North Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of Nipissing District and takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing. It developed as a railroad centre and its airport was an important military location during the Cold War.
History
The site of North Bay is part of a historic canoe route where Samuel de Champlain took a party up the Ottawa River, through present-day Mattawa, on to Trout Lake and via the La Vase Creek to Lake Nipissing.
Apart from Indigenous people, voyageurs and surveyors, there was little activity in the Lake Nipissing area until the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1882.
That was the point where the Canada Central Railway (CCR) extension ended. The CCR was owned by Duncan McIntyre who amalgamated it with the CPR and became one of the handful of officers of the newly formed CPR. The CCR started in Brockville and extended to Pembroke. It then followed a westward route along the Ottawa River passing through places like Cobden, Deux-Rivières, and eventually to Mattawa at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers. It then proceeded cross-country toward its final destination, Bonfield. Duncan McIntyre and his contractor James Worthington piloted the CCR expansion.
In 1882, John Ferguson decided that the north bay of Lake Nipissing was a promising spot for settlement. North Bay was incorporated as a town in 1891. The first mayor was John Bourke. More importantly, Bourke developed the western portion of North Bay after purchasing the interest of the Murray Brothers from Pembroke, who were large landholders in the new community. The land west of Klock Avenue (Algonquin Avenue) was known as the Murray block. Bourke Street is named after John Bourke. Murray Street is named after the Murrays.
North Bay was selected as the southern terminus of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (T&NO) in 1902, when the Ross government took the bold move to establish a development road to serve the Haileybury settlement. During construction of the T&NO, silver was discovered at Cobalt and started a mining frenzy in the northern part of the province that continued for many years. The Canadian Northern Railway was subsequently built to North Bay in 1913.
In July 1894, an Act to Charter the Montreal, Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal passed without a ripple of concern in North Bay. The Georgian Bay Canal was a mammoth transportation system that proposed to connect the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The entire passageway from the Ottawa River to Lake Nipissing and down the French River to Georgian Bay was surveyed in the first decade of the 20th century. Financing was a large obstacle and, as time passed, transportation patterns changed and interfered with the earlier practicality of the giant venture. Despite this, there were groups who still hoped it would happen as late as 1930.
North Bay grew through a strong lumbering sector, mining and the three railways in the early days. The town benefited from strong community leadership and people like Richardson, Milne, McNamara, Englands, Browning, McDougal, Carruthers, McGaughey, George W. Lee, Senator Gordon, T. J. Patton, Charlie Harrison and many others are responsible for its development. In 1919, John Ferguson was elected mayor of North Bay and continued to serve as mayor until 1922. North Bay was incorporated as a city in August 1925.
The Dionne Quintuplets were born in Corbeil, Ontario, on the southern outskirts of North Bay in 1934. Their births had a tremendous impact on tourism in the area. For a province struggling against economic strangulation they were as valuable a resource as gold, nickel, pulpwood or hydro power. They saved an entire region from bankruptcy. They launched Northern Ontario's flourishing tourist industry. At their peak they represented a $500 million asset. North Bay and the surrounding area lived off this legacy well into the 1960s. Many visitors to the area discovered lakes and summer retreats that were easily accessible, and the businesses thrived on the tourist dollars.
In January 1968, the City of North Bay amalgamated with West Ferris and Widdifield townships.
In 1951, as a result of rising tensions in the Cold War, the Royal Canadian Air Force established an air base at North Bay, part of an expanding national air defence network to counter the threat of nuclear attack against North America by Soviet bombers. Construction of RCAF Station North Bay (in 1966 retitled "Canadian Forces Base North Bay" and in 1993 as "22 Wing/Canadian Forces Base North Bay") took three years, during which it became the largest industry in the community: a status it held for more than four decades. In October 1963, the North American Air Defence Command (NORAD) opened its Canadian operations centre at the base. Staffed by American as well as Canadian military personnel, the centre, situated 60 storeys underground to withstand a nuclear strike, monitored Canada's northern, east-central and Atlantic airspace, identifying and tracking all air traffic in this airspace, and responding to airborne emergencies, crime, and suspicious, unknown and potentially hostile aircraft. In 1983 this responsibility was expanded to all of Canada, and in October 2006 the base's NORAD operations (as of 1981, called North American Aerospace Defence Command) moved into a new, state-of-the-art facility above ground, where it continues to provide surveillance, identification and tracking of aircraft, and warning and response to emergencies, attacks and other crises, for the air sovereignty of Canada and North America. In summer of 2013, the base commenced surveillance of space via SAPPHIRE, Canada's first military satellite, that was launched into orbit from India in February.22 Wing/Canadian Forces Base North Bay historical archives and active files
Beginning in the 1990s, the base weathered a series of massive cuts by the federal government, and at one point was earmarked to close. Subsequently, a large portion of its infrastructure, including all of its airfield assets, such as hangars, fuel depot and control tower, were sold or demolished. By the 21st century, the base was no longer the city's top industry.
One by-product of the air base's creation in 1951 was the extension of the existing airport's runways to handle the largest military aircraft. The long runways at North Bay have been maintained as an alternate landing site for Toronto's Pearson International Airport and were used during the September 11 crisis as an emergency landing site for several international aircraft. It was also a designated emergency field for NASA's Space Transportation System, better known as the Space Shuttle.
