A former local government building that has been vacant for a decade has been put up for sale.
Nipissing MPP and Ontario Budget Chief Vic Fedeli says the 11,000 square foot former Ontario Provincial Police Building on Chippewa Street has cost close to $110,000 per year to maintain and has only been used sparingly for storage over the past 10 years.
Today it goes up for sale and Fedeli believes this is an example of the Ford Government trying to find efficiencies around the province.
“This means somebody can put in productive use of this building, hopefully, have employees here. Whatever it is used for, or whoever ends up purchasing this is going to be paying taxes to the municipality as well and putting people to work and this is really a big, big part of cutting red tape and making Ontario open for business,” said Fedeli who was joined by officials from Infrastructure Ontario at Friday’s media event.
The OPP building, which opened in the late '60s or early '70s is one of more than 240 properties the government is putting up for sale within the next four years. Fedeli believes the former Liberal government made it tough for potential buyers to purchase buildings like the old OPP building in North Bay.
“I can tell you there have been people who have asked about the sale of this building over the past seven years that I was an MPP and there was no appetite by the previous government to do this,” said Fedeli.
Fedeli noted that the MNRF building on Trout Lake Road will likely be another government building that will eventually be put up for sale once it is empty.
The government will be asking around $800,000 for this building and will entertain offers within the next 45 days.
