THUNDER BAY – One week after approving the creation of a designated truck route, city council is putting the plan in park.
Thunder Bay city council on Monday night voted to defer ratification of the route, which is meant to keep heavy truck traffic off Dawson Road and Arthur Street and instead redirect it onto the Trans-Canada Highway and Thunder Bay Expressway, until a meeting in March.
Council on Jan. 14 had voted to approve the plan, which had been years in the making, by a narrow 7-6 margin. Minutes from previous meetings have to be ratified to be formally adopted.
The first attempt at a deferral, which had been suggested by Ontario Trucking Association president Stephen Laskowski earlier in the evening, was unsuccessful before it was tried for a second time.
Coun. Trevor Giertuga, who had spent much of his 18 years as the McIntyre ward councillor pushing for a policy that would take transports off Dawson Road, was surprisingly the swing vote that led to the deferral after pausing for a moment to make the decision.
The veteran councillor requested the meeting go into closed session to receive advice from the city solicitor, who was absent. Giertuga said he was concerned about potential legal consequences that the city could face if something were to happen on Dawson Road and administration’s recommendation was not followed.
“I have concerns that we are going to be personally as a council maybe and perhaps personally held liable,” Giertuga said.
“I think if I was a lawyer in the community and something happened I would be the first one to name the City of Thunder Bay based on the fact that administration is saying this is the safest possible route and what we should be doing, and we’re going to sit here and be armchair engineers.”
Coun. Cody Fraser, who represents the Neebing ward that encompasses the Arthur Street corridor into the city, urged his colleagues to sign off on the route and pointed to the reports and recommendations provided by city administration.
“I think it’s time to finally accept their advice,” Fraser said. “I think it’s time to accept this report and grant the residents of Arthur Street and Dawson Road some relief.”
The proposed route is a permissive system that adds weight restrictions to the sections of Arthur Street and Dawson Road within city limits, essentially prohibiting using those roadways from entering or exiting the city. Trucks are required to use the Thunder Bay and Harbour expressways for as long as possible and use the shortest possible route to reach their destination.
Making a deputation to council, Laskowski questioned the specific safety issue that the city was trying to address and expressed concern that not enough verifiable information and analysis had been made available to council.
“We believe that potential unintended consequences lie out there,” Laskowski said. “A decision of this importance and this magnitude, I believe you need to have the complete package and I don’t believe you’ve had it yet.”
Laskowski disputed that adding more trucks to the Thunder Bay Expressway, which has multiple intersections with traffic lights, would be safer than allowing them to continue to use Dawson Road or Arthur Street.
City engineering director Kayla Dixon stood by city administration’s recommendation and added pedestrians and cyclists are present on the city roadways, while they are prohibited from using the highway extension.
“There has been a lot of traffic information, collision information, predicted collision analysis completed. We did have a consultant work on this as well with us,” Dixon said.
“At this point, I can confidently say that it is responsible traffic management for us to put trucks on a higher order highway facility. Certainly, we don’t believe that is going to be an additional safety issue on that Expressway.”
Administration had previously said they expected to present council with the new bylaw in February, had ratification gone ahead.
