The provincial government has come through with funding for a new arena on the Wauzhushk Onigum Nation (Rat Portage).
$9 million has been promised through the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund.
Minister of Sport Neil Lumdsden says it was a very competitive process to secure the funding.
“When we sit back and look at the number of applications that we had, first off, we had $200 million in the budget, we had almost $1.2 billion in requests and applications,” explained Lumdsen.
“So, that goes back to my original point, that the applications had to be really good.”
Lumsden adds there are two streams available through the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund.
“It was all over the map based on the requests. But again, those that moved forward, whether it was stream 1 or stream 2, did an excellent job of not only fulfilling the obligation of filling out the application properly, but probably also talking to the regional advisor, making sure they did it well.”
Under the program, one stream was to upgrade existing recreation infrastructure, and the second phase, which Wauzhushk Onigum was successful in, was building new recreation infrastructure.
Chief Chris Skead says recreation center will also include a walking track and a weight room.
He expects first phase of the project will start in September.
Previously, the federal government had promised $8.6 million through its Green and Inclusive Buildings program towards the project.
