Feds, province to contribute combined $33 million for new Martensville rec centre
CBC
What started out a decade ago as a dream to build a new hockey rink in Martensville is now becoming a reality on a much bigger scale.
A proposed multi-purpose recreation facility in Martensville is getting about $33 million in federal and provincial money.
The $44-million facility will include a regulation size ice surface with spectator seating, a leisure ice surface, a full size indoor artificial turf facility, an indoor rock climbing wall and an indoor playground.
"It's so great to be able to see everyone so excited who put so much time and energy into this," said Martensville Mayor Kent Muench.
"It's really a story of passion and resilience and volunteerism and coming together and just really proving that you can actually make great change if you have a group of really passionate people."
The federal government is putting in almost $18 million while the province is adding about $15 million. The city has to come up with the other $11 million.
Muench said the community originally began fundraising more than a decade ago to build a new hockey rink with a $13-million budget, but as time went on the concept for the project just kept growing.
The city enlisted a consultant, who identified a need for an indoor turf facility, child friendly spaces, meeting rooms and cultural space.
"We said, 'you know what, yeah, that initial $13-million goal, that's great and we're doing that … but let's plan for the future,'" Muench said.
He said the site could add a third rink in the future.
There are also plans to have retail spaces on the outside of the building to help with operating costs.
Jesse Reis, chair of the Martensville Community Recreation Project, which has raised $1.7 million over the last decade, said all the volunteer work has paid off.
"You could just see the need for it in a young community that's vibrant, and people just want to attach themselves to something and grow and meet and and hang out and have a great place for their kids," Reis said.
The volunteer group raised funds using everything from cabarets to three-on-three hockey tournaments to casino nights to hockey drafts.
Kamloops Coun. Bill Sarai has apologized after admitting he secretly recorded his argument with Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson in January 2023, then sent a snippet of the conversation to the mayor, suggesting someone else had recorded it.
Yellowknife city council removed $550,000, intended to operate its own dog pound, from the city's draft budget on Monday.
The RCMP says it's considering deploying Mounties-in-training to help police the Canada-U.S. border as political anxiety over border control mounts in the face of tariff threats from the incoming Trump administration.
The death and destruction in the Crosschild family didn't stop at the domestic murder of Autumn, a 25-year-old Indigenous woman killed by Brandon Yellowfly, the man she once wanted to marry.
Josh Smee imagines a future in which food banks no longer exist in Canada, because people don't need them.
The Toronto Transit Commission board has voted to ban electric bikes with lithium-ion batteries from TTC vehicles and stations from November 15 to April 15 each year due to safety concerns.
Prince Edward Island now has a law on the books to regulate service dogs, but it could be two more years before it comes into effect.
The partner of a man who went missing near Chetwynd, B.C. more than six weeks ago says she believes their dog, which disappeared at the same time, has been found alive.
WARNING: This story contains details of sexual assault and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
Multinational food corporation Cargill said on Tuesday it plans to cut roughly five per cent of its staff, or about 8,000 jobs.
The season's first blast of winter weather continued Tuesday in the region and north of the city with some schools and school purpose vehicles cancelled and plows out in force on the roads.