Nipissing-Timiskaming Member of Pariliament, Jay Aspin, left, and Chair of the Community Services Committee Mark King announced over $1.1 million worth of FedNor funding projects for North Bay and area initiatives at City Hall on Friday morning. The most substantial funding announcement was a $1 million investment in Memorial Gardens upgrades. PHOTO BY LIAM BERTI
Memorial Gardens is set to receive funding for more upgrades. This time, though, the money will not be coming from the City of North Bay.
Jay Aspin, Member of Parliament for Nipissing-Timiskaming, announced that the federal government is investing $1 million in upgrades to the community centre at City Hall on Friday morning.
The money, which is being provided by the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario (FedNor), will go towards electrical upgrades, audio and visual enhancements, media facility upgrades, parking lot improvements, lighting, and other infrastructure to host concerts, conferences and tradeshows.
“FedNor is able to fund it because it is broadening Memorial Gardens to a multi-use facility that will enhance tourism and create economic activity,” Aspin said after the announcement. “It’s a public facility, but it elevates that public facility into a multi-use facility.”
In Spring of 2013, the Federal Government denied the city an application for funding of the $1 million funding shortfall on the facility. At the time, the government said they do not fund professional sports facilities and that it falls under the responsibility of the private sector.
Now, it appears as though the arena does fall within the federal government’s parameters.
Aspin explained that this application was successful because the funding will help make the building a multi-use facility, therefore going beyond the scope of a sports facility.
In other words, the money will be used to host a broader range of tourism-related events like concerts, tradeshows and conferences, thus attracting economic growth in different areas.
“This is an entirely different project,” Aspin explained on Friday. “The Gardens has been complete with what went on before. The project is complete, the arena is complete, so we’re taking the arena and, with this separate project, we are elevating it to a whole new level.”
Before Friday’s announcement, the Memorial Gardens renovation price tag was labeled at $16.2 million, up some $4.2 million from its original budget. Most recently, the City of North Bay paid approximately $377,000 to install a brand new sound system.
Mayor Al McDonald said that the FedNor funding will pay off that $377,000, with the leftover money going towards an upgrade to the building’s electrical system, new video control board, removable seating, concert equipment and other staging and lighting enhancements.
“We all wanted it in the first stage [of renovations], obviously, but this is part of what we envisioned,” McDonald said of the upgrades. “We’ve always said this is a tourism centre that we can use year-round to draw tourism in for conventions to tradeshows and concerts.
“This announcement recognizes that Memorial Gardens is more than just for sports; it’s a community hub,” he continued.
McDonald said that big-name concerts have previously turned down performing at the Gardens due to the inadequate equipment and the extra cost it would incur for each show.
On Friday, the Mayor cited a particular electrical component that otherwise would have been an extraneous cost to acquire and install for bigger concerts. Now, though, McDonald said this new money will allow the facility to pitch for larger events and concerts with more confidence.
“Now we will have the capabilities to bring in the big-name acts,” said McDonald. “It’s up to the promoters and individuals in the music business to work with our staff to attract them here […] but we need to be competitive to do that.”
McDonald said that some of the upgrades from Friday’s funding announcement have already been completed, while others are either in-progress or will get underway in the Spring.
Youth Employment Funding
The Memorial Gardens news was one of a series of funding announcements Aspin made on behalf of the Honourable Greg Rickford, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources and Minister for FedNor, on Friday morning.
On top of the $1 million for Memorial Gardens, Aspin announced that Business Centre Nipissing Parry Sound Inc. will receive $74,253 for two youth job strategy programs.
The first program, called Starter Company, will allow 12 weeks of entrepreneurship training for up to 54 area youths, while the second initiative, called High School Entrepreneurship Outreach Program, will offer workshops and apprenticeship activities to students from 15 area high schools.
In a separate announcement, Discovery Routes Trails Organization will also receive an investment of $31,500 to hire a youth intern for a year. The intern’s primary responsibility will be connecting Nipissing with Ontario’s growing cycling programs.
“We are trying to mitigate the tremendous problem of our youth leaving for Southern Ontario,” Aspin explained. “This will provide initial opportunities for these youth to get into the workforce.”
