Good news on multiplex front

Parks and Recreation director Jody Hauta released the news many in this city have been waiting to hear: local people will soon be put to work on the multiplex projects.
Work on the soccer field portion of the project is expected to begin fairly soon and once the above-ground work begins, Moose Jaw's Cardinal Construction will be doing the work. That's a major project for the local company and its employees will be guaranteed a few paycheques once the work begins.
Hauta said the downtown location will also be looking for labourers soon and will be drawing from the available pool in Moose Jaw.
While most voters agreed the city needed a new facility, many also believed the injection of work to build the facility was also needed. The timing could not be better with the recession taking hold in Saskatchewan.
Local builders and labourers managed to get by with a housing boom the province was enjoying. But that has slowed in Moose Jaw and this project comes in time to pick up some of those workers who have put their hammers down.
The multiplex project is expected to take more than a year to complete. The contractors hired for the job have had to go outside the local area for some of the work, but once it gets down to the nitty gritty of construction, there should be work for locals.
And that is every bit as important as the structure itself. While the paycheques for locals are nice, in time we also want to be able to look at our new facility and know locals had a hand in building it. We don't want a building that some big shots from corporate Canada came in and dropped on us.
This is our building and it's important for our heritage that much of the work be done by the hands of people who live here and will ultimately use it.