By Ashley Wiebe

Community celebrates grand opening of JBS Canada Centre

May 13, 2017 | 4:25 PM

BROOKS, AB — Community members gathered inside the new field house at the JBS Canada Centre and watched as Mayor Barry Morishita cut the red ribbon Saturday afternoon, officially marking the grand opening.

The expansion included adding the multipurpose field house and doubling the size of the library.

City council had committed more than $20 million for the project and Morishita was happy to see it completed on time and on budget.

“It’s the expectation of what our community should look like and who it should be for,” he said, following the ribbon cutting.

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The city also left room in the budget to be able to expand the fitness centre and curling facilities.

The massive renovation is something the city had planned for years.

“The idea of the expansion has been around ever since we did the leisure pool space back 15 years ago so it’s always been there, it’s just a matter of having the resources and the capacity to do it,” Morishita said.

The multipurpose field house space can play host to numerous sports, including indoor soccer, basketball and volleyball.

Morishita also noted how important it was to expand the library and include it in the centre.

The old space was roughly 8,000 and was in a different area of the city.

“In our community, particularly because we have such a multicultural and a lot of new Canadians are trying to learn about the surroundings, this is a great resource for them, both in terms of being part of the community and integrating with the existing community. And then also finding the resources that are there,” Morishita said.