It's Official

Councillor Jamie Lowery was the lone dissenting vote.  

Council approves new community and recreation centre project

North Bay will be getting a new community and recreation centre.  

By a 10-1 vote, Council approved a motion Monday night to build the facility at the Omischl Sports Complex on Lakeshore Drive, with a total project cost of $63 million.  

That includes the guaranteed maximum price of $61.4 million, $1 million contingency and $500,000 for internal costs.  

The side-by-side twin ice pad facility will include community space, a walking track and more.  

Councillor Lana Mitchell, chair of Infrastructure and Operations says the project has been over a decade in the making and the time to build is now.  

“We need to respond to the increase in the utilization and interest in ice sports, we need to properly provide the outstanding dressing rooms for summer sports, and we need to ask ourselves if we don’t build now then when will we build and at what cost,” she says. “With the federal grant of just under $26 million on the table we will probably never have this opportunity again.”  

Councillor Jamie Lowery was the lone dissenting vote.  

He says he was torn, because he is involved in the hockey community, but after weighing the pros and cons he couldn’t support it. 

Among other things, he cited only $10,000 in capital money being invested in ten years at West Ferris Arena, data not being current on participation rates, lack of a business plan, growing demand for other sports and more. 

“The greatest thing is the impact on the average taxpayer,” he says. “We don’t know, first what the capital is going to be.  Thankfully we do have some partners from the federal government, but the overall operating costs may have an impact long-term,” he says.  

Substantial completion of the project is expected in August 2026.  

The post Council approves new community and recreation centre project appeared first on My North Bay Now.