On March 17, 2007, North Bay was announced as the winner of 2007 Kraft Hockeyville contest. North Bay received $50,000 to upgrade their local arena, Memorial Gardens, and also hosted an NHL pre-season game between the New York Islanders and the Atlanta Thrashers.
Geography
North Bay is located approximately north of Toronto, and differs in geography from Southern Ontario in that North Bay is situated on the Canadian Shield. This gives rise to a different and more rugged landscape.
North Bay is geographically unique in that it straddles both the Ottawa River watershed to the east and the Great Lakes Basin to the west. The city's urban core is located between Lake Nipissing and the smaller Trout Lake.
North Bay, critically situated at the junctions of Highway 11 and Highway 17, remains a major transportation centre for Northern Ontario. It is the southern terminus of the Ontario Northland Railway, and is served by the Jack Garland Airport.
The area of North Bay contains a number of ancient volcanic pipes, including the Manitou Islands and Callander Bay and many exposed dykes and five named batholiths (Timber Lake, Mulock, West Arm, Powassan and Bonfield).
Neighbourhoods
The city includes the neighbourhoods of:
Birchaven Camp Champlain Champlain Park Cooks Mills Eastview Feronia Gateway Graniteville Hornell Heights Lounsbury Kenwood Hills Marshall Park P.J. Clowe Rotary Park Nipissing Junction Pinewood Sage Ski Club St. John's Village Sunset Park Thibeault Terrace Thorncliff Trout Mills Tweedsmuir Wallace Heights West Ferris Widdifield
Climate The climate in North Bay is common to most places in Northern Ontario. North Bay tends to be a less humid climate than that found in Southern Ontario due somewhat to the distance from the Great Lakes and less warm than some other locations in Northern Ontario due to cooling from Lake Nipissing. On May 31, 2002, a tornado caused minor damage near the city. Two more tornadoes touched down on Lake Nipissing on August 20, 2009. This storm was a part of a chain of tornadoes that caused large amounts of damage in other parts of Ontario.Tornado causes minor damage in North Bay The weather box below shows climate normals for the airport, at an elevation of 358 m, but the majority of the city, including the downtown core, sits at an elevation of 201 m.
The highest temperature ever recorded in North Bay was on 1 July 1931. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 26 January 1892.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, North Bay had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
North Bay census agglomeration population was 71,736 as of 2021, with a land area of .
Ethnicity In 2021, 11.7% of the population was Indigenous, compared to 5.0% nationally. 4.4% of residents were visible minorities compared to 26.5% nationally. The remaining 83.9% of the population was white/European. The largest visible minority groups in North Bay were South Asian (1.4%), Black (1.1%), and Chinese (0.5%). Panethnic groups in the City of North Bay (2001–2021)Panethnic group20212016201120062001 European 43,700 43,325 46,890 48,885 48,860 Indigenous 5,515 5,415 4,185 3,205 2,320 South Asian 710 415 280 240 105 African 565 290 365 350 275 East Asian 340 430 365 310 185 Southeast Asian 245 175 75 90 125 Latin American 140 130 110 30 15 Middle Eastern 130 55 45 10 10 Other/multiracial 115 150 130 125 10 Total responses 51,455 50,370 52,440 53,235 51,880 Total population 52,662 51,553 53,651 53,966 52,771
Language In 2021, 81.1% of the population spoke English as their mother tongue. French was the first language of 11.3% of residents, compared to 3.3% in all of Ontario. In terms of non-official languages, the most common were Italian (0.6%), Chinese languages (0.3%), German (0.3%), and Spanish (0.3%). 2.2% of residents listed both English and French as mother tongues, while 0.7% listed both English and a non-official language.
Canada Census Mother Tongue - North Bay, Ontario Census Total Year Responses Count Trend Pop % Count Trend Pop % Count Trend Pop % Count Trend Pop % 42,130 2.1% 81.1% 5,880 11.5% 11.3% 1,165 65.2% 2.2% 2,350 9.3% 4.5% 41,255 2.8% 81.0% 6,645 10.6% 13.0% 705 21.6% 1.4% 2,150 2.5% 4.2% 42,440 1.1% 80.3% 7,435 7.5% 14.1% 580 43.2% 1.1% 2,205 21.5% 4.2% 41,985 1.7% 78.9% 8,040 3.5% 15.1% 405 50.6% 0.8% 2,810 39.8% 5.3% 41,280 2.5% 79.6% 7,770 3.4% 15.0% 820 59.2% 1.6% 2,010 13.4% 3.9% 42,345 n/a 79.2% 8,045 n/a 15.0% 515 n/a 1.0% 2,320 n/a 4.3%
Religion 56.3% of residents were Christian, down from 73.2% in 2011. 35.2% were Catholic, 13.2% were Protestant, 4.1% were Christian n.o.s and 3.8% belonged to other Christian denominations and Christian-related traditions. 41.6% of the population were non-religious or secular, up from 25.4% in 2011. All other religions made up 2.0% of the population. The largest non-Christian religion was Hinduism (0.5%).
Economy