After over 10 years of fundraising and planning, Assiniboia is finally having the grand opening event for the brand new Southland Co-op Centre.

The centre will offer a space for the community to host events and it has a wide variety of activity centres.

“We have a lot of features in the facility. We have an NHL-sized ice arena, we have a walking track, a teens centre, a multipurpose gym, a meeting room… We’ve also got a 30-foot climbing wall that’s being installed as well,” says Curtis Nelson with the Assiniboia Civic Improvement Association (ACIA).

The venue also features a massive tailgate plaza with a 25-foot outdoor screen and speakers that will showcase sporting events.

The facility will also be an events centre for the community.

The ACIA has fundraised for over ten years and brought in funding from the provincial and federal governments to make this dream come true.

The project costs over $15 million.

Of that, The town was able to secure $11.5 million in funding from the provincial and federal governments and the ACIA was able to fundraise the remaining $4 million needed.

The building took roughly 18 months to build and as of today, the doors are officially open.

For today’s grand opening, the centre is hosting a variety of events.

“We start at nine in the morning with the pancake breakfast hosted by the Southland Co-op,” says Nelson.

The breakfast is free for the community and it leads into a variety of events and activities for the whole family.

The activities include bouncy castles, face painting, balloon animals, an outdoor beer garden, a tour of the facility, and much more.

The official ribbon cutting is taking place at 1 p.m.

Live concerts will also take over the venue. Jess Mossaluke is headlining with her show starting around 9:20 p.m. with Tyler Lewis and Lisa Moen opening and doing a cabaret.

Before the concert, a VIP reception and meet and greet with Jess Mosaluke will be available at 5:30 p.m.

The full schedule can be found on Assiniboia’s website.