The Blairmore Centre involves the development of a multi-district park in the Blairmore suburban development area. The Blairmore Centre includes Tommy Douglas Collegiate, Bethlehem Catholic High School and Shaw Centre, a new civic recreation facility.

The partners, Saskatchewan Learning, City of Saskatoon, Saskatoon Public Schools, and Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools have developed a unique collaborative approach to integrate their resources (land, building, programs and services) in a common location, while continuing to respect the unique mandates of each participating partner.

The vision for the Blairmore Centre came from the community. The vision is to create a destination centre, built on partnerships and community values, offering programs, activities, and services in a diverse and inclusive setting. The facility will provide a location for city-wide programs and provincial, national and international competition.

SHAW CENTER

Blairmore Centre Partner Roles 

In today’s environment, there is recognition for the need of governments, boards, private business, and non-profit agencies to work together to offer a wide variety of programs and services in the most efficient manner possible. The current partners each have an important role in the delivery of programs and services that will together offer the residents a multi-district park/school site that is a destination centre.

The overall role of the City of Saskatoon in Integrated Community Centres has always been with the goal of providing opportunities in the community for people to experience leisure and enhance the quality of their lives and the quality of life in the community.

In the Blairmore development, the City of Saskatoon is taking a significant lead role in the development of the multi-district park by providing:

• Leadership in the development of partnerships for the provision of programs, services and facilities on the site;
• Assurance that programs and facilities are developed in accordance with the community’s needs, wishes and values;
• Funding to develop the park, roads and services for the site;
• Development of a master plan for the site that meets the space requirements for outdoor and indoor facilities today and into the future;
• Stewardship to ensure that development of parks and recreation facilities on municipal reserve meets the intent of the Planning and Development Act.
• Assurance the centre will provide opportunity to combine health, wellness, sport, and leisure service, therefore the City will explore opportunities for public, private and not-for-profit investment in the provision of services.

The overall role of the schools has expanded dramatically in recent years with issues facing schools today reflecting the increasing complexity of society. With the changes in society the education and well being of our young people has now become a shared responsibility. In 2001, the Task Force on the Role of the School undertook a public dialogue focusing on the changing roles of schools and recommended a new vision for schools called SchoolPLUS.

SchoolPLUS is about giving children and youth what they need to be successful in school and in life. SchoolPLUS focuses on schools as centres of learning, support and community for all children, youth and their families. Achieving SchoolPLUS is a shared responsibility. It engages families, students, educators and community members in actively working together with human service systems to give our children and youth what they need to succeed. The vision of SchoolPLUS will be incorporated into the design of the two new high schools.

Saskatoon Public Schools have built a new public highschool, Tommy Douglas Collegiate, that is integrated with the community centre. Tommy Douglas Collegiate offers challenging, relevant learning opportunities for our young people. The collegiate was carefully planned with the community and partners to enhance education and community development.

Saskatoon Catholic Schools have built the Bethlehem Catholic High School within the Blairmore development and hopes through joint-use agreements to provide students access to new indoor and outdoor sports facilities, and to provide the community access to the new high school, within the bounds of the faith-based educational mandate.

The Saskatoon Public Library is planning for a new suburban branch library that will be integrated with the community centre. This public library is planned for construction in the year 2009 or later. The timing of construction will be directly tied to the population growth in this area and available funding for the capital construction. Saskatoon Public Library's future role in this project is to provide library services within the framework of the library's mandate and vision.

SUPER WALLMART

SmartCentres has applied for its development permit from the city and filed its site plans for the 31-acre Blairmore location it owns at the city's west edge. The plans don't identify which stores are included, but the anchors are expected to be Wal-Mart and a building supply outlet. At 183,000 and 152,000 square feet, the anchors would dominate the site and stretch typical expectations of store dimensions. The larger store would be 63 per cent larger than the footprint of Credit Union Centre and significantly bigger than the Stonegate Wal-Mart, currently Saskatoon's biggest store. The shopping centre and its "super-huge" anchors will balance west-side development with the rest of the city, said the ward's councillor, Maurice Neault. The shopping centre would include a proposed 375,000 square feet of retail space including the anchors and six smaller buildings. "I'm excited about the retail," Neault said. "If you ever go shopping to the (Confederation) mall and Superstore, Canadian Tire area, any evening or Saturday, Sunday, you take your life in your own hands. That suburban centre is just jammed."The Blairmore big-box mall will be south of 22nd Street and east of an undeveloped site earmarked for a hotel, office space and multi-unit housing.Along with stores, the shopping centre can include a long list of uses, such as pharmacies, clinics, gas bars and up to two freestanding restaurants. Neault expects those to be major restaurants, not fast-food outlets.Movie theatres, car dealerships and nightclubs are among the prohibited businesses.SmartCentres is planning to create 1,785 parking spaces, slightly more than required. Vehicle access to the site is expected to be off Betts Avenue and Hart Road.