely empty save the GTH themselves putting their office there. And there's probably incentives provided to build out there anyway, especially now the the GTH collects its own taxes and they city gets nothing.

What else? A tiny development by Sterling Hornoi? The GTH is, by all accounts, pretty much a failure. They expropriated land, then developed it with government money then sold it at less than half the cost of land within the city. Yet, private companies have, by and large, completely ignored the development while city land released in 2013 and private lots east of Regina have sold better.

The GTH was a government program designed to gain Loblaws. The bypass is probably also a condition of Loblaws development. And for what a few hundred trucks a day at most?

Ultimately, however, the problem with the GTH is not infrastructure. It's location. Go ask a trucking company or a general industrial user. They don't want to be there. Nobody wants to work there either, hence why Loblaws has to bus people out there.

[SkydivePilot]

Originally Posted by BrutallyDishonest2

That story is here. But if we're being honest, you can thank me for the story, since it's clear that a CTV staffer read my post:


Ultimately, however, the problem with the GTH is not infrastructure. It's location. Go ask a trucking company or a general industrial user. They don't want to be there. Nobody wants to work there either, hence why Loblaws has to bus people out there.

Your comment here is purely subjective. The CP yards are now relocated there, . . thank goodness! Moreover, it is common for employers to mass-commute workers a semi-distant workplace outside of a city.

[BrutallyDishonest2]

Deleted

[SkydivePilot]

Originally Posted by BrutallyDishonest2

Actually by comments are based on actual knowledge from industry. Your comments are based on a complete outsider hoping that a project is successful

Hahaha!!! You are hilarious!!!

FYI, potash mines in the Saskatoon area have several buses that commute workers daily to/fro the city to the Cory and Agrium potash mines. The GTH is no different.

[BrutallyDishonest2]

Deleted

[SkydivePilot]

Originally Posted by BrutallyDishonest2

Comparing the GTH to Potash mines pretty much makes my point. It's considered a long ways out and not part of the city. Nobody really wants to work out there, it's an island of nothing.

And what industry do you come into contact with you? How often are you engaging with the industrial sector in Regina? Are you actually familiar with the transportation industry and the industrial sector writ large?

You need to work on your grammar/sentence structure bud.

I recently lived in Vanscoy, SK which is located between the aforementioned mines. There is a 'mass-transit' program between various Saskatoon malls and the mines themselves. Subjectively speaking, that is brilliant! Why have 40 workers each drive their own vehicles when only one vehicle is required to transport those folks to/fro semi-long-distance employers. (It is likely that a small $$$ fee is involved.) That results with a reduction of vehicular traffic along Highway 7; shift changes are very busy along there.

Do you require a short dissertation of my post-secondary life? Okay:

Industrial sector???!!! During the late '80s, I was an ironworker.

I possess nine-years-worth of formal classroom-type, post-secondary education.

Am I familiar with the transportation industry???!!!! You bet I am --- as a bus driver and airline pilot, which involved(es) the carriage of passengers; cargo; dangerous goods, bla, bla, bla..... (The list goes on.)

How about you?

[BrutallyDishonest2]

Deleted

[SkydivePilot]

Originally Posted by BrutallyDishonest2

There was no grammar error.

The late 80s is not today.

As a bus driver and airline pilot you know dick-all about the actual industry around transportation, logistics, real estate, manufacturing or anything else pertinent to the development of the GTH.

List me one company waiting for the bypass before moving to the GTH?

The SSP community is most grateful to have you on here ; I guess I don't know anything. Huh.

Back to business here.

[BrutallyDishonest2]

Deleted

[SkydivePilot]

Originally Posted by brutallydishonest2

that's what i thought.

lol.

[casper]

Honestly what is the point of building the GTH if its purpose is to attract existing business in Regina to move outside of city limits.

The purpose of building this is to attract new distribution and logistics companies to move to Saskatchewan instead of Winnipeg or Calgary. Given its mandate why would the GTH invest its time on trying to encourage existing companies in Regina to relocate.

Loblaws is a good example of what they need to go after. Building outside the city but close enough is key. Hopefully some of the small towns in the region also pick up jobs.

As for the crowns moving to lower cost real-estate and being subsidized by having the GTA build roads and overpasses it is hard to call that subsidy when the Crown subsidizes a dividend paying business it owns.

Hopefully over time that are starts to be served by public transit.

[Riverman]

Same thing is happening in Winnipeg with Centreport. Because of Manitoba's regressive taxes no new businesses will ever relocate to this province until long after a change in government. But since Centreport is partially outside of the City of Winnipeg (in the RM of Rosser) business will leave their location within city limits to avoid higher city taxes.

Surprise, everybody loses. The whole thing is completely pointless.

[BrutallyDishonest2]

Here's the thing, the idea of the GTH is fundamentally flawed. Regina just isn't a good location for a logistics hub. In terms of business, money, geography, population etc, Regina is literally in the middle of nowhere. Major international groups have almost no incentive to move here. Why would the locate here when Calgary is closer the coast and has a much bigger population base?

Winnipeg is arguably better located, but it is also isolated. In fact Centreport has suffered because of its proximity to Chicago. There's no real reason for many large developments to go to Winnipeg with larger centers in the region. It's not really a taxation issue with Regina or Winnipeg, it's location and population base.

The subsidizing real estate is an issue that needs to be looked at. The province more-or-less expropriated land from farmers to give to private industry: Loblaws and CP. Then they used this cheap, under-priced land to attract people to move there, but the primary users is government again. It absolutely is an issue when you have an entire development functioning around government yet competing with private development. That the crown's give their profit to the government doesn't mitigate the folly of the project. The NDP complaining about the Sask Party ruining it is pointless. It was a bad idea to begin with and it will be a bad idea regardless of the government involved.

Regina needs to focus on what is does best: servicing the local community. We needn't invest money in pie-in-the-sky ideas when we can thrive doing other activities.

[jigglysquishy]

The GTH is a total failure and will cost the province billions when all is said and done. The Bypass is unneeded and is going to further subsidize sprawl.