N.W.T.'s francophone school board petitions City of Yellowknife for gym funding

Yellowknife's city councillors are deliberating this week on the 2017 city budget, and the N.W.T.'s francophone school board is hoping that they'll be a part of the discussion.

At a special city council meeting Monday night, groups from across the city presented items for consideration in the 2017 budget. The presentations included a request from the Yellowknife tennis club to resurface the city's courts, as well as the local climbing club asking for a climbing wall at Yellowknife's fieldhouse.

The meeting also included a presentation from Yvonne Careen, the superintendant of the N.W.T.'s Commission scolaire de francophone. She's asking for $500,000 to increase the size of a proposed gymnasium at École Allain St.-Cyr school.

The school board secured a commitment from the territorial government to build a gymnasium at Allain St.-Cyr earlier this year, after half a decade of legal battles. However, the proposed gymnasium is too small for the school's needs, says Careen, and so the board is turning to the City for help.

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Careen says the school board would like to see a gymnasium 540 square metres — slightly larger than the gymnasium at Range Lake North School. The territory is prepared to pay for a 404 square metre space — one square metre larger than the gym at K-5 J.H. Sissons School.

"We believe that is too small considering the fact that we're a kindergarten to grade 12 school, and soon to add pre-kindergarten students," said Careen.

The $500,000 contribution from the City would allow the school board to bring the size of the gym up to 476 square metres, said Careen. Ideally, the additional space would be made up for through funding made available through Heritage Canada. The school board has been lobbying the territorial government to apply for the funding on its behalf.

'It's a precedent that's been set'

In her presentation, Careen said that the City has set a recent precedent for assisting with the construction of school gymnasiums, pointing to contributions made at Yellowknife Catholic Schools' Weledeh and St. Patrick's School.

"We're realistic," she said. "We know that Sir John [Franklin High School] has a larger gym, and St. Pat's and Weledeh larger yet. But what we do know is that for the construction of St. Pat's and Weledeh, the City contributed quite substantially to those projects. They contributed $400,000 to St. Patrick's, and to Weledeh, $1.48 million.

"So we know that it's a precedent that's been set."

Careen also said that by helping to build a larger gymnasium, the City would be creating a more attractive facility for evening and weekend booking by user groups — a service which the City facilitates and collects revenues from.

Yellowknife's facility utilization rate has been previously reported at 63 per cent, but Careen says that includes smaller gymnasiums that are not usable for many sports like volleyball and basketball. Another small gym, she said, would only compound the problem.

"If they were to build another gym that's a tiny gym, it would not help increase this utilization rate, it would reduce it more," she said. "If they contributed financially to building one that was 540 square metres or thereabouts, at least it would be another sizeable space."

Careen says that she's "cautiously optimistic" about the gymnasium funding making it into the City's 2017 budget. However, she says that the school board continues to seek out additional sources of funding, including partnering with territorial sports organizations and corporate sponsorship.

"They have a lot of difficult decisions to make," said Careen. "Their amount of money that they have to play with is limited."

The 2017 budget will be presented to the public on December 12.