With the announcement that the air defence operations would stay in North Bay and that a new above ground facility would be built, the UGC was destined to be closed. In 2006, the new operations centre opened and the UGC was largely vacated.

The facility is in a disposal phase, but this does not mean that it will be abandoned. 22 Wing/CFB North Bay has sent in a Notice of Excess, essentially declaring the building surplus as it is no longer being utilized. The ultimate decisions will come from the Assistant Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Engineering in Ottawa and the timeline is uncertain due to the scale and type of the building.

Although there are no operations taking place, there are still two miners on staff who maintain the caverns and tunnels and ‘surface’ engineers who regularly check systems as part of their duties. However, the UGC is no longer maintained at a level suitable for non-essential activities and, as such, no longer grants requests for tours or for the use of the complex external to the Department of National Defence.

A long and proud history awaits the next phase of its life.

Learn more about the closure in the slideshow below. Use the arrows to navigate and click on the image to expand them to their full frame.