Five months after the For Sale sign went up at the former OPP building in North Bay, there’s word the building has sold.
Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli says it went for about $700,000.
The building is one of hundreds the provincial government owns across Ontario.
Last December, Fedeli announced the Ford government was selling more than 100 empty buildings and the former OPP site at 590 Chippewa was one of those buildings selected in the first wave to get a For Sale sign.
Fedeli says under the former Liberal government, $1.1 million was spent over 10 years to keep the empty building heated, lawn cut and parking lot plowed.
He says the Liberals ignored requests from the Progressive Conservatives to sell these empty buildings and generate revenue instead of watching money go up in smoke.
“Soon you’ll see a business open there,” Fedeli said.
“The city will get taxes, people will have jobs and the government has a cheque to put in the bank with no more expenses on an empty building.”
At the time when the former OPP building was put up for sale, Fedeli said the goal was to get $105 million to $135 million for the hundreds of surplus buildings over the next four years.
Fedeli says the Tories want to do things in a business-like way and that’s why buildings that aren’t doing anything for the government except costing taxpayers money are up for sale.