FSJ has a huge speed skating community compared to the size of the city. In general FSJ is also desperately in need of hockey surfaces. I hope they are able to pull it off and get it built.

correction - the City of Fort St. John has approached the federal government for funding, and have not yet received it - confirmation if the city can expect a federal contribution is expected to come in late June. Word is that because of the new goverment it is taking Harper's people a little while to get their ducks in a row and start signing cheques.

Also, I wonder who the opponents of the project are.. So far, I have not heard of a group or a person taking a stance against the project.. care to name your "opponent?"

I assume that the opponents are the taxpayers who will have to pay for this facility and the cost of maintenance for years to come. No doubt it will go to referendum and will decided then.

Gee only a 20% tax hike, and a lowwwwwwwwww operating cost of 1.2 mill a year....Heck they should not just build one.
Go with the more is better theory and build 9.
Why only partially bankrupt little FSJ, when you could really tank its economy.
Maybe they can send a team to tour PG, and see how bad the roads etc. get when the city wastes to much on stupid stuff.
If an FSJ'ers need a tour i will gladly drive you around in my 1 ton Ford for a bit and show you how smooooooooooth its suspension is.

Hopefully the planned 30 million dollar FSJ indoor facility will kill the idea for a 7.6 million dollar outdoor oval in PG.

Which serious athlete in his/her right mind is going to skate in windy 30 below weather outdoors when a proper indoor facility is beckoning just a little farther north?

I don't have Shaw Cable 10 so I didn't get to watch council last Monday. Was council told of the FSJ project?

According to Opinion 250, the group stated that this would be the only such facility west of Ste. Foy. Since that is the only refrigerated outdoor oval in Canada, it would and we currently only have one indoor one in Calgary, it is would also be the third refrigerated oval in Canada.

However, they may have forgotten about the one in Ft. St. John. In addtion, they may have forgotten about the one in Peterborough, Ontario which I believe is about to begin construction. They have been working on theirs for a while and have more than half of the money required to build the $11 million facility in place. (Actually, I recall seeing a report that it was more like 80% of the money).

The interesting part about that one is that they are using geothermal energy and the heat which will be generated in the cooling process will be pumped to two schools and there will be excess from the sounds of it which would heat 600 houses.

So, if we are going to build this thing, why are we not doing that and heating the other facilities on the exhibition grounds in that fashion.

Everyone is all hep about this bioenergy conference here today and tomorrow. Time we looked at the ground we stand on as well for local energy needs.

this is a report from 2005 when the projected cost was only around $5 millionhttp://www.icekubesystems.com/pdf/LakefieldOval.pdf

A news release from Jan. 2006 stating that Catriona Le May Doan is the official spokesperson for the proposal
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists/Gross/2006/01/28/1415878.html

A news release from April 2006 (I believe) stating that the province has kicked in about $850,000
http://www.400eleven.com/pr-outdoor-rec.html

a report about geothermal energy which mentions Lakefield oval
http://www.nextenergysolutions.com/Publicity/TheStar_down_to_earth.pdf

Interesting to see that there are 3,000 speed skaters in Ontario. They have 3 times the population of BC. with most of them living in snow country as opposed to BC's lotusland mentality of palms growing in boulevards. So, do we have 1,000 speed skaters? and PG and region's population is about 3% ofthe province which would make it 30 speed skaters here?

We are, of course, speaking about "serious" speed skaters who are interested in moving up in the system to feed into the Olympic calibre of skating. Expensive undertaking for such few serious users.

There are many more skiers here than speed skaters. It would make more sense to invest in snow making equipment at Tabor to provide training opportunities to skiers and snowboarders since Tabor is never guaranteed snow in the early part of the season.

Maybe we should put all the funny ideas
1. Ice skating Oval
2. Replay board at the CN Centre
3. New Police Station
4. Co-Gen Plant to heat buildings with water.
5. New Bridge across the Nechako River

on the back burner and do nothing for the next few years except look after the infrastructure in the City and Pave our roads. We would save sufficient money so that our taxes could be reduced.

After a few years, and one more civic election, when hopefully we will get a new mayor and council, we can look a some long term fiscal responsibility.

Is this to much to ask for????

Hey Palopu,

Stop it , seriously dude stop that attitude right now.

How dare you swing the hammer of common ense.
This is politics we are talking about.
And there is no room for common sense in politics.