The Centennial Civic Centre has served as the main arena in Lloydminster for nearly 60 years. Times, however, are changing, and the town is gearing up for the future in the new Cenovus Energy Hub.
Read more: Cenovus Energy Hub construction update
With the Cenovus Energy Hub nearing its expected opening date, it’s important to understand what the new arena does for the city and why it’s being built.
“Building a facility with as much opportunity to get 360 days use out of a year as possible, that’s the intention of the main facility,” said Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers.
The Civic Centre, while still functional, is beginning to show its age.
“From an engineering perspective, and I’m not an engineer, but the challenge is, a building is built at a certain time, to a certain code, a certain way. Choices made at that time were not the choices we’d make today,” said Aalbers.
An engineering report revealed the Civic Centre would take major funding to rehabilitate, and a decision had to be made on the future of arenas in the city.
“The discussion back and forth was, well, how long will that last us? They couldn’t give us a clear definite time because there were many items identified,” he explained. “We looked at a new building and that’s where we ended up coming forward.”
The Civic Centre also has design flaws that cause issues.
“If we have a two or three-inch rainfall event, the Civic Centre is unusable because our staff have to get the water out of it because it runs in due to the design of the building,” said Aalbers.
Funding has been a major point of discussion since construction started. The arena is budgeted to cost over $100 million, the city passed a borrowing bylaw of $33 million to help fund the arena.
Of the funding, $11 million came from reserves with fundraising and sponsorships, making up $8 million. Commercial retail unit sales will make up the final $5 million.
Government funding has helped push the project along.
“The funding for that new building, we started applying knowing there was potentially infrastructure money with Saskatchewan and Canada, known as ICIP (Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program),” said Aalbers, noting there were hurdles when it came to applying for funding.
“We could apply based on a $50 million project and most we would see is what we saw, $16.5 million from the federal government and $16.5 million from Saskatchewan,” he said.
The funding all started at the provincial level.
“Saskatchewan first had to approve it as the province. They shipped it up to the feds and the feds went through their process and approved it,” said Aalbers.
An issue the city faced from the beginning was the lack of buy-in from Alberta.
“One of the challenges we knew we would be going into is that Alberta didn’t have any money,” said Aalbers. “We could have potentially got $12.5 million from the feds, $12.5 million from Saskatchewan and $12.5 million from Alberta.”
Choosing to take the guaranteed money from the federal government and Saskatchewan, the city began the application process to Alberta.
“We went through that whole process, and as we saw on that budget, there was a budget submission to a department. We went through the draft and the application and provided all the information,” said Aalbers. “Like many projects in the Government of Alberta, they didn’t make it through what’s known as treasure board.”
A major dilemma council faced was how to move ahead, as waiting would only hinder the ability to get funds.
“If we started the project today, there would be zero dollars from the federal and provincial governments,” he said. “That was one of the dilemmas council faced, do you take what you can potentially get or do you wait and hope it gets better.”
Council wrestled with the issue in front of them of how to proceed and where they could get money from.
“We came forward and brought a borrowing bylaw for up to $33 million,” said Aalbers.
Aalbers says funds for the remainder of the project could come from reserves or a second borrowing bylaw, if needed. He says the appeals to Alberta haven’t ceased.
“We will be going back to the Government of Alberta again in the next budget and asking for support,” he said.
If the city had waited to build the new arena, increased costs through inflation and now tariffs would’ve played a big factor in the total cost.
In the past, the city has raised funds for projects through donations and sponsorships.
“The community has stepped forward in so many examples,” said Aalbers, citing projects like the Bioclean Aquatic Centre and the Vic Juba Theatre.
Companies and people who choose to sponsor these large facilities in Lloydminster get to enjoy some added benefits.
“This is an opportunity for a legacy for families, businesses, and can use it as an advertisement,” said Aalbers.
With the new Cenovus Energy Hub, Aalbers says they are looking to elevate the community.
“What it’s going to do is elevate an already elevated community on a national, provincial level for events,” he said.
The new arena will allow Lloydminster to host bigger and better events, attracting people to the city.
“It opens us up to a whole new series of events that people did not think Lloydminster could host,” said Aalbers. “With the design that was used at the Cenovus Energy Hub for the main venue, it was designed to be as good quality for hockey viewing as it would be for a concert.”
He noted sound design was also taken into account when designing the arena.
Events and sports are a key focus of the facility, and Aalbers says they’ll compete on a global level to attract and retain talent to work in Lloydminster.
“If a doctor came and said ‘You know, this community takes the quality of life very seriously after the eight to five or whatever shift they work,’ because that’s what families look for,” said Aalbers.
The new event centre has a primary arena with seating for 2,500, expandable up to 4,500 floor seats. A second full-size indoor ice surface with permanent seating capacity of 500 and a third outdoor ice surface, directly adjacent to the building.
The area will also serve as an entertainment district. There will be walking trails, slo-pitch diamonds, an outdoor park pavilion, powered camp stalls, a hotel, and six commercial retail units.
The Cenovus Energy Hub is set to open in the fall of 2025.
Read more: Cenovus Energy Hub receives sponsorship
