Hay River’s Western Arctic Marine Training Centre says it wants to develop a student dormitory on Vale Island.
Executive director John Vandenberg said the organization is in early discussions with the town about the idea. While no final decision has been made, he said the need for student housing is becoming increasingly urgent.
“We’ve had discussions with the town to explain to them what we’d like to build there,” he told Cabin Radio, “and they’re looking into the possibilities of how we might do that with the existing zoning requirements.”
The centre, founded in 2023, trains northerners for careers in marine transportation
Vandenberg said proposal is driven by the ongoing challenge of housing students who travel to the town for training. According to him, the centre has limited on-site accommodation and many students must stay in local hotels, often at significant cost.
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He said the lack of dedicated student housing puts the training centre at a disadvantage compared to other post-secondary institutions, which typically offer dormitories as a more affordable and reliable option.
“If they don’t pay for the hotels themselves then we have to pay for the hotels and it’s a very expensive process,” he said, adding that while a short course of three to four days might be affordable for some, a program lasting 12-15 weeks is not unless the centre makes arrangements for students.
The size of the dormitory would depend on available funding. Vandenberg said the centre is considering a minimum of 24 units, with the possibility of expanding to 40 or more if partnerships can be secured.
The training centre recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Canadian Coast Guard Academy to support training at its facility. Vandenberg said there may be opportunities to develop shared infrastructure, including accommodation that could be used by both students and visiting personnel.
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No funding has been secured for the project so far, but Vandenberg said the centre is exploring its options.
“There are several programs that the federal government is promoting to support projects in the North – to support the military, support sovereignty – and there are other programs involved in supporting educational endeavours,” he said.
“We have some optimism that we can come together with public and private sources in order to fund a project like this.”
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Vandenberg said one way the centre is looking to make the project more affordable is by seeking donated accommodation modules from mines and construction projects in the territory.
He said the kind of units commonly used in work camps could be repurposed into a modular dormitory behind the school.
Even if funding is secured and necessary planning is completed in time, Vandenberg said construction would not likely begin before 2027.
“You can imagine that it would cost perhaps as much as $5,000 a day to put 24 students into hotel rooms,” he explained.
“That’s not an affordable thing for even a larger college for the most part, and it is a barrier to the students that we’re trying to attract – who often are low-income students or perhaps don’t have the means.”
