Délı̨nę, N.W.T. — the birthplace of hockey — celebrates upgrades to its rink

It's been touted as the birthplace of hockey, and now major improvements have been made to the rink in Délı̨nę, N.W.T. The community plans to use the new facility to promote recreation and tourism in the region.

Délı̨nę's rink, formerly gravel, has now been upgraded to concrete. That means that in addition to a smoother surface that will require just a fraction of the water needed to make the ice, the community can make use of the facility year round for soccer, roller skating and other non-ice sports.

Eventually there could also be hockey in the summer season, once the community has the infrastructure for artificial ice. The community is working to acquire funding for an ice plant that would connect to the facility's new pipes under the surface.

The community of about 500 held an opening ceremony for the facility Friday. Events included a community feast and public skate in the morning, a hockey tournament through the day and a gala to cap the night.

Délı̨nę's Ɂekw'ahtide, or Chief, Danny Gaudet, said the facility will promote activity and community health for kids like Suze Tutcho, who had his first skate on the new ice Friday, and will grow up with access to the new rink.

"Recreation, in my mind, has always been really important," Gaudet said. "When we have great minds, strong minds, in the end we're healthy and our community really benefits from that."

Gaudet said they're looking into a tourism program where families can drop off kids to hone their hockey skills in the sport's presumed home and spend the day fishing on Great Bear Lake — known for its trophy lake trout.

Since achieving self-government in 2016, Gaudet said the leadership has been working toward complete independence from other government programs. He said the rink upgrades, and plans surrounding it, create opportunities for work and major economic growth.

"We have an airline, we have hotels, accommodations and we want to maximize that to our benefit," he said. "I think everybody in the community should be working once we get this program going."

'Quite an operation'

Getting the necessary supplies and equipment into a remote community, accessible only by air or winter road, is no small feat.

Northern Industrial Construction Ltd. (NIC) designed and built the rink.

Project manager Jeff Oldfield said it took 66 truckloads full of pre-mixed concrete and other materials driving from Calgary to Délı̨nę, a distance of about 1,600 kilometres.

"There aren't a lot of trucking companies with the capability and experience to deliver materials to Délı̨nę," Oldfield said, "We reached out to pretty much every trucking company in the Northwest Territories that we knew who does truckloads to winter road communities. We had, I think, eight or ten different companies all doing loads for us in this project.

"It was quite an operation to get all the materials here."

Oldfield said another challenge was that the rink had to be a single slab of concrete done in one continuous pour. That took over 50 hours because of the available equipment.

"We had a day shift and a night shift working around the clock for two and a half days."

That included about 35 people total, 17 on each shift, to fill approximately 250 cubic yards.

Rodney Johnson, NIC president, added that over 90 per cent of the project's workforce was local labour, over half the trucking was with a Délı̨nę-owned company and Délı̨nę artist Daniel Takazo, also part of the construction crew, painted the art surrounding the rink.

The process to improve the rink began under the former Ɂekw'ahtide Leeroy Andre.

It was an idea the community had wanted to pursue for years, but only started to seem realistic after a new preschool in Délı̨nę was completed last year.

NIC held the contract for that project as well, and after the success of the preschool, the community and the contractors started talking about other projects.

Construction started in the spring and finished in November. Community members tested the ice last week ahead of Friday's official ribbon-cutting.

Andre said the community is pleased with the new facility and so is he. He competed in Friday's tournament.

"As I got out of the dressing room, there's some young guys that are shaking my hand and saying, 'thanks for getting this going,'" he said.

"Hopefully they'll take pride in this facility and use it for many generations to come. I want strong, healthy people in the future."

The upgrade cost the community about $2.9 million, according to housing and infrastructure director Phebie Kenny.

Whatever the cost, "it's cheaper to keep this guy active and skating," Ɂekw'ahtide Gaudet said, pointing to a boy doing laps on the new rink.

Now that the upgrades are complete, programming work begins.

Former NHLer Sandy McCarthy will be in charge of kickstarting community fitness, hockey skills clinics and training sessions for coaches.

He became involved through a friendship with Gaudet after the two met years ago at an event in Quebec.

McCarthy plans to be in the community until April and aims to make the programming sustainable for training to continue past his departure. He said he would also be returning to the community next year.

Birthplace of hockey

Délı̨nę's claims on the birthplace of hockey stem from records in explorer Sir John Franklin's diaries. In an 1825 expedition where Franklin spent the winter in what is now Délı̨nę, he wrote "till the snow fell, the game of hockey played on the ice was the morning's sport," according to an exhibit at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.

Residents of Délı̨nę say Franklin's records aren't the only one noting the community as the birthplace of Canada's national sport.

Leonard Kenny said his great-grandmother's account was among the oral histories that continue to be passed down. He said she told stories of people "floating on ice," unsure of how else to describe skating.

Kenny also has something to say to anyone who disagrees that Délı̨nę as the birthplace of hockey.

"Well, we're going to have a really good debate," he said.

"But if you come to Délı̨nę, check us out, you'll know why."