No fast track approval for designated truck route in Thunder Bay

Transports will keep rolling down Dawson Road and West Arthur Street as Thunder Bay city council deferred any decision on the designated truck route until at least January.

• Designated truck route on agenda again at Thunder Bay city council

Council was slated to debate the latest report from administration on the route, which has been discussed for over four years. Instead, a deferral motion took the floor before the debate started.

The deferral, suggested by Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs would take the politics out of any decision, he wrote in a memo to council. He hoped councillorswould not be swayed to vote one way or another with the municipal election one week away.

A few members of the public had deputations scheduled, along with Santorelli'sTruck Stop and the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce.

"It always goes back to, we'll have a report and we'll talk about it," said Charla Robinson, the Chamber's president, who was pleased with the deferral.

She said although many consultation sessions and meetings have taken place, concernsnever seem to get written into administration's reports.

"The report hardly seems to address those questions. So, we would like them to actually answer the questions that have been asked at the consultation before any decision is made."

Robinson said the main concern she continues to hear is confusion on what the actual designated route means. She said some companies are concerned what appears in the corporate report adopted by council may look different than the legal by-law.

"If you're delivering gravel to the Delta Hotel that's being built at the waterfront, the way that you're approaching that based on what is the shortest distance vs. the shortest distance when you're not on the designated route is a completely, is two completely different things."

"The businesses are saying we don't know what this means."

Council will receive the corporate report on the designated truck route in January.

Power plant

Council also heard a presentation on Monday night on how it can support the Power Workers' Union in attempting to save the Thunder Bay Generating Station.

Ontario Power Generation OPG) announced it would close the plant in late July, effective immediately. The union said since that time, the utility has been working at decommissioning the plant, which requires $5 million in boiler repairs.

The union said council should lobby the province to keep the plant operational, noting the repairs would cost less than one percent of OPG's annual budget.

"Although there were no overall losses of jobs within OPG, the Thunder Bay community stands to lose between 50 and 70 high paying jobs," said Jeff Parnell, the Vice-President of the Power Workers' Union.

"They are to be relocated predominantly between southern communities throughout Ontario."

City manager Norm Gale told council there is a working committee of council members and city administration lobbying behind the scenes to try tokeep the plant operational.

Parnell estimated that rebuilding a similar facility, once the current station is torn down would cost $1 billion.

He said time is of the essence, as OPGis already "rapidly" decommissioning and tearing apart the generating station.