Regina to provide $6.8M incentive for 2nd Costco location

Chris Edwards · CBC News

· Posted: May 08, 2025 12:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

Regina metropolis assembly voted connected Wednesday to supply Costco with a $6.78-million inducement to physique a 2nd section determination successful the city's Westerra area.

The funds volition beryllium taken from Regina Land Development Reserve. The metropolis estimates the wealth will be paid backmost done spot taxes wrong 7 years.

The determination followed a contentious treatment astatine metropolis council, with several councillors expressing displeasure astatine having to provide a monetary inducement to the backstage business.

Mayor Bachynski said metropolis assembly learned connected Wednesday that aft Costco had reached a woody successful rule to physique the 2nd determination wrong the city, it cancelled the woody successful favour of gathering astatine the Global Transportation Hub westbound of Regina.

The crushed for that change, according to Coun. David Froh, was that the proscription hub — which is managed by a Crown corp — provided overmuch cheaper onshore subsidized by taxpayers. This successful effect forced Regina to vie with an entity funded by the provincial government.

"If Costco is built extracurricular of Regina, we volition suffer hundreds of millions of investment, and millions much successful ancillary residential and commercialized development," Froh said. "The acquisition present is we request to debar aggregate levels of authorities competing for section investment."

"How we got determination was a small spot unfortunate," Mayor Bachynski said successful an interrogation with the CBC's Morning Edition Thursday. "The extremity effect is simply a affirmative 1 for the metropolis of Regina and particularly the westbound broadside of Regina.

"It volition supply maturation for that area. It'll supply different commercialized entities to make astir that anchor tenant and yet supply determination successful the realm of fractional a cardinal a twelvemonth successful taxation gross from Costco."

The politician was besides wide that the backing shouldn't beryllium viewed arsenic a precedent for much firm incentives being offered by the city. 

"This is simply a very, precise unsocial situation," helium said. "It was not an apples-to-apples examination successful presumption of onshore cost.

"Developers are consistently competing with each different connected an adjacent playing tract with the onshore wrong the metropolis and we bash not get progressive in."

City medication estimates that the 2nd Costco determination volition make astir 300 caller jobs, and volition anchor importantly much commercialized and residential improvement successful the area.