Northern Sports Centre: The Model of Success?

Cliff Dezell, the board chair for Northern Sports Centre Limited, says it’s very satisfying to see the soon-to-be opened facility being held up as a template for other community drives, according to Opinion250 News.

With no obvious funding sources, but a definite desire in the city’s arts, cultural and academic communities, City Centre Ventures is hoping to spearhead a community-based effort to build an Arts Centre downtown. The first public forum went last week.

The bid for the sports centre began in much the same way, Dezell says. When UNBC couldn’t afford a sports facility, reps from the city, regional district, university, business and sporting communities formed an ad hoc steering committee to further the cause. He says it was fortuitous that the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics were coming, so the local group successfully lobbied the government for funding.

The former long-time councillor says the community has a proven track record of some weighty accomplishments because all the various stakeholders work well together - the city, regional district, community groups and the provincial government.

"And that unified approach, he says, looks good when lobbying for funding. "It’s perhaps the most important reason why Prince George and the region has done pretty well over the years - is that, we have generally, as a community and as a region, gone to senior government as a unit, not as competing interests."

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