Weyburn, Regina – The Regina Rally Against the Carbon Tax and its associated convoy are full steam ahead for April 4.
The event is expected to see hundreds of vehicles, mostly trucks, coming into Regina. Many will be from southeast Saskatchewan, but organizers have called for participants from throughout the province, not just in the oilpatch, but agriculture, industry, and all walks of life.
A recent development has been a request from Regina police that all vehicles participating have a sign in their windshield saying "CONVOY" so they don't get a ticket from the red light cameras. Details on that request can be found here.
For Estevan and points east, the plan is to gather on the east side of Estevan at KRJ yard and subdivision, located immediately south of Finning Caterpillar. Be ready to leave Estevan by 7 a.m., when the convoy will head to Weyburn on Highway 39, taking the truck bypass around Estevan.
Weyburn area trucks will stage south of Weyburn on 22nd Avenue facing east. They will merge onto Highway 39 by Weyburn Salvage at the southeast corner of the city. Local police will be controlling traffic.
Once merged, the convoy will continue northwest on Highway 39 to Highway 6, then continue north towards Regina. The convoy will turn east on the grid road on the south side of Rowatt (which will be marked “convoy”). It will continue east for 6 miles then turn north and continue for four miles to Highway 33. There it will turn northwest onto Highway 33 to proceed into the city.
Trucks from Regina and surrounding areas will meet at Cara Dawn Transport’s yard at 8 a.m. at 1512 Fleet St N, Regina. That is north of the Regina landfill, and NOT within the residential area on the east side of the city (be careful, as entering this address without indicating N into your GPS could lead you into a residential subdivision).
Any trucks from other areas in the province can go to Cara Dawn yard the night before or that morning for staging. This group will then proceed at 9:30 a.m. to the staging area, on new bypass between Highway 1 and Highway 33.
The Estevan/Weyburn group will lead the convoy into the city, with the Cara Dawn group joining it from the north. The plan is to merge the Estevan/Weyburn group with the Regina group shortly before 10:45 a.m.
The goal is to enter Regina at 11 a.m., heading westbound on Highway 33 (which becomes Arcola Avenue) to Saskatchewan Drive. The convoy will continue through the city to Lewvan Drive. From there the convoy will turn north on Lewvan and procced to the exhibition grounds, entering from the Lewvan entrance.
The convoy will then park on the grounds. The rally will take place in the Queensbury Centre. The program is slated to start at 2 p.m. Premier Scott Moe will be the headline speaker.
The intention is to wrap up speeches by 3:30 p.m. and the convoy will exit the city on Lewvan north or south.
“That’s the goal,” said Dale Mainil, one of the organizers.
Four points of protest
The convoy and rally are focusing on four points:
- Support the fight against the carbon tax
- Build pipelines
- Kill Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act
- Kill Bill C-48, which will ban oil tankers off the northern British Columbia coast
There are several speakers being lined up for the rally at the Queensbury Centre, but the lineup has not been formalized by press time.
“We want everyone involved. This isn’t just an oil and ag thing, it’s affecting everybody,” said Darcy McCormick with Jerry Mainil Ltd. in Weyburn.
Mainil said, “This is important for the next generation, as well as the current. You know how long it takes to build pipelines. If we don’t get this message out and continue to pound out this message, we’re going to be landlocked with our production.
“There’s estimates the carbon tax will cost the ag sector $8 an acre, and that’s just initially, and it’s going to go up every year.”
Anyone planning on participating in the convoy should go to https://www.reginarallyagainstthecarbontax.ca/ to register so that organizers can provide Regina police with an accurate number of vehicles. Updates will be posted on the Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/ReginaRallyAgainstTheCarbonTax/
Watch for a route map to be published on pipelinenews.ca prior to the convoy date.
