Latest news with #RickBennett
CTV News
2 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
‘Needs results': New REAL CEO looks to stabilize finances
At the start of June, seven members of the Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) as were laid off as part of restructuring the organization. A new president and Chief Executive Officer was also announced last week, in Rick Bennett. Monday was his first day on the job. 'When we start to look forward, there's a number of items that we hope to accomplish,' said Bennett. 'First of all, REAL doesn't need more reports, it needs results. We're really looking to ignite the passion for financial stability, a direction forward and clarity that's really going to stem around creating a plan that's sustainable. Bennett believes that it should also be backed by private sector investment. 'We obviously have a financial challenge and we're at that crossroads right now of where challenge meets opportunity,' he said. 'I think to the City of Regina, there's an expectation that we stabilize finances and that's been well underway. We've got a critically focused board of directors at this point who have communicated that mandate to the entire team.' Bennett hopes to see the diversification of programming on the overall site and would like to see that applied to the buildings on a regular basis. 'We've got a challenge in terms of the physical infrastructure reaching the end of its life cycle, and that's going to be one of our biggest nuggets to solve,' he said. Bennett also mentioned that the depth of infrastructure, hotel availability, roads, airport access, public transportation, all play a critical role in terms of activating the local space.
CBC
09-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
REAL appoints Rick Bennett as new CEO
A troubled Regina municipal corporation has announced Rick Bennett as its new CEO and President. Bennett joins Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) after working as a management consultant since 2017. He was previously with Aramark and Compass Group, according to his LinkedIn page. He'll now have the task of stabilizing a municipal corporation that has experienced a complete turnover in its board of directors and just last week dismissed seven of its senior managers. Jaime Boldt, chair of the REAL board of directors, touted Bennett as man with 20 years of international experience in hospitality, sports tourism and venue operations. The announcement comes just days after Regina city council approved a 90-year lease for a sports bar and music venue at the REAL campus in downtown Regina. "I'm honoured to join REAL at such a pivotal moment," Bennett said in a news release. "There's strong momentum already underway, and I'm excited to help accelerate that progress and shape a future our team and community can be proud of." REAL's new direction REAL is responsible for putting on events and promoting concerts while operating the Brandt Centre, the Co-operators Centre and Affinity Sportsplex in downtown Regina. City staff have already been directed by council to create a report examining the future of REAL, as it has struggled with a financial downturn from the COVID-19 pandemic, a lack of major events and a business model that does not cover its expenses. Multiple scandals, including a failed bid to re-energize the city's tourism brand as Experience Regina, have not helped grow public support. The organization's entire board of directors was dismissed by city council in November 2023, while former CEO Tim Reid was dismissed without cause in January 2024. Those decision provided no relief for the City of Regina, which in 2024 provided the organization with $17.2 million: $5.2 million as part of the city's budget, $8 million to pay back the Canada Revenue Agency for a pandemic wage subsidy it inappropriately accessed and $4 million to help pay down its line of credit so it could continue operating into the first quarter of 2025. The organization's 2025 budget was passed at $11.2 million. The municipal corporation also carries with it $16.7 million in debt. Multiple reports have highlighted that REAL has no ability to service that debt on its own. Since all of REAL's loans are guaranteed by the city, Regina would ultimately be responsible for repaying that money. Since 2019, REAL has needed an estimated $44 million in facility maintenance. An updated facility maintenance assessment has been completed, Boldt confirmed last week. Boldt wouldn't comment on the details of the report, but inflation will only have pushed the cost of repairing REAL's facilities higher. The city report would weigh the benefits of fully or partially integrating REAL and its assets into the City of Regina, dissolving the municipal corporation altogether and having the city take over its assets, or keeping REAL as it is with a reduced mandate and better financial efficiency. REAL's board are also pursuing a new business model that could include outsourcing the management of its facilities or contracting out some of its responsibilities. The status of that review isn't clear, but the city and REAL are supposed to work together on the parallel tasks.
