Dignitaries stand with shovels ready at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new arena in Meadow Lake. (Matt Ryan/102.3 CJNS)

By meadowlakeNOW Staff

GROUNDBREAKING

Meadow Lake breaks ground on new arena and multi-plex

Sep 7, 2023 | 12:58 PM

EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of the story stated the arena has 15,000 seats and would be ready by fall 2024.

The capacity is actually 1,500 and should be ready by January 2025.

We apologize for the error.

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It was a huge moment for the City of Meadow Lake as its new arena and rec centre inches closer to becoming a reality.

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The official groundbreaking ceremony for the new Meadow Lake Recreation and Civic Centre was held on Thursday morning.

The $51 million multiplex project has been in the works for years after its long-time arena was destroyed by fire in the summer of 2021.

Originally, the City of Meadow Lake believed they only had enough funds to build a new arena before the RM of Meadow Lake stepped in with just over $2.3 million in funding for a new field house.

On top of that, the provincial and federal governments also stepped in with over $27 million in investments.

Mayor Merlin Seymour was among the dignitaries who took part in Thursday’s ceremony and said there was a lot of work behind the scenes to get to this point.

“All of the work our executive committee has done working with the advisory committees, working with the province and the federal government to secure the grant monies…as well as working with the construction companies that were bidding on the job.”

(Matt Ryan/102.3 CJNS)

Quorex Construction Services was awarded the design-build contract this past spring with Workun Garrick Partnership as the design partner.

Once complete, the new facility will house a 1,500-seat arena along with administration space, and a field house.

For Seymour, it’s hard to imagine that they’re now at this point in the journey towards a new facility, considering they were not sure what they could build.

“Originally, we weren’t going to be doing the field house because of budget money but the RM has come through with some funding. We around the council table came to the decision that if we don’t build this field house now, it’s never going to happen.”

Seymour said that the field house will play host to several competitions including indoor soccer, pickleball and events like trade shows, along with major hockey events in the arena.

An artist rendering of the new Meadow Lake arena. (Matt Ryan/102.3 CJNS)

“We’re just so excited to have a facility like this is offered in a community of our size,” he added.

The city hopes to have the ice surface ready by January 2025.

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@meadowlakeNOW