THUNDER BAY — The head of the city’s engineering division says city staff are working to complete a safety assessment of the approved site for the temporary shelter village.
The development at the Kam River Heritage Park will feature at least 80 small housing units where people experiencing homelessness can stay in a secure environment. Part of the city’s process, said Matthew Miedema, includes a safety assessment to identify potential problems and how to mitigate or eliminate them.
“We've met with all of our community partners to kind of look and gather feedback from everybody,” he said. “All aspects of it, from emergency services to the railway company to community partners in the area.”
The goal is to “get a good holistic look at the site and what the safety concerns are,” he continued.
While Miedema said city staff have met with all necessary stakeholders, they’re still gathering comments. He said he’s hoping to have the assessment finalized in the next couple of weeks.
The assessment is to identify any specific concerns and address recommendations over things like potential infrastructure additions.
“We're still gathering all of the comments and we'll kind of finalize our safety assessment with recommendations to maybe add infrastructure, add components to the site to improve safety,” he said.
“We're really kind of looking at a holistic review of it and seeing what we can address and what we'll need to be cognizant of going forward.”
Canadian Pacific Kansas City Rail (formerly CP Rail) raised concerns about how close the shelter site is to a nearby rail yard in its objection to the use of the park for the village.
In early May, city manager John Collin told council that an apparent CPKC safety guideline about not having development within 300 metres of a freight yard (the shelter site would be closer than that) “is not legislation” and there are “exceptions.”
“The guideline really does apply to new residential developments. Our professional opinion is that this is not a new residential development. It is an emergency shelter, and there is a difference,” Colin said at the time.
“CPKC has definitely been involved in the safety assessment,” Miedema said, adding that the two sides have met. “They did show up to our site meeting.”
“We are continuing discussions with them and we will be complying with what their requirements are in completing a rail safety assessment.”
That, he said, involves checking the project against national guidelines on what can and can’t be developed in the vicinity of railway property.
“We have a consultant who will be looking at that and looking to address their concerns through that process.”
Some general safety and security measures that have been discussed by city staff at council meetings include a perimeter fence around the site with two monitored access points and that it will be a “managed environment,” Rilee Willianen, the city's encampment response lead told council in early May.
The city currently has a request for proposals out for a builder to construct the village site. Miedema said he expects another tender to be put out soon for a contractor to manage it.
“We really want to put a good lens on it and make sure the site is safe,” Miedema said. “So, that work is ongoing and, and hopefully will be completed in the coming weeks here.”
