Whitehorse Daily Star

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CONDEMNED – The steel girders that support the roof of the outdoor rink in Carmacks began shifting years ago and the structure was condemned. Most recently, the adjacent curling rink to the left of the steel structure was also condemned and is currently being demolished. The community is looking for a new indoor arena. Photo by DALE BEST

Carmacks desperately wants a new arena, with artificial ice

Carmacks Mayor Lee Bodie says a new arena in Carmacks would mean so much to the community.

By Chuck Tobin on May 18, 2018

Carmacks Mayor Lee Bodie says a new arena in Carmacks would mean so much to the community.

It would be much more than a hockey rink, or a place to go skating. It would do much more than double as a new curling facility.


It would be a year-round, heated space, an anchor for Carmacks to use in hosting community events through the year to attract visitors from other communities, the mayor said in an interview this week.

“It is a beautiful building,” Bodie said of the drawing he’s seen. “What is being built is a multi-purpose building. It’s not just a sheet of ice.”

Bodie said he has not yet received confirmation from the government that the project is a go.

The government, however, has indicated in its tender forecast that the construction project is scheduled to go out for bid on May 31. The forecast says construction is expected to begin in late July, with anticipated completion date of Aug. 31, 2020.

The government’s five-year forecast contained in the territorial budget regarding capital projects also has the construction beginning this year and ending in 2020.

Community Services Minister John Streicker said this morning 25 per cent of the project cost has been approved for funding by the Yukon government. They’re now waiting for approval from Ottawa, as the project requires 75 per cent funding from the federal government’s Small Communities Fund, he said.

“We made a commitment to it because we know it is a priority for the community,” he said. “So we decided to keep moving forward with it and we are pretty confident will get approval from the feds.”

Streicker said it’s premature to discuss the overall project cost.

Of the eight incorporated communities in the Yukon, Carmacks is the only one without an indoor arena, though not all arenas have artificial ice.

The arena is designed to be attached to the community’s recreation centre next door.

The mayor said the community’s covered outdoor rink was condemned seven or eight years ago because of the shifting steel girders that hold up the roof.

“The land was not properly prepared and all those big girders are sitting on posts and the posts are sitting on permafrost but the permafrost had started to melt which was causing the posts to move, which was causing the girders to bind,” Bodie explained. “To look at them you would not know but the insurance guys pointed out two of them. All it would take is one good earthquake or one good shake.... We cannot afford anybody to be injured so we shut it down.”

Most recently, the mayor added, the curling rink adjacent to the outdoor rink was also condemned because of sloughing ground conditions. Demolition has started and it’s almost complete.

The steel girders will be coming down next, and the new arena is expected to be located on the same site, he explained.

Bodie said after use of the outdoor rink was prohibited, the former government offered the community a $400,000 canvas covered structure, much like the Whitehorse broomball facility off Range Road.

The community was adamant it wanted an indoor arena with artificial ice, even if it meant levying user fees, the mayor said.

It didn’t want a rink that was at the mercy of weather conditions, or something you could only use two or three months a year, he said.

Bodie said they didn’t go with all the bells and whistles but they are expecting a heated facility with dressing rooms and artificial ice.

The community has learned through extensive research that you can turn an arena ice surface into three or four curling sheets in a day or so, and then back again in the same amount of time, he said.

The mayor said when the ice is out, it could be used for a skateboard park, for basketball, or just about anything, along with a list of different community functions.

And it’s being designed so that the construction of a swimming pool in the future can be attached.

He said heat from the artificial ice plant would provide heat for the recreation centre, and perhaps the swimming pool one day.

“It provides an opportunity for the Village of Carmacks to grow as people,” Bodie said.

The Star has heard the price tag being kicked around right now is in the neighbourhood of $14 million.

Asked if that was accurate, the mayor said initial discussions began with a price tag of $7.5 million, and then rose to $10 or $11 million. Most recently he has heard $14 million as an estimate, Bodie said.

Comments (3)

Up 0 Down 0

Walter B Linck on Jul 31, 2018 at 2:18 pm

I lead Trane's Recreational Markets team. We have applied to the tendering authority to provide an alternative bid on the new Carmacks arena based on our synthetic refrigerant packaged chillers (a similar system to what we provided for the Dawson City artificial ice plant). Our application was denied as the current design is based on CO2 which is a new technology - AKA expensive. It seems shortsighted for a remote community to take on a new technology system given the operational uncertainties and lack of local expertise. Anyway, why wouldn't a less costly system even be considered?

Up 1 Down 1

My Opinion on May 26, 2018 at 8:05 pm

@56 Yukon

Exactly. They are a Nation right? Buck up for your people. Get some mining revenue coming in.

Up 2 Down 3

56 Yukon on May 22, 2018 at 5:23 am

If you want it apply for some funding approach the FN to front most of the money. We all can't just have a wish list someone has to pay.

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