A rendering of what the Prince Albert Events Centre would look like if it is built. (P.A. Council agenda)

By Susan McNeil

Development

City of Prince Albert still hopeful federal funding in works for event centre

Sep 8, 2025 | 2:30 PM

The City of Prince Albert is still working on securing grant funding for an event centre in The Yard district and hopes that federal investment in infrastructure will help make the project a reality.

The item came up at a recent committee meeting with Mayor Bill Powalinsky telling paNOW afterwards. that hiring lobbyists can bring positive results.

“So many doors have been opened with his contacts and connections in Ottawa that it’s really enabled us to have meetings with ministers and senators and the Secretary of State for Rural Development, Buckley Belanger,” Powalinsky said.

Last year, the city signed an agreement with Douglas Richardson, a Saskatoon-based lawyer that also works as a lobbyist in Ottawa.

They also have a Memorandum of Understanding with the Woodland Cree Nations that was signed in September to try to get the facility built as a jointly owned and operated building.

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“We’re at the point where we feel that things are going well,” Powalinsky said. The federal election in April slowed the process down a bit.

“Now we’ve regained the momentum. The period that we are at now in this project is that we’re extending Doug’s contract month by month.”

Should federal funding be secured, they will then need to begin talks with the province to also kick in some money.

“If all doors are closed, if something happens federally and those options disappear, then Doug’s work with us is over,” he said.

The committee has done the groundwork, but all decisions must go to council for a formal vote before it can be approved.

Talk of a federal austerity budget doesn’t mean that that they have given up hope as the focus has now shifted to building infrastructure.

“I know that the federal government has to pivot, just like any level of government, ourselves included,” Powalinsky said. “You really want to take a look at what’s going to promote growth and employment and what’s going to support our Canadian industries at that scale and obviously, steel and lumber and other goods that we export are very, very important to infrastructure development.”

What the federal government has decided is ‘in bounds or out of bounds’ is not yet clear, but Powalinsky sees it as a positive sign.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has spoken publicly about a deeper look at expanding the Port of Churchill which, if successful, would direct a lot of new traffic through Prince Albert as a way point from Alberta or western Saskatchewan.

Any development in northern Saskatchewan or even parts of Manitoba will impact Prince Albert to some extent.

While the transportation routes already exist, Powalinksy said that it is up to industry to do their thing to develop the business part of the question.

The good news is that the city is in a good location.

“PA is very strategically positioned, whether it’s, you know, increasing the rail line, I’d say hypothetically from PA to Nipawin so that there’s a rail line going directly up to Churchill,” he said.

He would also like to see some larger or emerging companies decide to make Prince Albert their headquarters and an operating base.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social