Affordability, ethics and convenience make students miss Tim Hortons
Students say they continue to miss the Canadian community hub – Tim Hortons at the University of Regina campus.
Fall 2025 term brought numerous changes on the University of Regina campus as many new food and lounge options opened, some replacing old ones while others being renovated.
This was the result of university opting privatization for on campus food services and terminating contract with Chartwells Canada in 2024. Due to this, Tim Hortons restaurant in the Dr. Willaim Riddell Centre closed, leaving many students discontented.
When asked about missing Tim Hortons, Emma McGill, a fourth-year English department student said, “Absolutely! I think it was the best possible food place to have on campus.”
Tim Hortons was not only prominent for coffee and drinks options but also for its lunch menu, as significantly long queues in Riddell Centre were seen during the peak lunch hours.
“The long lines [during lunch time], they would stretch all the way almost to the end of the food court area. But that just illustrates the demand,” said McGill. “It doesn’t make sense as to why they [university] would have gotten rid of it.”
Students also believe having a globally recognized Canadian coffee chain on campus is important at a Canadian institution.
“I think it’s always better to have Canadian [coffee shop], even though Tim Hortons is a big chain [and] it’s all over the place. So, it’s not necessarily ethically sound, but it’s definitely way more ethically sound than [the] Starbucks, especially having an American company replace a Canadian one.”
University has various alternative coffee places, like the Starbucks outside the Dr John Archer Library, Java Junction in the Riddell Centre, Gong Cha in Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport, Momentum Café in Innovation Place and Robin’s Donuts in Campion College.
However, for many students the location of Tim Hortons was convenient and the Java Junction in Riddell Centre currently doesn’t have a variety in their drink’s menu. Apart from the Starbucks café, all the other restaurants are too far from the main campus.
Speaking about the Starbucks, many students mentioned about boycotting it as a part of the BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] movement after the Oct 7th conflict between Israel and Gaza.
One of such students is Lee Lim, a psychology graduate and a current Indigenous Journalism and Communication Arts student at the university.
“[I am] 100% boycotting. I have not gone [to] Starbucks since October 2023,” said Lim. “I still have my gift cards that I got for my birthdays, it has not been touched and I’m never going to get Starbucks.”
McGill shared Lim’s views and emphasized she too is boycotting the Starbucks, “Growing up I had weird feeling about [the] Starbucks… now I know why, so I don’t buy Starbucks.”
Tim Hortons was also one of the most budget friendly restaurants at the university which made it extremely convenient for the university going individuals who might not be very financially sound.
Shivangi Sharma, a fourth-year biology student at the university said, “I would definitely want it [Tim Hortons] back, mostly because, well, the coffee is affordable.”
Affordability was also one of many reasons behind Lim and McGill wanting Tim Hortons to be on the University of Regina campus.
