Sport North Bay asked all three mayoralty candidates in the upcoming municipal elections how specifically they would increase community use and accessibility of Memorial Gardens.
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Below are the responses.
Peter Chirico
I’m very proud of the Gardens, as you know Memorial Gardens is a project near and dear to my heart. We need to increase our private/public partnerships and nurture relationships with organizations looking for venues. Any number of institutional and commercial ventures in North Bay and the area that could benefit from hosting events in the Gardens. International curling event organizers told us North Bay was one of the best places they’d hosted a major event. We need to build on these successes.
The Gardens should be a community hub for sport as well as events, conferences, concerts, galas, trade shows, and so forth
Johanne Brousseau
One of my opponents oversaw the renovations to the Gardens, with a primary focus on bringing OHL hockey back to our city. I do agree with him about the important impact having such a team brings to our city.
However, in overseeing this project, with only OHL being the priority, staff has had to work around limitations created by the renovation (clock) in attracting off-ice events.
MG is the host for the Pinty curling event and the Harlem Trotters are returning.
As far as ice usage, combining prime and nonprime, ice utilization is at 90%.
We can also get creative and find usage for when the ice is out, offering the venue to the Roller Derby club?
Sport and event tourism are things we do well, with the assistance of Tourism North Bay and the sport tourism staff, all of our facilities will profit from the projects that are brought to our city.
Leslie McVeety
No response received
