NIPAWIN — Nipawin’s Jubilee Arena is receiving about $1.2 million in federal and provincial funding to add four permanent dressing rooms with washrooms and showers.
This comes as part of the new COVID-19 Resilience Stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
Currently, skaters that want to use the Jubilee Arena are required to use the Centennial Arena dressing rooms.
Chelsea Corrigan, Nipawin’s director of parks and recreation, said that has caused problems when both arenas are used at the same time.
“There are no dressing rooms or washrooms in the Jubilee Arena area, so all the services are accessed through the Centennial Arena,” Corrigan said. “It’s very difficult to schedule the dressing rooms when both arenas are being used.”
Corrigan said this problem only heightened amid the pandemic and physical distancing requirements.
Through the program, the federal government is investing more than $21.2 million in 55 projects, and the province is contributing over $16.4 million.
For the dressing room project specifically, the Government of Canada is investing $669,000, the province is investing $558,000, and the Town of Nipawin will be responsible for $446,000.
The town’s portion has been previously tentatively allocated the funds on their annual budget as a capital item.
Corrigan called the addition “a huge asset for the operations of the arenas.”
“It will help us to operate it more effectively, more efficiently, and just make it easier to make the teams participate.”
Rennie Harper, Nipawin’s mayor, said that people will be able to tell Nipawin residents by the big smile on their faces over the next few days.
If it wasn’t for the grant program, she said it’s unlikely they would have been able to do the project “for quite some time.”
“Not everybody gets chosen for a project, you can tell by the list. Lots of people apply for different things and whether or not you get chosen is always up in the air, you don’t know,” Harper said.
“To come up with a million dollars for a capital project for dressing rooms, there were probably lots of other projects standing in line before that would happen. This will allow something we’ve needed for a while to happen.”
Construction is expected to be completed within the next year to meet the 2022 deadline.
