THUNDER BAY — Five years, to the day, after a fire closed the James Street Swing Bridge to vehicular traffic, the future of the Kaministiquia River span remains before the courts.
Traffic to and from the Fort William First Nation has been diverted to Highway 61 and Chippewa Road since the night of Oct. 29, 2013.
The Ontario Court of Appeal last June ordered Canadian National Railway to take steps to reopen the bridge, overturning an earlier Superior Court decision that CN was not responsible for maintaining the century-old bridge to modern standards.
In July, CN informed the City of Thunder Bay it was taking the case to the Supreme Court of Canada, to seek "guidance...on the scope of its obligations under the 1906 agreement" with the former City of Fort William.
The railway previously offered to alter the railway deck portion of the bridge to accommodate vehicular traffic on an alternating basis in each direction, but the city has insisted that CN must restore two-way traffic.
On Sept.10, the Supreme Court received CN's application for leave to appeal the lower court decision.
The City of Thunder Bay and Fort William First Nation this month both filed their responses to the application, and the railway last week submitted a reply to the two respondents' arguments.
It typically takes an average of just under four months for the Supreme Court to reach a decision on whether or not to actually hear an appeal, meaning the parties will almost certainly have to wait until early 2019 to find out whether the highest court in the land will intervene in the case.
