The ground work and preparations for a new multi-purpose Events Centre and Arena in Red Lake have been completed and now all that’s missing is government support.
Red Lake Mayor Fred Mota says the community is anxious to move forward with the construction of the Regional Event Art and Cultural Hub.
“Red Lake is shovel ready. So if we receive the entire funding today, we are ready to dig tomorrow. The important piece behind this is we need to be nominated by the province to the federal government for funding.”
Mota says “We’ve had multiple meetings with Minister Scott (Infrastructure) and other ministers within the provincial caucus. Minister Rickford is very aware of our project. And we also had a face-to-face meeting with the premier of Ontario.”
He stresses “We’re hopeful that this project, our ‘REACH’ facility, will be nominated and hopefully advance our community for the future.”
Mota says the engineer work and design has been completed and they have the support of the public, user groups, First Nations and neighbouring communities.
The Regional Event Art and Cultural Hub would include a 500 person seating capacity ice rink and a 300 person seating capacity performing arts centre.
The facility would replace the 58-year-old Cochenour Arena and has been in the planning stages since 2011.
Mota says they have land developed off of Hughes Crescent in Red Lake.
The funding allocations for the $30-million project includes 40% federal, 33% provincial and 27% from the municipality.
To hear more from Mayor Fred Mota, visit the Audio link below.
