Through four months of 2021, the city of North Bay is experiencing a good start to construction projects.
As of April, over $21 million worth of building permits has been administered by the city, on pace to be the busiest year since 2006, when a $35 million water treatment plant was built.
“From the private sector perspective, we are blowing all those numbers out the door,” said Mayor Al McDonald. “I think it really shows the confidence that our business and industry leaders have in us, including the citizens moving to North Bay in record numbers.”
A staff presentation to council in April outlined the city’s growth initiatives, which included the construction numbers. It showed over $1.3 million committed to institutional construction, $2.29 million to commercial, $1.5 million to industrial and over $15.2 million into the residential sector.
McDonald says he is pleased with the commitments made to the industrial and residential sectors as the growth in population provides more money to the city while the industrial construction ensures more jobs.
The reason for the success, McDonald believes, is a culmination of factors stemming from council’s incentives to attract business, to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everybody wants to go to the big cities because that’s the centre of opportunities. I think with COVID, it’s shown that’s maybe not the case and people are starting to see the opportunities and advantages in working from cities the size of North Bay,” McDonald explained.
This growth is happening while there have also been more incidents of violent crime in the city. So far in 2021, the North Bay Police Service has opened two homicide investigations, the first since 2018, along with a handful of arson investigations and most recently, a home invasion.
McDonald attributes the instances of crime to the ongoing opioid epidemic.
“The opiates and the drugs and that whole culture is really a menace in all cities across the globe and I think we’re doing our part to keep our city as safe as possible. But I think we have to recognize as Canadians that the opiate crisis is definitely making an impact on all communities,” he said.
So far, there have been permits issued for 57 single-family dwellings, which is more than every year’s total since 2012 (71). McDonald says builders “can’t build the houses fast enough” as North Bay enjoys the splendours of a hot housing market nationwide.
“If you’re buying a house, I’m pretty confident that there will be value,” McDonald said, adding he’s happy for those in the city who have been able to turn a profit selling their homes.
