Kirkland Lake sells former Hockey Heritage North for $799K

It opened to great fanfare 15 years ago, but now a former northern Ontario tourist attraction has been sold for a fraction of what it cost to build.

Kirkland Lake town council voted Tuesday night to sell the former Hockey Heritage North for $799,000.

The new owner is a numbered company, which council was told is in the hospitality business. 

The shrine to northern Ontario's rich hockey history was built for $8 million, most of it from the federal and provincial governments, opened its doors in 2006, but struggled to attract tourists and is now being used as a conference centre. 

Town councillors had little to say about the sale.

They had a lot more to say about a request from Timiskaming public health for a discount to rent out Heritage North for COVID vaccination clinics.

Currently it is paying the regular rate of about $350 per hour, but requested something similar to what other communities are charging to host clinics, around $1,000 per month. 

Several Kirkland Lake town councillors argued that it sets a bad precedent to give the health unit preferential treatment, especially when the municipality is in tough financial shape because of the pandemic, but then a majority voted to charge a discounted rate of $254 per clinic.

"The next owner can just jack up the prices anyway if it's not making money. Let's just give them their reduction for now and see what happens," said councillor Patrick Adams.