THUNDER BAY – City staff on Monday will reintroduce a designated truck route bylaw for council’s consideration.
The designated truck route (DTR) would remove truck traffic from Dawson Road and Arthur Street West, funnelling westbound transports onto Highway 11/17.
“This will make our transportation network safer. It reduces our fatal and injury collisions along the corridors. That, as the road authority, is our main concern. It's responsible traffic engineering in order to move truck traffic to a higher-order facility,” said Kayla Dixon, commissioner of infrastructure and operations.
According to the council report, an engineering assessment, completed in 2024, said that approximately 1,300 trucks from Dawson Road and about 300 trucks from Arthur Street would change their routes to the TransCanada Highway (Highway 11/17).
The highway has limited access designed for heavy truck traffic and is engineered at a higher standard by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO).
From a road safety perspective, data suggests there will be an overall reduction in serious fatal and injury collisions along the transportation corridor, if the bylaw passes.
“Moving trucks off of Dawson and Arthur Street does improve the safety of our transportation network, and that's why the administration continues to recommend it,” Dixon said.
However, the bylaw, which has failed to gain enough traction in the past, still allows transports within the city’s core for those who need to make deliveries on Dawson Road and Arthur Street West.
“We've done significant consultation with local businesses with help through the Chamber of Commerce. We've now created a bylaw where local deliveries and local companies will largely be able to continue their deliveries as they have in the past. Really, the bylaw and the designated truck routes that have been designed will impact cross-country traffic,” Dixon said.
The DTR bylaw remains controversial. The townships of Conmee, Gillies, and O’Connor, as well as the Lakehead Rural Municipal Coalition, have written an open letter to the City of Thunder Bay stating their opposition.
Officials in the communities are concerned diverting truck traffic from Highway 102 to Highway 11/17 would significantly impact multiple rural municipalities along the route, including the Township of Conmee and the Village of Kakabeka Falls.
The letter states sight-line difficulties driving on Highway 11/17 in Kakabeka Falls put residents and travellers at risk, the letter reads.
Hills and curves at each end of the village make it difficult for pedestrians, including seniors and wheelchair users, to cross the highway safely. School buses struggle to get on and off the road, while travellers visiting Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park face significant challenges navigating the highway.
The letter also said the Municipality of Oliver Paipoonge conducted a traffic study in 2018. The results found that the average daily number of trucks on Highway 102 was 869, which was slightly higher than the MTO’s figure of 765 published several years before.
In May 2019, the municipality of Conmee did a traffic count on Highway 11/17 in Kakabeka Falls. They recorded 758 transport trucks passing through daily.
If the DTR bylaw is passed, the Conmee council said those numbers will double.
Dixson said the city staff empathizes with their concerns and offers to help in lobbying the province to continue to extend the Shabaqua extension as the city has done in the past.
At-large Coun. Kasey Etreni told Newswatch she is undecided about her vote and plans to research the issue further before Monday meeting.
“I did read the reports for Monday. I glazed through them, but I still have some more work to do this weekend. I'd also like to reach out to Conservative MPP Kevin Holland to discuss this a little bit further. I recognize that we have some deputations on Monday, so I'm going to be sitting there listening to those and as I gather all the information, then I'll be able to make a more informed decision,” Etreni said.
She added she understands the opposition, noting she could advocate for an improved highway system as a member of the intergovernmental affairs committee.
The DTR report will be presented to council on Monday as information. It will be brought back in front council on June 23 for a final decision and ratification.