CTV News
09-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
REAL names Rick Bennett new president, CEO
Regina Exhibition Association Limited has named Rick Bennett its new president and CEO. (Photo courtesy: REAL) The Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) has named Rick Bennett its new president and CEO. Bennett comes to REAL with over 20 years of international executive experience in hospitality, sports, tourism, and venue operations. 'Rick brings a powerful combination of global experience and people-first leadership,' said Jaime Boldt, chair of the REAL Board of Directors. 'He's the right leader to guide REAL through this next phase of growth, bringing stability, energy, and long-term focus. 'REAL is more than a venue operator; it's a driver of Regina's economic and cultural life. Rick's appointment signals a renewed commitment to delivering value for residents, partners, and the broader community,' Boldt added. The organization made the announcement following a stretch of interim and temporary leaders since the departure of former CEO Tim Reid in early 2024. Bennett replaces Trent Fraser, who stepped into the Interim CEO Role in April.
Associated Press
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Maine lawmakers try to thread the needle on forest protections
Late last year a team of ecologists came to a dire conclusion: without new conservation and management initiatives, half of the oldest forests in Maine's unorganized territory could be gone in the next 35 years. A bipartisan bill introduced by state Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford) aims to reverse that trend while also protecting Maine's undeveloped lakes and ponds through prescriptive conservation measures. After overcoming initial opposition from state officials and forest industry groups through multiple compromises, the bill was unanimously voted out of committee and approved by the state Senate this week. Although the version of L.D. 1529 the full legislature received is drastically different from what Bennett originally proposed, it now has support from both conservation and forestry groups. In Bennett's original draft, agencies under the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry would have been tasked with prioritizing the acquisition of mature forest stands for conservation and placing dozens of undeveloped ponds and lakes into a new management classification, further shielding them from development. By instructing the Land for Maine's Future Board — the state entity that funds conservation land acquisitions — to place parcels with mature tree stands at the top of its acquisition list, Bennett said his original bill would have provided protective actions without regulatory processes. The bill also included measures to promote the study of Maine's oldest forests, intended to spur new conservation strategies down the line and entrench late-successional, old-growth forests at the center of forest management plans. And the bill went beyond forest protections. Bennett also included a provision directing the Land Use Planning Commission, which oversees Maine's unorganized territory, to reassign undeveloped lakes and ponds to a more protective class that limits development near shorelines. Such proposals won approval from conservationists and environmental nonprofits across Maine, but drew criticism from DACF officials and forestry groups like the Maine Forest Products Council. DACF official Judy East testified that the proposals were developed without input from key stakeholders and would be a costly addition to the department's already heavy workload. Similar criticism arose from the Maine Forest Products Council, a trade group representing landowners, loggers, truckers, paper mills and foresters across the state. In his testimony, MFPC Executive Director Patrick Strauch wrote that L.D. 1529 'establishes predetermined outcomes for forest stands on private land without any consultation with the landowner community.' Instead of jumping forward to land acquisition policies and reclassifying Maine lakes, Strauch said the state should first work with stakeholders to determine how and where to conserve older forests and lakes while acknowledging the multiple uses, like recreation and timber production, that state management plans allow for. John Hagan, who co-authored the 2024 report from environmental nonprofit Our Climate Future that surveyed the state's unorganized territory, encouraged both sides to come to the table the same way they did to support his team's mapping project. 'I hope we can all come together, work together, support this bill, and come up with a practical plan to conserve (late-successional or old-growth) forest before it's gone and the question of saving it becomes moot,' Hagan wrote in his testimony. Ultimately, both sides did. The amendments added across two committee work sessions removed more immediate, sweeping development restrictions but maintained and fine-tuned instructions for state agencies to study and incorporate forest and lake protections in long-term management plans, all for an estimated cost of $75,000. Instead of reclassifying undeveloped Maine ponds and lakes in the near future, the new version now instructs the Maine Land Use Planning Commission to evaluate the decades-old Lake Management Program and determine whether reclassification is needed. It also instructs the state Bureau of Forestry to conduct research that follows the work done by Our Climate Future and sets a 2026 deadline for the DACF to compile statewide strategies to enhance its conservation. The end result is a bill that the Maine Forest Products Council and environmental nonprofit Natural Resources Council of Maine both support. 'Mainers recognize that these are really unique resources that we have,' said Luke Frankel, director of NRCM's Woods, Waters, and Wildlife Division, and the bill is 'a promising path forward to protecting older growth forests.' ___ This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Maine lawmakers try to thread the needle on forest protections
