OLIVER PAIPOONGE — How to best respond to a Thunder Bay bylaw that's expected to result in convoys of transport trucks passing through Kakabeka Falls is to be the focus of a new committee in Oliver Paipoonge.
"We just can't sit around and do nothing," Oliver Paipoonge Mayor Lucy Kloosterhuis said on Friday. "We have to figure out what we can do about this."
The bylaw, which is to go into effect sometime this fall, will require big trucks that might normally use Thunder Bay's Dawson Road and Arthur Street to stick to Highway 11-17. The move is an attempt to increase safety on the city routes.
Critics of the plan, including Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Kevin Holland, warn it could redirect an estimated 1,300 trucks per day "onto a single route (Highway 11-17)," including the Thunder Bay Expressway.
Kloosterhuis said she expects the Oliver Paipoonge committee opposing the city's plan to be formally approved on Aug. 5. The committee's other council member is to be Coun. Donna Peacock.
The committee could be broadened to include members from other like-minded municipalities that also oppose the city's bylaw, like Conmee Township, Kloosterhuis said.
She has said that if the bylaw stands, the Ministry of Transportation will have to seriously look at installing traffic lights in Kakabeka Falls, which is home to a school and seniors residence.
Since the city passed the bylaw earlier this summer, the Municipality of Oliver Paipoonge has received several letters and telephone calls from locals who also oppose the truck-route plan, Kloosterhuis added.
The Chronicle-Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
