THUNDER BAY – The City of Thunder Bay will seek to use $1.6 million in federal COVID-19 infrastructure funding to advance construction of a planned waterfront trail, along with other improvements to its multi-use trail network.
If approved, the investment would technically add five kilometres of new trails along the waterfront in 2021. The additions would move the city closer to its goal of a single waterfront trail running from Mission Island to Fisherman's Park.
The only section currently developed is that at Marina Park.
Two of the three new sections of waterfront trail would simply involve installing signage along existing roads, along with other improvements such as a lookout and a pedestrian pathway, however.
Council unanimously endorsed the plan Monday night. The city must still submit an application through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Plan (ICIP) COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure Stream for the projects.
Thunder Bay’s $1.6 million ICIP allocation is funded 80 per cent by the federal government, and 20 per cent by the province.
Projects eligible for funding include retrofits or repairs to public buildings or health and education infrastructure, pandemic infrastructure such as measures to support physical distancing, active transportation projects, and disaster mitigation and adaptation.
Mayor Bill Mauro questioned whether the city was overextending itself on capital projects by turning to the waterfront trail.
“We need to determine what our priorities are,” he said. “We’ve talked about the conservatory, we’ve talked about Victoriaville. Now we’re injecting another [priority] here.”
Director of engineering Kayla Dixon said the city had been informed renewal of the conservatory would not qualify for the ICIP fund.
The plan proposed by city administration and endorsed by council Monday would spend around $800,000 for three projects along the waterfront, with a similar amount going to upgrade existing multi-use trails throughout the city.
The waterfront projects include widening a 700 metre portion of Island Drive north of the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway to add a bi-directional multi-use trail on one side of the road – the only one of the three to involve actual trail construction.
That would cost around $600,000, with $350,000 going to widen the road and add signage, and another $250,000 to road resurfacing.
Two other projects would add signs along existing roads to mark the waterfront trail, along with other improvements for pedestrians.
The first would extend the waterfront trail roughly two kilometres north from Prince Arthur’s Landing by adding signage along Marina Park Drive, and build a lookout at the end of that section, near the Richardson terminal.
That would cost around $45,000, divided about evenly between signage and building the lookout.
The third project would put signage along a 2.1 kilometre portion of 106th and 105th streets leading to Mission Marsh Conservation Area. It would add a pedestrian pathway along an unopened right-of-way parallel to 106th Street.
That would cost around $175,000, with $155,000 for the pedestrian path and the remainder for signage.
Coun. Aldo Ruberto had pressed for progress on the stalled waterfront trail earlier in the fall.
Projects funded under the ICIP COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure program must be started by Sept. 30, 2021, and completed by the end of the year.
City administration is set to return to council with a long-term plan for implementing the full waterfront trail in June.
