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THUNDER BAY — City council addressed number of files at their Monday meeting, including the feasibility of including pets in cemeteries, a parking study on Sunrise Boulevard, and outdoor rinks deferral.
The feasibility of including pets in cemeteries
Council voted not to offer pet burial services in city cemeteries.
In order to offer pet burial services, said Cory Halvorsen, manager of parks & open spaces, “the service needs to be included in the original definition of the cemetery lands in use.”
To change the definition, the city would need the express permission of the people who purchased their plot.
Commissioner Kayla Dixon said “administration has determined that although bereavement Authority of Ontario policy does provide options for burial of pet remains. It is not feasible for the city to offer these services at this time due to cemetery land limitations, but it could be considered if cemetery operations are expanded in the future.
According to the corporate report, space in city cemeteries is limited, with an estimate of seven to 10 years of capacity remaining at current usage levels.
Coun. Shelby Ch'ng told administration, “I'm not going to be picking at this. We have other hills to die on” as her intention was never for the city to build a new cemetery for pets.
Ch'ng originally raised the idea of including pet burials alongside loved ones back in June 2024.
River Terrace Parking
Council has decided unanimously to undertake a traffic study and parking review to determine whether Sunrise Boulevard between South Creek Street and Golf Links Road should be a no-parking zone.
However, the results of that study will not be released until January 2026, with administration’s larger parking review study.
Coun. Greg Johnsen asked if administration knew why are people parking there.
Commissioner Kayla Dixon said that it was their understanding people park there to go to the hospital to avoid paying hefty parking fees.
“There have been significant studies that have already been completed on this section. This is a longstanding concern of the residents,” said Dixon.
She noted that the city has put out a traffic camera on Sunrise Boulevard to review traffic movements and determined “there is enough space for the vehicles, and there has been safe movement throughout that time.”
“There has been some movement by administration just to try to address some of the concerns by setting back parking requirements on that section basically to allow vehicles to manoeuvre a little bit more freely into the subdivision as well as put some parking restrictions around the mailboxes that are there as well,” said Dixon.
“This section of the roadway does not have fronting residents, so it has a minimum impact on actual residents' homes.
She also pointed out that restrictions might negatively impact residents as people might drive further into the subdivision and park in front of people’s homes.
Coun. Ch'ng recommended that administration take into account the walking trail along Golf Links Road when they do their study.
“I guess it'd be easy to assume that they're possibly working at the hospital avoiding them. When are we going to figure out why they're parking there, because maybe they're accessing the beautiful trail that's across the street and taking advantage of that,” said Ch’ng.
“I mean it's a possibility, so I wouldn't want us to go down one pathway thinking we have an answer when it could be something else and we might be able to accommodate them somewhere else.”
City manager John Collin said administration will “explore all the possibilities, what ifs and wherefores that we can think about.”
Outdoor rinks deferred
One item on the agenda that isn’t moving forward is a decision on outdoor rink options, but council did approve administration's request to defer the report from Mar. 3 to April 7.
Commissioner Kayla Dixon said the deferral would give administration a better understanding of rink utilization counts, which typically are accounted for into March.
Back in June, Coun. Greg Johnsen tabled a memo asking administration to investigate the effects of climate change on outdoor rinks.
In the memo, Johnsen states he wants the parks and open spaces department to look into "costs, potential benefits, and improvements gained to service levels" for synthetic rinks, adding refrigeration systems, covered rinks, concrete pads for roller blades, and outdoor rink hubs. He also said it “may not be a viable financial option” for the city.
Johnsen expected the memo to come back with a report by December, but it was deferred.
Deferring the report once again, until April, would allow administration to include finalized rink count data and overall program performance for the season to better inform council as they consider their options, said to Dixon.
The conversation around closing rinks started in 2023 when administration proposed closing 31 of 39 outdoor rinks as council searched for millions in service cuts.
That recommendation was put on hold following public backlash. Council instread voted to close nine outdoor rinks, mostly neighbourhood ponds, that fell short of user targets.
