It was an exciting day in Moose Mountain Provincial Park on Tuesday, July 14, as the Minister of Parks, Culture, and Sport Mark Docherty, joined by other Provincial Park officials, celebrated a sod turning of a new service centre at the Main Beach.
Others present in celebrating the new facility included our local Park Supervisor Joan Adams, along with the Deputy Minister Lin Gallagher, Chief of Staff Morgan Bradshaw, and Southeast Park Area Manager Kathie McFarland.
The facility, which is being funded by the government for nearly $700,000, will become a central hub for people to utilize. Not only will it offer a fully accessible public washroom and shower facilities right at the Main Beach, it will also include a programming area for the Moose Mountain Interpreters to use.
“It’s going to be a change house with showers, will be fully accessible, water and energy efficient, and will be a change house meeting modern standards,” McFarland explained. “We’re going to incorporate the interpreter centre currently on the beach and open up the view, so when visitors come to the beach and are interested in what’s going on everything will be centralized.”
Despite the park doing a great job keeping the current change house in good shape it is getting older and isn’t in the same condition it once was, while it no longer meets certain standards, for example it is not fully accessible. The change house also does not currently contain showers for people leaving the beach, which will be a welcomed addition in the new building.
“It’s time; our other building is just shy of 60-years-old and is wearing out,” Adams explained. “The new space will have a front office space for our interpreters, so when they’re running beach programs their equipment can be stored right at the beach instead of back at the interpreter center.”
The day of the sod turning was actually the first day of construction as well, which means it should be finished by next year.
“The idea is to build and use the old building still while the new one is being built,” Adams said. “We’re expecting it to be up and running next year.”
With this exciting new project, Moose Mountain Provincial Park has seen an investment since 2008-09 of over $3 million by the government and capital projects like the new change house are intended to improve the experience of campers visiting the park.
“Moose Mountain Provincial Park is an oasis in southeastern Saskatchewan,” Hon. Docherty stated. “This park is very popular with campers, cottagers and people from surrounding communities. This new service centre will make their experience at Moose Mountain better.”
The funding of capital projects as well as upgrades in Saskatchewan’s numerous provincial parks will total $14.6 million in 2015-16, which is in line with the total investment of over $53 million between a four-year period, having begun in 2012.
