With just a year to go before the doors open to the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre, we had the chance Friday afternoon to get a sneak peak of the progress being made inside the building.
Red Deer College invited the media to take a look inside of the $88 million centre of health, wellness and sport, which is being used to host the Canada Winter Games in 2019.
Some of the buildings features include an Olympic-sized ice surface, a 200 metre track and a performance gym.
Director of Capital Projects Doug Sharp said another feature to be excited about is the solar panelling.
“All of the roof area except for Great Hall roof will actually be populated with solar panels that will basically collect the energy from the sun and convert it to electricity and will be creating the equivalent of one megawatt of energy which is substantial in terms of energizing parts of our campus.”
RDC President Joel Ward said the building will also go a long way into the college becoming a polytechnic university.
“If we’re going to be a polytechnic university, if we’re going to be offering degrees, if we want to be that type of institution than we need to have world class, first class facilities.”
“This is one of the very best in the country.”
Ward says the building is on time and on budget with it set to open by September of next year, six months before hosting the Games.
Wed, Apr 24, 10:00 AM
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