THUNDER BAY -- When Mayor Keith Hobbs mentioned he wanted to build bridges with Fort William First Nation, he was speaking literally.
During his State of the City Address, Hobbs said he wanted to build a Unity Bridge with the city’s neighbouring Fort William First Nation. Building a stronger relationship with First Nations was a key message in Hobbs’ address to the city.
“My hope is that one day Thunder Bay and Fort William First Nation will be connection through a beautiful new Unit Bridge we can all enjoy,” he told the city at council’s last meeting before the New Year.
Currently, the only way for motorists to visit the First Nation community is either by taking the James Street swing bridge or traveling farther along Highway 61. The aging bridge recently closed this summer so CN Rail could perform upgrades.
Despite those upgrades Hobbs said people are still nervous about crossing it.
He said a new bridge was an idea that they came up with last year along with Fort William First Nation chief Peter Collins. When the city signed its agreement with the First Nation community, Hobbs said they thought it was a great idea to build a bridge to bring the two communities closer together.
“We have a lot of our residents working over there,” he said.
“One of the gas bars is a member of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce; we’re talking about utilizing industrial lands on Fort William First Nation for future mining and other enterprises. We think it will be a great infrastructure project.”
Hobbs did admit that the idea for the new bridge is only in its early stages, and added that they will need to look at funding sources in order to make the project a reality. He estimated it would take around $100 million to build the bridge.
Although CN Rail would still use the James Street bridge, Hobbs said that they are looking at a bridge that could be exclusively used by pedestrians and vehicles.
“We have discussed the project with CN Rail, but those talks have been very preliminary,” he said.
“We just threw the idea at them. We will one day float the idea at Ontario Good Roads Association and the association of municipalities of Ontario. The feds will have to come to the party because this will be an expensive venture.”
