For 40 years the Hole was a vital component in Canada’s Air Defence.
Fast forward to 2015, and now this historical facility is nine years without a full-time tenant.
The three-storey facility located 600 feet beneath the Canadian Shield at CFB North Bay was closed in 2006 when the work was moved above ground to the David L. Pitcher Building.
But Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Jay Aspin believes there is still opportunity for the historical underground facility.
“The biggest attribute that hole has is its security function obviously, it is a very secure facility so that’s an advantage,” stated Aspin.
The facility, which is still under federal jurisdiction, was a potential location spearheaded by then Mayor Vic Fedeli, for Microsoft to use as a high security Data Centre.
“I knew what happened with Microsoft, we just couldn’t move fast enough to capture the opportunity and the opportunity passed them by,” said Aspin.
Aspin says he worked in conjunction with Public Works Canada and Shared Services in promoting the Hole as a location for Data Storage.
“What they were doing is we had more than 400 data centres in Canada and they were consolidating them into only seven, so I saw this as a golden opportunity and I had several meetings with Shared Services Canada and I was pushing the North Bay site,” said Aspin.
“They downsized from 400 down to 50 and then down from there, I was hoping we would get down into the top seven but we didn’t.”
Aspin says its an expensive building to operate, with an estimated price tag of close to $1.5 million in expenses. Along with that, the environmental conditions are not great because its such an old facility.
“It would take a huge amount of capital to upgrade the facility to have people working down there,” said Aspin.
However, there is reason for optimism. Aspin says he's got some interest from a real estate firm and is still waiting for a proposal.
“They keep telling me they are going to get me a proposal but its been about six months now and I haven’t seen anything cross my desk,” admitted Aspin.
Aspin hopes the area’s aerospace expansion may open some doors for the Hole in the future.
“It’s early days in space and the more I get into it as Space Chair, the more I realize there are needs out there. My feeling is let’s build this, let’s continue to build it and build it. If we create attention then maybe eventually something will pop.”
