With both the City and Province (and by extension taxpayer) being funding partners in the Keystone Centre, the finances of the sprawling 540,000 square foot facility have been a frequent topic of local conversation.
With one stroke of a pen that dialogue is taking on a very different form today after Premier Brian Pallister announced this morning that the Province is investing $2.9 million in the facility. The funds will have the effect of retiring all debt including mortgages, saving interest expenses of $300k annually.
The Keystone has been in the news in recent weeks for having an active entry in the popular Kraft Hockeyville competition in the hopes of winning $500k for arena upgrades. At that time it was said that the main Westoba Place arena was to be in need of $1.8M in upgrades in the not too distant future. Hockeyville or not, one could presume that being on its newly more solid financial footing will have the Centre in a much better position going forward when it comes to addressing such challenges.
The City, no slouch itself in funding the Centre, via its Twitter account took a moment to note the significance of today's announcement:
The full press release from the Province is at:
https://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?archive=&item=45101
Updated, Mar 4 @ 11:10am: Added City of Brandon reaction tweet