ON THE HORIZON: Kimberley Alpine Resort will be home to a new conference and paralympic training centre. —photo by Jeffrey Cooper

The City of Kimberley is moving forward with its planned conference centre after $2 million in funding was provided by the federal and provincial governments. The conference centre will also feature a paralympic training and performance facility—the first of its kind in Canada. The two projects, along with other recreational upgrades in the community, will enhance Kimberley’s profile as a tourist destination and world-class training centre.

“The conference centre is something we’ve been exploring for a while,” said Mike Dodd, the chief administrative officer for the City of Kimberley. “I think what helped it along was the paralympic training centre. They’re two separate projects but it made a lot of sense to fold the projects together . . . to have one footprint rather than two separate buildings.”

Funding was already in place for the training facility as well as for improvements to the alpine training run, hockey arena, curling rink and Nordic trail system. Dodd said the conference centre will benefit local businesses in and around Kimberley as the city’s tourism industry continues to thrive.

“We had done a feasibility study which did point to a conference centre being something that would attract tourists to Kimberley during the shoulder season . . . which would attract investment in the community as well,” said Dodd.

The City-owned conference centre will be located at Kimberley Alpine Resort, one of the Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR), and Dodd said that RCR—along with other stakeholders—have been instrumental to the project.

“RCR is putting up the land and have made a cash contribution,” said Dodd. “It makes sense to have it there because a lot of the accommodation in the community is located around the resort.”

The project is still in the early stages of planning, but it is hoped that construction will begin in the spring or summer of this year.