[PHOTOS] Quebec City: Discover the interior of the Intact Assurance Ice Center

Regis Labyum insisted that the ice center, which opens its doors at the end of the summer, should not be allocated exclusively for sports.

This is the message that the Quebec mayor rushed home on Wednesday morning during a guided tour of infrastructure in Saint-Fr and its work is now “90-95% complete”.

“14 years ago, this (ice center) was my first (electoral) commitment. Its famous point is important. There are always people who will bring back the fact that it was built only for the upper classes. This is wrong,” he assured.

Each week, 21 free hours of free skating will also be allocated for Quebec’s community population.

On August 28 and 29, the population will be invited to a “party” during the opening of the Ice Center. The details of this context will be mentioned later as the health context varies from week to week.

In the mayor’s view, it is also a question of “correcting historical injustice” that many speed skating champions from Quebec have come up with, despite the fact that the complex does not have such sophisticated interior infrastructure.

Intact Insurance Ice Center

On the other hand, the city of Quebec has announced an agreement under which the equipment will no longer be called the Intact Assurance Ice Center. We learned that the contract would be for at least 10 years. The financial details of this partnership were not disclosed.

On the sports side, we have confirmed the holding of the Four Continents Championship in January 2023 at the Ice Center. A few weeks later, the Masters World Championship (i.e. 35 years and older) is likely to take place there.

The city of Quebec and the federal and regional governments spent $ 68.7 million on the ice center in three equal parts (22.9 million.). The operating maintenance cost, estimated at 4 1.4 million, is largely borne by the municipality.

“It’s a public good to be treated as a public good. But we wanted to negotiate a private matter, among other things, with the right to name the building and leave it to the people who know about competitive track management,” the Quebec mayor explained.

The budget was honored, but delivered late

The budget of the building was really honored, Delivery is one year late compared to the initial schedule.

The equipment will eventually be converted into a sports complex with the Saint-Foie Sports Center and the former Gauteng-Boucher ring, consisting of five ice creams in a single device.

Ice Center

• In the middle of the 400 meter ring are two Olympic-sized rinks, one for short track speed skating and the other for figure skating, hockey and other ice sports.
• Athletic track with three corridors, fully fenced and 465 meters long.
• In addition to these new facilities, the former Saint-Phoebe Sports Center has two skating rinks of North American dimensions.
• This type of building would be the only intact insurance ice center in eastern North America; Other icebergs of this size are found in Calgary, Fort St. John, Milwaukee and Salt Lake City.

Source: Quebec City