WESTLOCK – The Legal Arena and curling rink is receiving some much-needed upgrades thanks to a multi-million-dollar project funded mostly by the federal government.
More than a year in the planning, the Legal Arena and Curling Rink Retrofit Project will see the feds spend more than $7 million to retrofit the facility, as announced in early December by Edmonton Centre MP Randy Boissonault, minister of tourism and associate minister of finance. The total cost for the project nears $9 million and is an 80-20 split between the feds, who are spending $7,159,360 via the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings program, and the town, which will contribute $1,789,840.
“A couple of years ago we did a full structural and energy assessment on the building and the results were not good — based on our structural assessment of it, it needs to get done,” said Town of Legal mayor Trina Jones. “The town’s hockey and curling rink facility is an important focal point of recreational activities for residents of the community and surrounding areas. The project will ensure continued access to community services and programs in a safe, barrier-free, modern, and energy efficient facility.”
The Green and Inclusive Community Buildings program is a part of Canada’s climate plan, providing $1.5 billion over five years towards green and accessible retrofits, repairs or upgrades of existing public community buildings and the construction of new publicly accessible community buildings that serve high-needs, underserved communities across the country.
Jones noted the federal funding will allow the town to modernize and expand the building’s structure and optimize the centre’s energy efficiency by 18 per cent and will provide other upgrades including additional space that will make way for a larger ice surface, more dressing room space and a community activity area. The curling rink and the lobby of the building will receive some energy retrofits while the back portion where the ice surface and bleachers are located, will be torn down and rebuilt.
The improvements are expected to reduce the facility's energy consumption by an estimated 31.8 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions by 59.4 tonnes annually.
Jones said the arena and curling rink are well used in every season, by the town’s 1,300 residents.
“We always have our winter programs with the curling, skating, hockey. We’ve had ringette and schools use it for their hockey academy, but even during the summertime we use it for our summer programs — we have community groups meet there, we’ve had soccer practices there. It’s an all-year round community hub basically.” said Jones, noting how the upgraded facility will benefit future users as well. “It’s going to be a building that everybody has access to with more programming, more events (and) we’re actually expanding the ice surface so we can recruit older teams, bigger tournaments, and adult leagues,” she added. “We hope to expand those programs as well and bring in possibly some out of town visitors.”
With the federal funding announcement, the town can now move forward with requests for engineering, architects and construction companies, “which is going to take some time” said Jones adding the town is hoping to have shovels in the ground no later than March 2024 with the project completed in time for 2025 hockey season.
