La Broquerie studying new community recreation and performance space

La Broquerie is looking to hire someone to study the designing of a new community gathering space that could include a new library, daycare, indoor playground, performance area, pickleball, walking track and other recreation.

Council passed a motion at its last meeting on Jan. 8 to request proposals for the creation of a functional design study. The study would include input from the public, council, and stakeholders that could use the space.

Whomever is hired would identify what La Broquerie’s needs and wants are, then draw up a potential facility that could be used by residents and people from around the region. A preliminary budget to build and maintain the new facility would be included.

Deputy Mayor Laurent Tétrault said the study will help give a cost estimate, and the RM would seek grants after it is completed. He added that there is a location already in mind.

“We would attach it to our rec centre that we have now. We have lots of land; we don’t have to buy land. We’re well organized: we have parks and we have room to expand,” said Tétrault.

He said the exact location of which side of the current rec centre a new facility could be built onto or beside is to be worked out.

There will be at least one public meeting to gather ideas for a new facility before the study is completed.

The budget for the study is $100,000, with half coming from the province and $25,000 each from the RM and library Bibliothèque Saint-Joachim.

The library is now located in the DSFM French-language school École Saint-Joachim. That limits its public hours during school months to after 3:30 p.m.

There is also a movement away from having public libraries in schools as other school divisions cite student safety and a need for space in growing communities. Red River Valley School Division’s St Malo School lost its library space in favour of a daycare, and St Pierre is moving out soon, too.

“Our municipal library is in the school and there’s no more room for us there, and we’ll have to move away from the school. So we thought – it was brought forward by Fern Piché who is on the library board for us – and he felt that we should add to our rec centre, and I agree with that. That’s why we’re having plans made now and we will be discussing that in the near future,” said Tétrault.

There has been no official notice from DSFM, but Tétrault made it clear the writing is on the wall for a growing community with a growing student population.

The province is encouraging municipalities to join together to form regional libraries, giving financial incentives to do so. Councils from communities including Steinbach, De Salaberry, Niverville and Ste Anne have confirmed their interest in possibly working together on a Southeast library system. Coun. Piché said in October that the RM is focused on getting its own building before moving ahead on any regionalization.

The new gathering space would serve all ages when it comes to recreation options, according to Tétrault.

He pointed out that La Broquerie is a community with an average age of just over 28.

“We have a very young population. Recreation is important,” said Tétrault.

“My thoughts on that is there is a lot of crime and drug problems in this country, and I believe if there would be more leisure and recreation for young people and even older people, it would eliminate some of the problems that we have in our country.”

He added access for seniors is also a priority. That is why pickleball and a walking track are under consideration.

But before any large facilities or more homes can be added to La Broquerie, sewer and wastewater capacity needs to be addressed. Council in a split vote decided to join the Red-Seine-Rat Wastewater Cooperative, which is building pipes connecting lagoons across the Southeast and a plant north of Niverville now priced at nearly $200 million. The co-op includes Hanover, Niverville, Richot, De Salaberry, Tache, and now La Broquerie after it approved the buy-in cost of $505,650 from its lagoon reserve at its Jan. 8 meeting.