GN works on comeback plan for Rankin arena

Lorne Kusugak, minister of Community and Government Services said Oct. 21 that a motion to scrap funding for Rankin Inlet’s new recreational complex won’t set the project back. The member for Rankin Inlet South-Whale Cove said the plans to fund an arena only should be back on the table by the legislature’s next sitting. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Lorne Kusugak, the Nunavut minister of Community and Government Services said Oct. 21 that a revised project brief for Rankin Inlet’s new hockey arena should be ready for review by the legislative assembly’s winter session.

MLAs voted Oct. 20 to delete $500,000 budgeted for the design of a new recreation complex in Rankin Inlet from Nunavut’s proposed 2012-13 capital budget, a move that stalls the arena project.

MLAs turned against the plan when they discovered that the scope of Rankin Inlet’s project had gone from a basic arena to a multi-plex complex that would house a games arena along with a curling rink, convention area and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Nunalik MLA Johnny Ningeongan, who filed the motion, said he supported the idea of a new arena for Rankin Inlet, but was concerned that details of the project weren’t clearly laid out.

“At the end of the day, it was a design for an arena only,” Kusugak said Oct. 21. “All [the regular members] who spoke for the motion all said they would support the planning and design for the arena. We’ll come back.”

Although Kusugak said the arena plan wasn’t a number one priority for his department, he said plans for the arena’s construction should be back on the table by the winter session, and if not then, by next summer.

The original project briefing summary, provided to Nunatsiaq News, described the current state of Rankin Inlet’s 24-year-old arena as suffering a roof leak, electrical issues and poor ventilation.

The arena’s dressing rooms are only equipped to hold 10 people while the arena itself can only hold about 500 in a community of 2,500, the summary said.

The new arena complex would be equipped with seating for over 1,000 people.

But MLAs took notice when the summary went on to describe the new complex including a soccer pitch, exercise and weight room, curling rink, convention area and Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The briefing said it was “not practical to determine the cost estimates until the feasibility study is completed and the scope of the work is known.”

MLAs who voted for Ningeongan’s motion said they supported the construction of a new arena – but couldn’t justify the large-scale recreation complex when many Nunavut communities don’t even have regular pools.

Rankin Inlet constituents were disappointed at the result of the vote, but some were equally upset that cabinet members abstained from the vote, a normal legislative procedure in Nunavut when a regular member presents a motion.

In a letter sent to Nunatsiaq News, Rankin Inlet councillor Kyle Sheppard called the practice an “affront to democracy.”

“We elect individuals to represent us, and expect them to do so on every vote. (On Oct. 20) the communities of Arviat, Whale Cove, Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, Cape Dorset, Kimmirut, Clyde River and Qikitarjuak were left without a member in the Legislative Assembly,” Sheppard wrote.

“You are elected to have an opinion, and express it by voting, and when you choose not to, you fail your constituents.”

But Kusugak said that members “already had the numbers” to pass the vote.

MLAs who supported the motion had also offered an “olive branch” by saying they would support the money if the project was re-submitted as an arena only, he said.

“I felt personally that I didn’t want to be counted standing up against that vote,” Kusugak said.