North Bay council to vote on major expansion of Steve Omischl Sports Complex

North Bay city council faces a vote on continuing a $6.2 million multi-use sports field project on Tuesday. Eric Taschner has the latest.

North Bay city council will vote Tuesday on a proposal to build two FIFA-regulated soccer fields and a new cricket pitch at the Steve Omischl Sports Complex, alongside repairs to an existing soccer field. The multi-use project, originally estimated at $5.4 million, has now climbed to nearly $6.3 million.

Cost overruns blamed on ‘challenging environment’

At the last meeting, councillors learned the entire project’s estimated cost came in way over expectation. The multi-use field was originally pitched at $3.35 million and included in the 2026 Capital Budget based on preliminary estimates. It is now pegged at nearly $4.9 million.

David Jackowski, the city’s special projects operations and infrastructure project manager, attributed the increase to prior building activity.

“It has been very challenging to really nail down based on previous construction histories,” he told councillors.

The Ontario government is covering close to $1.7 million of the project’s cost through its Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund. If council chooses not to proceed, the city would have to forfeit access to that grant money.

During the meeting, councillor Sara Horsfield asked Jackowski whether North Bay’s natural environment, which includes rocks, swamp, trees and water, differs from southern Ontario and contributes to cost increases.

“When we look at other communities in southern Ontario, their land might be different for them to have different costs that might be less than ours,” she said.

Jackowski responded by saying that northern Ontario has a “challenging environment.”

Cricket captain says North Bay trails other northern cities

Vasudevan Kaarudaiar, the captain of the local cricket club, said North Bay is the only northern city that does not have a proper cricket facility.

“We have six cricket teams and about 120 players,” he said.

“Timmins, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and even Thunder Bay, they have 2-3 grounds of which one is purely for cricket.”

Cricket players, Kaarudaiar said, are often using parks, hills or even empty parking lots at times to play.

“When we go to a competition, we go as underdogs just because we don’t have a proper facility,” he told CTV News on Monday.

“We practice wherever we get the chance.”

Kaarudaiar said a new cricket pitch will allow the sport to grow, especially for children and for women’s cricket players.

“If we can have a proper facility, we can bring in a lot of teams from down south, Toronto, who are ready to come here to compete with northern Ontario as well,” he said.

“We are hopeful that council will pass this.”

$854K-$2.41M needed

An additional $854,000 is needed to complete both projects and including lights would add an extra $1.56 million to the cost.

“Hopefully there’s another grant down the road and we can do that,” said Ian Kilgour, the city’s director of community services.

Councillor warns against ‘partial projects’

Councillor Tanya Vrebosch said she is worried about completing what she calls “partial projects,” referring to a years-ago decision to build the sports complex without any dressing rooms due to the cost.

Councillors said they have heard for years football players complaining there is no change room or showers on site – leading to some players choosing to change in the parking lot before and after games.

“I’d rather do it once and do it right because if you don’t have the lighting in place, can they play as much as we want? Then we’re not going to get the revenue from the rentals,” Vrebosch said.

Construction of the multi-use field is slated to be completed this November if given the green light by council. The field repairs would begin in early September with a target completion date of April 2027.