Outdoor hockey rink to “combat the boredom” in Cape Dorset

SARA MINOGUE

Give kids something to do, and you keep them out of trouble for as long as the activity lasts. But give them a place where they can entertain themselves and you keep them busy as long as they have time and energy.

That’s why the RCMP in Cape Dorset are building an outdoor basketball court that can be flooded in the winter to make a skating rink.

Cape Dorset already has an arena with plenty of organized sports, but indoor activities require supervision, gear, insurance and parental permission – and they can only last as long as the arena is open.

“What about the kids that can’t become involved in these kinds of things?” asks Cst. Jonathan Saxby. “Those are the kids we need to target.”

In Cape Dorset, vandalism was the number one police problem when it came to youth. In the two and a half years leading up to the start of the project, the hamlet spent over $90,000 cleaning up damage to public buildings.

To counter that, Saxby says, “we decided to combat the boredom.”

By late last week, Saxby had managed to round up about $250,000 for cement, basketball nets and hockey boards, and volunteers were hard at work leveling a surface for a 140-foot by 80-foot concrete pad outside of Sam Pudlat school.

Last weekend, they planned to start mixing 600 bags of cement to lay a slab of concrete almost four inches thick. Next, they’ll install professional hockey boards – which will remain permanently to cut down on maintenance. Eight basketball hoops will be set into the concrete just outside of the boards, extending inside the arena so they don’t have to be moved when hockey season comes around.

There were few naysayers for the goal of the project – keeping kids aged 7 to early-20s occupied – but some were skeptical about whether basketball was the answer.

Saxby was encouraged during a visit to Iqaluit when he went down to Northmart for groceries and saw the basketball courts across from Nakasuk School.

“There were about 25 kids under each basket,” Saxby says. “I asked some people standing around about it and they said it’s that way all the time. I brought that information back with me to challenge any doubters.”

While Saxby acknowledges that it’s not easy to find the resources for new infrastructure – programming funds are easier to come by than capital funds, he says – he hopes that this project will serve as a template for other communities looking for low maintenance solutions to bored kids.

Money came from several sources. The Government of Nunavut’s department of culture, language, elders and youth donated $35,051. The Nunavut Power Corp. had offered to relocate some community lights that weren’t needed elsewhere, though that commitment had yet to be confirmed. The Northern Store was planning to donate, among other local businesses. Basketball Canada has donated jerseys for the grand opening later this fall.