The Cabri marina is undergoing a big makeover this year, with the big focus points being more capacity for boaters, and more usability during low water levels. 

Initial planning for the project started back in the winter of 2017 with a marina subcommittee, who looked at expanding and upgrading the area.  

A member of the volunteer board for Cabri Regional Park, Paul Hammerton, said getting approval took up the most time of the process.  

“The first five years pretty much until spring of this year were spent getting the necessary consents from the Water Security Agency and others,” Hammerton said. “Because there are obviously concerns about marine habitat as soon as you do anything in the vicinity of the lake.”  

Early this year, they received the go-aheads to get their project started, and presented their plans at a public town hall meeting in Cabri.  

Within the span of a week, they had raised a total of $120,000 just from selling $5,000 multiyear packages, which allows folks to tie up their boats in the new space.  

“We're well on the way to being full,” Hammerton said. “Out of 72 docks, we've got 47 committed, so there's only about 25 left.” 

He adds that they hope to be open for business early next summer by working through the fall and winter to install the new docks. 

The Cabri Regional Park Marina is the only marina on the south side of the Saskatchewan River between Medicine Hat and Riverhurst. 

“The existing patrons are pretty excited by what they've seen and they'll be even more excited next year when it's fully usable,” Hammerton said. “And anyone who hasn't been to the park recently or hasn't been to the park ever, come down and take a look because Cabri Park is a little gem. We're really excited about it and we think and hope that a lot of other people will be too.”