A Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation community is reeling after a fire left its only hockey rink unusable.
A fire partially destroyed Southend’s canvas roofing on its hockey rink early Saturday morning.
Band Councillor Kevin Morin says it is a big loss for the community.
“That’s all we had for our kids, there’s not much you can do in the north,” said Morin in a conversation with MBC Radio News. “The closest community to skate is La Ronge, two and a half hours, where our kids could try to skate. So that’s all they really had.”
Morin says the community hopes to re-purpose the covered rink as an outdoor rink for the remainder of the season, as long as it is safe to do so.
(Morin says the rink was basically an outdoor rink with a cover-all and no heat. He says it would be frigid in there in colder weather and was one of the reasons the community was hoping for a new rink in the future. Photo provided.)
Morin says Southend has been trying to get a new arena built for years. He says they have built up $7 million in savings, but will need much more to build the rink they are hoping for.
The Southend councillor says he will continue lobbying governments and private industry to help fund the replacement.
“I would really love the mining companies, the government, the province to help us out because we have been sitting on this money for so many years.”
No word on how the fire started.
(Top photo provided by Kevin Morin.)