Cambridge Bay to get larger school gym after all

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

MICHAELA RODRIGUE

IQALUIT — The new school in Cambridge Bay will include a full-size gym, the Nunavut government has confirmed.

Residents of Cambridge Bay have been lobbying the territorial government to provide a larger gym in a new high school that will replace the high school that burned down more than a year ago.

Details of the agreement still have to be hammered out, but last week, residents got the news that an expanded gym will be built .

“I got a very happy call,” Cambridge Bay Mayor Wilf Wilcox said.

Wilcox said that under the terms of the deal, Cambridge Bay residents will raise about $79,000 to help cover the extra cost of a larger gym. The community still hasn’t heard whether the new school will also have the culture and heritage centre it has been asking for.

Education Minister James Arvaluk’s executive assistant Lynn Aylward confirmed the decision has been made to help pay for the larger gym. But she declined to say how much the department will give until a joint-funding agreement is finalized.

“We can’t release the amounts [of money to be spent] until everything has been finalized,” she said.

In recent weeks, Wilcox has asked the Nunavut government to hurry up and make a final decision on the dimensions of the new school.

After the fire, Northwest Territories officials gave residents a choice between an pre-existing school design or a built-to-suit design developed with community input.

Residents were told the final design would have to receive approval from the Nunavut government, Wilcox said.

Residents choose to go with their own design and asked for a larger gym and space for a culture and heritage centre.

But those additions will cost more than any insurance money received after the fire, said Brent Boddy, the Kitikmeot’s regional superintendent of public works.

The 100-square-metre addition to the gym is estimated to cost an extra $395,000. The 200-square-metre heritage centre is expected to cost an extra $525,000, Boddy said.

Cambridge Bay wants to use the larger gym to host community events.

“Let’s be happy we have one thing figured out. It’s been a long, long, long fight,” Wilcox said.

“I’m happy, I’m glad it’s almost over,” said Brenda Jancke, chair of the Ikaluktutiak District Education Authority.

Like Wilcox, Jancke became frustrated waiting for the Nunavut government to make a decision. But she said she was glad community input on the design was sought.

Wilcox said a meeting will likely be held next week to begin fund-raising for its share of the project.

Wilcox speculated that some users of the gym may be willing to help pay.

Students at Kiilinik High School have been shuffled between a handful of different buildings since their old school burnt down.

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