You're Invited: Groundbreaking Ceremony

You are invited to join the City of Meadow Lake and our partners to celebrate the start of construction of this new and exciting infrastructure. Quorex Construction mobilized to the project site in July of 2023 – and there are already a couple of dozen piles in the ground!

We want to remind people to please respect the site safety fencing and to not enter the construction site. Tours of the site are not being offered due to the construction activity.

After some brief opening comments, there will be remarks from dignitaries and some of our project team. At this time, we can confirm that among the dignitaries speaking will be: the Hon. Jeremy Harrison, MLA for Meadow Lake on behalf of the Government of Saskatchewan; His Worship Merlin Seymour, Mayor of the City of Meadow Lake; Reeve Dale Sheppard of the Rural Municipality of Meadow Lake, and Chief Tyson Bear of Flying Dust First Nation. This part of the program is scheduled for roughly 20 minutes, followed by the official groundbreaking photos with ceremonial hardhats and shovels. Following the official photo opportunity there will be a media scrum for media to interview dignitaries and the project team.

There were several local people who were instrumental in the success of the construction and fund-raising for the old Arena here in Meadow Lake. We regret that many of those people are longer with us but we have reached out to the people and their families who were some of the individuals that were instrumental in the construction of and fund-raising for the former Arena. These individuals are being sent invitations to attend the groundbreaking as our special guests.

These include individuals such as Melba Cariou on behalf of her husband Ray Cariou (deceased) who was the former chair of the Meadow Lake Arena association who did a lot of fund-raising for the Arena. As well as former Recreation Board Chair Gary Wood who did so much more for the facility than just chair the board, and Mae Fournier on behalf of her husband Gabe Fournier (deceased) who was also significantly involved in the success of the former facility. Among the special guests invited were also the Clark family on behalf of Flo Clark (deceased) who was another person who was instrumental as an executive of the former Arena Association, and Nels Anderson who was not just involved in hockey and support of the facility but also taught carpentry and would often bring his class down to get them involved with the construction of the old Arena.

At 11:30 a.m. we will be opening the Civic Centre where people can mill about and view the designs and floor plans for the facility including some impactful 3D renderings. At the same time, we will be serving a free public barbeque and there will be tables and chairs set up in the Civic Centre for people to eat and visit. The BBQ will end at 2 p.m. and the open house will end at 3 p.m. But don’t worry, for those who are unable to make the event in the daytime, the open house will be open again from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Civic Centre.

To commemorate this once in a generation occasion, the City will be giving away commemorative pewter alloy shovel keychains in an antique gold colour with the date and event embossed. These will be provided to dignitaries, special guests, and the project team and to the public on a first come first served basis as long as supplies last. A few of these will be reserved to hand out to those who attend the open house in the evening.