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By Connor Gunn

Lethbridge Council moves Indigenous Culture Centre into future talks

Feb 10, 2020 | 5:42 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB- Lethbridge City Council is moving forward with an Indigenous Cultural Centre for Lethbridge, which is expected to help many different Indigenous groups.

The centre is trying to accomplish many goals within Lethbridge: give Indigenous groups a safe place to settle, help groups learn the ways and heritage of the Indigenous around Lethbridge, and give Indigenous teaching opportunities with a place for growth within the economy.

As brought forward, Perry Stein, the Indigenous Relations Advisor for Lethbridge, brought up points to council that would help the centre gain traction within the community and also that the community can build off from the centre.

In the presentation to council, some of the location plans were discussed and the factors that would go into deciding where the location would be includes the natural surroundings, amount of space it would require, and that it should overlook the coulees.

Given reductions from the provincial government, they will have limited funding for the project, and what that means for how large the centre will be is still in question.

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Some sample sizes they gave in the presentation were:

Minimum size of Centre- 6,600 square feet

Basic size of Centre- 19,000 square feet

Future size of Centre- 26,000 square feet

When considering the funding involved with the project, council still has nothing set in stone, Stein estimated the range would be from five to 20 million dollars.

According to Stein, the project will, “Be something that can start and improve the quality of life for people within the indigenous community.”

“This is a great opportunity to not only meet the needs of the community, but to actually generate new opportunities for the community.”

The project will be next considered in 2021 when talking about the Capital Improvement Plan.