At the Annual General Meeting on 12 March 2019, it was revealed that the city of Ottawa has selected the Corkery Community Centre for expansion.

A year ago we held a meeting to inform Corkery residents of two project options; rink covering and/or building expansion. We made it clear that we want to complete both of these projects, but the order in which we undertook these projects would be put to a vote by the residents in attendance. The winner was the rink cover, so Peter spend countless hours researching and putting together a comprehensive plan. Over the course of last summer, the original estimate of $400k increased to $800k, making the project less achievable in the time frame we were originally hoping for. A Major Capital Grant application was submitted to the city with the updated information, but due to the cost and undesirability of a soft cover, the grant was rejected.

The good news is that Rural Affairs has offered Corkery the opportunity to accept the rural building expansion annual funding for the next two years – just over a million dollars – to expand our building! We will be forming a committee to determine the needs of our community and drawing up plans for the expansion within the next few months. It is our goal to start construction next year. We will still need to do some fundraising in order to get the building that our community desires, but this is now an achievable goal within the next couple of years.

It is our goal to use this building expansion to increase recreational programs and activities and rentals to build income that will go towards a covered rink. Both projects will happen, just in the opposite order than we intended!