REGINA — A brand-new Saskatchewan town with more than 2,500 residents will appear out of nowhere 100 kilometres north of Regina this spring.
The multimillion-dollar temporary work camp is being built near the Gordon First Nation to house the huge workforce needed to construct BHP Billiton’s Jansen potash mine.
Craig Alloway with Calgary-based Atco says this will be the largest project on record for the company.
The camp will feature two-storey modular buildings and a dining hall for 1,200 people.
Each of the 2,500 bedrooms will have a private washroom, while the temporary community will boast a hockey rink, a gymnasium, squash courts and a movie theatre.
Atco has partnered with the Gordon, Kawacatoose, and Day Star First Nations to create the camp which will house many workers from those communities.
“(They will have) first preference for employment opportunities and contracting opportunities to help support the ongoing construction project,” said Alloway.
The plan is to keep the camp open for three years but Alloway predicts it will be in existence for much longer.
Chris Ryder with BHP Billiton said this is another sign of the project starting to move forward.
“The camp is a very good sign, the fact that we’ve sunk two shafts almost 30 metres so far is a very good sign,” he said.
He added the temporary housing site is not a result of the housing crunch across the province.
“You can’t just expect local communities to absorb that many construction workers on a temporary basis,” Ryder explained.
He also reaffirmed the company’s plan to hire more First Nations workers.
“Everything that we’re doing is really geared toward building the capacity to be able to hire as many First Nations and frankly other local employees as possible,” he said.