The mayor of Regina stopped through Windsor for a tour and to discuss growth challenges and opportunities in mid-sized cities across Canada.
Sandra Masters was in the city for the past few days, and was invited to an event hosted by the University of Windsor's Centre for Cities on Monday evening.
Approximately 40 people attended the event at the Windsor Armouries - School of Creative Arts - which focused on potential growth and challenges that mid-sized cities face, including Windsor and Regina, and how the City of Regina can learn from other municipalities across the nation.
Mid-sized cities across Canada, including Windsor, are experiencing very similar challenges such as housing availability, social disorder, and safety concerns.
Masters says they are looking to build an aquatic training centre in Regina, similar to the one built in Windsor.
"We have invested over the last number of years in civic tours trying to learn more about what other cities are doing, best practices, also the things that they would've done differently had they known in advance. So, it really is exploratory, there's a curiosity about how other cities are handling the infrastructure pressures."
She says her city and Windsor are very alike.
"There's an interesting piece of it which is we are more connected than you think we are. Even though it's a couple thousand kilometres, we are more connected in the issues we face then not, as the case may be."
"Housing and homelessness, social security issues in town centres, thinking about how we diversify economy's, thinking about how we grow without losing agricultural land around us, fiscal responsibility, those are issues faced by all municipalities but they're particularly acute right now for mid-sized cities, so we're really excited to be able to do a compare and contrast and share some experience."
The city of Regina and Windsor are very similar in size and population. World Population Review estimates that in 2024 Windsor has approximately 237,484 people, and that it's estimated that Regina has 233,466 people.
Masters also made a stop in Detroit while she visited Windsor.
The Centre for Cities at Windsor Law supports research, teaching and community engagement on the legal and policy tools related to municipalities and good citybuilding.
