Shea Stadium: Minister Shea Delivers

Summerside Raceway gets promised federal cash
Another $11.4 million announced for aquaculture research, other projects
Last Updated: Friday, January 23, 2009
Gail Shea, the federal cabinet minister responsible for Prince Edward Island, says the province will get $12.9 million funding for various projects. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian press)
The federal government has chipped in more than $1.5 million to help turn the Summerside Raceway into a modern multi-use venue with new stables that can accommodate 80 horses.
Gail Shea, the federal cabinet minister who holds responsibility for Prince Edward Island, made the announcement Friday as she distributed $12.9 million worth of good news for the province.
"The historic Summerside Raceway has been a gathering point for Islanders for 120 years," she pointed out.
Shea hailed the jobs that will be created as the existing horse buildings at the Summerside track are torn down and the new ones –— including tack and feed rooms as well as washrooms and wash, bath and test stalls — are constructed.
The money will come from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency's Innovative Communities Fund and Service Canada.
Canada Games venue
Running as a Conservative candidate for the Egmont riding in the fall federal election, Shea had promised to secure funding for the project in time for the 2009 Canada Summer Games, which Summerside will host.
The Raceway has been slated to host the kickoff of the national athletic event, leading to deep local concerns over its condition.
"The opening venue as it stands right now will be that dilapidated, leaking building that's falling into the ground," Coun. Brent Gallant told CBC News in August 2008.
"Prince Edward Island will be the laughingstocks of the Canada Games to have hosted such an event with a facility such as that."

Atlantic Lottery to run operations
Other support will come from the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, which is providing more than $2 million toward the project, and the City of Summerside.
Work on the project should start almost immediately, since officials hope the completed facility will be ready for action by July.
The lottery corporation will lease and manage the harness racing and other operations at the complex.
Other projects funded as well
Shea, who serves as fisheries and oceans minister in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cabinet, also announced $11.4 million in federal funding for a number of other P.E.I. initiatives Friday:
$2.9 million to Aqua Bounty Canada in Souris to develop sterile Atlantic salmon for the commercial industry, helping reduce the chance farmed salmon will escape and interbreed with wild salmon.
$1.6 million for Atlantech Engineering to design better equipment for salmon farming.
$2 million for Charlottetown's SolarVest to help research oils in algae with a view to their possible use in health products.
$1.2 million to renovate the Holman's building in Summerside.
$1.6 million for Biomed Atlantic at UPEI to pursue for its work on testing drugs aimed at helping seizures, strokes and schizophrenia.
$2.1 million to support the Atlantic Veterinary College's research into helping horses recover from serious muscle and bone injuries