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Rallying to the cause Darrell Greer Northern News Services Published Wednesday, November 23, 2011
The Rankin Inlet Senior Men's Hockey League donated $10,000 to a new community complex fund, while Rankin Inlet Fitness donated another $5,000.
The donations were made before a large crowd on the opening night of play in the senior hockey league.
Both Coun. Jackson Lindell and Mayor Pujjuut Kusugak addressed the crowd before officially accepting the donation cheques.
Lindell told the crowd he was adamant Rankin deserved the new complex and would do everything in his power to make the project a reality.
"We all know how badly we need a new arena and, hopefully, that will soon be the first stage we see begin on this," said Lindell.
"But this community also needs, and deserves, the rest of the infrastructure the community identified.
"Whether it's a new community hall, swimming pool, whatever, we want it all and we can make it happen."
Kusugak told the gathering he fully supported the new complex, and thanked the hockey league and fitness club for their donations.
But, he said, as appreciated as the donations are, they're only the first small steps in raising enough money to get the project started.
"We appreciate all and any help we get from the government, but this was never about being a Government of Nunavut (GN) project," said Kusugak.
"Everyone has to step up, as a community, if we're going to see this move forward, so I strongly urge everyone in Rankin to do their part to make this happen.
"Senior men's hockey and our other sports in town can't do this alone.
"We need the support of the entire community in order to get this project to the next level."
Senior men's executive member Troy Aksalnik said it's important for the local hockey league to take the lead in raising support in the community for the fund.
He said the community has to come together and support the project if Rankin's ever going to have the complex it envisions.
"The senior league donated this $10,000 to try and get people thinking about how serious Rankin Inlet is about doing this," said Aksalnik.
"The community knows how bad we need this new complex, and everyone has to do their share for us to make it happen."
Fellow executive member and hamlet recreation co-ordinator David Clark echoed Aksalnik's sentiments, saying the senior league wanted to do its part and show the community this isn't just about a new arena.
He said the more the community can raise towards the complex, the better the chance of various levels of government supporting it.
"We're trying to lead by example and encourage other groups to step up and make donations too," said Clark.
"If our (senior men's hockey league) fundraising goes well during the upcoming year, we plan on doing a lot more to help make the new recreation complex a reality."
Rankin Inlet Fitness member Damian MacInnis said many people in the community were upset when MLAs had $500,000 for planning and design of the new complex taken from the GN's capital plan this past month.
He said the fitness club decided to donate to the new complex after that development in the legislative assembly.
"Like everyone else, we were very disappointed when plans for the design of our new complex were turned down by the MLAs and we realized everyone had to do their part to make sure this project goes
forward," said MacInnis.
"So we decided to put some money towards the engineering of the complex to show the community our club supports this project, and we'll do what we can to help make it a reality."
MacInnis said he firmly believes the community can rise to the challenge of putting together enough money to get the attention of both the territorial and federal governments.
He said the right people are in place to bring the project to fruition.
"We've got some good people on hamlet council to move this thing forward, as well as community members, businesses and corporations ready to help out.
"If the community buys into this fully, we'll make it happen.
"There's talks going on with higher officials and things are moving in the right direction, so I'm still optimistic we'll see our new arena built and then the plans will go ahead for the rest of the complex.
"We're determined about the fact this is not just a new arena we're going for, but an entire recreational complex because that infrastructure will help the community, Kivalliq region and, really, all of Nunavut for that matter."
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