Late last year a team of ecologists came to a dire conclusion: without new conservation and management initiatives, half of the oldest forests in Maine's unorganized territory could be gone in the next 35 years. A bipartisan bill introduced by state Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford) aims to reverse that trend while also protecting Maine's undeveloped lakes and ponds through prescriptive conservation measures. After overcoming initial opposition from state officials and forest industry groups through multiple compromises, the bill was unanimously voted out of committee and approved by the state Senate this week. Although the version of L.D. 1529 the full legislature received is drastically different from what Bennett originally proposed, it now has support from both conservation and forestry groups. In Bennett's original draft, agencies under the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry would have been tasked with prioritizing the acquisition of mature forest stands for conservation and placing dozens of undeveloped ponds and lakes into a new management classification, further shielding them from development. By instructing the Land for Maine's Future Board — the state entity that funds conservation land acquisitions — to place parcels with mature tree stands at the top of its acquisition list, Bennett said his original bill would have provided protective actions without regulatory processes. The bill also included measures to promote the study of Maine's oldest forests, intended to spur new conservation strategies down the line and entrench late-successional, old-growth forests at the center of forest management plans. And the bill went beyond forest protections. Bennett also included a provision directing the Land Use Planning Commission, which oversees Maine's unorganized territory, to reassign undeveloped lakes and ponds to a more protective class that limits development near shorelines. Such proposals won approval from conservationists and environmental nonprofits across Maine, but drew criticism from DACF officials and forestry groups like the Maine Forest Products Council. DACF official Judy East testified that the proposals were developed without input from key stakeholders and would be a costly addition to the department's already heavy workload. Similar criticism arose from the Maine Forest Products Council, a trade group representing landowners, loggers, truckers, paper mills and foresters across the state. In his testimony, MFPC Executive Director Patrick Strauch wrote that L.D. 1529 'establishes predetermined outcomes for forest stands on private land without any consultation with the landowner community.' Instead of jumping forward to land acquisition policies and reclassifying Maine lakes, Strauch said the state should first work with stakeholders to determine how and where to conserve older forests and lakes while acknowledging the multiple uses, like recreation and timber production, that state management plans allow for. John Hagan, who co-authored the 2024 report from environmental nonprofit Our Climate Future that surveyed the state's unorganized territory, encouraged both sides to come to the table the same way they did to support his team's mapping project. 'I hope we can all come together, work together, support this bill, and come up with a practical plan to conserve (late-successional or old-growth) forest before it's gone and the question of saving it becomes moot,' Hagan wrote in his testimony. Ultimately, both sides did. The amendments added across two committee work sessions removed more immediate, sweeping development restrictions but maintained and fine-tuned instructions for state agencies to study and incorporate forest and lake protections in long-term management plans, all for an estimated cost of $75,000. Instead of reclassifying undeveloped Maine ponds and lakes in the near future, the new version now instructs the Maine Land Use Planning Commission to evaluate the decades-old Lake Management Program and determine whether reclassification is needed. It also instructs the state Bureau of Forestry to conduct research that follows the work done by Our Climate Future and sets a 2026 deadline for the DACF to compile statewide strategies to enhance its conservation. The end result is a bill that the Maine Forest Products Council and environmental nonprofit Natural Resources Council of Maine both support. 'Mainers recognize that these are really unique resources that we have,' said Luke Frankel, director of NRCM's Woods, Waters, and Wildlife Division, and the bill is 'a promising path forward to protecting older growth forests.'
