Construction of Sport Centre Officially Underway

Friday, May 19, 2006 03:17 PM

The Atrium at UNBC welcomed a sizeable crowd as the University of Northern B.C. celebrated the official start of construction of the Northern Sport Centre.

On hand for the event were the local MLA’s including Deputy Premier Shirley Bond. She told the crowd the Northern Sport Centre is going to be an extraordinary facility :"It will most importantly, allow our students to train closer to home. That is what’s important, in the north we deserve to have the same equity of oppourtunity that exists across the province. Today, as we turn the sod, that is absolutely a demonstration of how we need to continue moving forward in the province."

The Province has contributed more than $20 million to the project whih has a total bill of $30.75 million.

Prince George Mayor, Colin Kinsley, praised those who had worked so hard to make the centre a reality, and talked about the importance of the facility "When it comes to retention and recruitment of students, this is a must, It is so many things to the community, so many things to the Region, it is not just for Prince George, its is for all of North Central British Columbia."

All those involved, representing all levels of government and involvement in the development of the Northern Sport Centre, toss some earth at the site for the new facility, which is to be ready in time for classes in Spetember of 2007.

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Posted on Friday, May 19, 2006 03:17 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Chadermando on May 19 2006 5:35 PM

The old man has built every building up there so far, as well as the recent CNC building in Quesnel and sounds like he will be working on this one as well. He's been looking forward to this project for a while now.

Posted by: Gofaster on May 19 2006 6:24 PM

I think a spell check would be in order too....lol
I have days like that too.....

Posted by: Gofaster on May 19 2006 6:24 PM

Not you Chadermando the writer of this article....

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on May 20 2006 7:28 AM

Add another 10 percent to the bill for the gym and we would have the money needed to build the extension to the airport runway needed to really put BC on the map.
I'd rather see the money spent on a new business rather than a gym for the jocks.

Posted by: Chester on May 20 2006 8:53 AM

As nice as it is to provide a wonderful training facility for our university, I wonder if it is more important than other needs in our community or our province?

I also wonder if we can afford it? Just because the government is putting up $20 Million, doesn't mean we can afford it. I read yesterday that the BC Teachers are considering a strike vote. Kind of ironic that money is being released into structure, yet it's not available for the employees who are responsible for providing the people who will use the structure. Chester

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on May 20 2006 12:31 PM

I'd be totally against blowing 20 million on increasing teachers salary's.
Teachers need to be fiesty to keep the kids in line, so we don't want them getting all fat and happy. Next thing teachers will want two months a year off for holidays!
Interesting stat that men are going on to something else and leaving the new class room culture to the women. It's not about being an instructor, there is something else going on that men don't like.
In any cae obviously throwing more money at it is going to help what ever the problem is. Put the money into pavement.

Posted by: Chadermando on May 20 2006 1:16 PM

I agree an airport expansion is far better money spent than the new sports facilty at UNBC, but both are needed in order for PG to expand its horizons and secure its future.

The way I see it that $20 million from the Province will be spent by the Lower Mainland politicians on one of their pet project anyways, and so any dollar we get returned to our economy is a plus. If this $20 million was announced for a new sports center for SFU I'd bet not one person in PG would blink an eye at it, because it would be seen as standard practice of government spending Northern dollars on Vancouver projects.

If we subsidize the rest of the province with 90% of our tax dollars than we should not be stabbing each other in the back when we see a sliver of it returned for a Northern project, even if the project is not to everyones liking.

Facts are we pay enough provincial and federal taxes to have the Sports Center, Airport expansion, a four lane highway to Vancouver, a dangerous goods ring road around PG, and a army reserve base in PG. So the question should not be why not one over the other, but rather why not a little bit more of our tax dollars being repatriated to those who pay the taxes to provide the other services we are not recieving for the tax dollars we as a region are paying.

The question of the cities contribution is a whole nother argument.