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Plaque details history of the airport and CFB North Bay

The history of the Jack Garland Airport and CFB North Bay is now on display at the airport. 

A new interpretive Heritage Site Plaque has been unveiled. 

“Throughout their history, the airport and CFB North Bay have played a vital role in shaping North Bay,” says Peter Handley, Heritage Committee Chair. “This plaque will serve as a reminder of the important part both places have had in the history of the community.” 

The plaque describes the early origins of aviation infrastructure in North Bay, starting with a commercial seaplane station on Trout Lake in 1923 and the construction of a Trans Canada Airline airport in 1938.

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The plaque also chronicles how an auxiliary training base established in 1942 evolved into an air-defense, all-weather, fighter base that housed some 2,200 military and civilian employees during its peak. 

“22 Wing/CFB North Bay has enjoyed a great relationship with the airport and the City of North Bay since construction of RCAF Station North Bay began in 1951,”  says Colonel Richard Jolette, Commander 22 Wing/CFB North Bay and the Canadian Air Defence Sector.  “For over 70 years, we have seen many changes from being a fighter base, to construction and use of the SAGE underground complex, and now even including a space surveillance mission.” 

According to federal government, 22 Wing began space surveillance in 2014, connecting to Canada’s first military satellite and looking for “Resident Space Objects” orbiting between 6,000 and 40,000 kilometres altitude.  

(Photo supplied by Jeff Serran – Municipal Heritage Committee member)
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