The Cugnet Centre was officially opened in 2014 and has been used for sporting events, theatrical productions, church services, concerts, a political debate and other community events and meetings. Dance competitions such as Dance Nation have also used the centre. This year, however, Dance Nation will not be taking place at the facility.

Tammy Bhimji is the owner of The Dance Zone, which hosts Dance Nation, is not happy with the way the Cugnet Centre is booked for community events.

"We start planning our event 12 months in advance," said Bhimji. "So, the week after we finish our event we actually start putting together things for the next year and I believe that sometimes it can be just a lack of knowledge on how an event such as ours work. We don't throw together performances in one week."

Dance Zone book adjudicators and catering a year in advance and dance studios book their place in the following years' Dance Nation around the same time. They are, however, unable to book the Cugnet Centre a year in advance. Dance Nation takes place annually during Easter weekend. The earliest they are allowed to book is October, which can be five or six months before Dance Nation.

"It's not realistic that we book two or three weeks in advance before we need the event."

"I'm wanting to make the school and the school board and the City of Weyburn, I just want them to be aware that they have a really great group of performing artists in Weyburn. And we're talking the children of Weyburn as well as bringing business to Weyburn," said Bhimji. "If we all work together I think the venue could be used more economically."

Bhimji said there are 24 dance companies taking part in the Dance Nation competition, which amounts to over 900 dances over the three days of the event. She noted that the event will bring a lot of business to the community and some businesses even rely on the influx of people coming into the community.

"We created Dance Nation as a way to provide our families with a local opportunity to compete. Competing is a huge part of the Dance community. We were finding ourselves having to travel a lot."

The first Dance Nation competition started with three studios joining The Dance Zone nine years ago and it has grown since then.

"The Cugnet Centre is no doubt a beautiful facility. It has played a huge role in supporting our festival, giving it a good reputation. It wasn't so much using the property that gave us the stress it was the process of going through booking and sometimes how we were treated and the services provided to us while we were renting the facility. So, it became very challenging because ultimately the dance community is very small in Weyburn compared to bigger cities."

This is not the first year The Dance Zone have struggled to book the Cugnet Centre.

Bhimji said bookings have been bumped in the past or not confirmed or overridden by another event, which wasn't necessarily something that had to be held in the Cugnet Centre. She said that the Cugnet Centre is convenient for the school to book events, which take priority over the dance studios. She questioned whether the school could book another school building instead, allowing the Dance Zone to keep their booking at the Cugnet Centre.

Two years ago 40 people attended a public meeting put on by Bhimji and Jeff, Tammy's husband, to discuss the difficulties different groups had in booking the facility. The School Division sent representatives to that meeting and it was announced that the community will be able to book events starting October of that school year.

Tammy said this isn't very realistic because they need to book earlier and feels like the rules may have changed without communicating to the public because it appears a group was able to book the Cugnet Centre before October 2017 for the Easter weekend 2018. Theatre Fest will be held at the Cugnet Centre April 1 to 7.

"In past bookings, communication and talk it was distinguished that Dance Nation would always run over the Easter break. The school sounded easier, there was less likeliness of us getting removed from the facility because there is not a lot of school events going on. So again being told 'You can book in October' I felt that there was a verbal agreement between myself and the people that book the facility that we would always take Easter weekend. Unfortunately somewhere along the line, another event was allowed to book a year in advance for the same weekend."

Tammy said it was fortunate that she found out before October so was able to start looking for another facility. Instead of finding another location in Weyburn they have booked a place in Regina to host the event. According to Bhimji, Weyburn businesses have contacted her with concerns that they are going to miss out on revenue with the competition going to the Queen City.

Bhimji hopes to see more organization and fair opportunity for all groups to book the facility and greater transparency. She understands that they won't always get the dates they need but would like to see a fair process. She added the other two studios, Da Tricky Feet and Marley's Dance Effex, have also been negatively affected by the booking system in place.