Fort Frances will take another swing at an off-leash dog park.
Council agreed when it met Aug. 11, 2025, to establish an ad-hoc committee to plan and develop a municipal off-leash dog park. It’s hoped development of the park will begin next summer.
But there’s much work to be done before then, as a report to council outlines.
Councillor Wendy Brunetta said the report to council indicates that dog park committees were established in 2012 and then again in 2015. But a dog park didn’t come of either effort.
“What were the obstacles last time?” she said.
“Are they (obstacles) still there or are we going to be able to see something actually produced this time?”
Jonathan Burrows, the town’s chief building official and municipal planner, said he wasn’t able to find information about why the previous two committees were disbanded without success.
“I do know that there are some people around this room that were part of those committees during that time,” he said.
“And I would request to defer that question over to them for clarification because I don’t know the full reason why they were terminated or ceased.”
“A lot of effort was put into them and the No. 1 thing that they did was to identify potential dog parks,” mayor Andrew Hallikas said.
“One of the requirements was that the pieces of property identified had running water.”
Some properties didn’t have a water source and were ruled out as possibilities, he said.
“It then became a cost,” he said.
“(There) wasn’t an appetite to support at that time to establish running water. That was the main reason was there were criteria in place and what was needed for a dog park and they weren’t able to fulfill those criteria without a substantial cost.”
Hallikas said there’s a crucial difference between the current effort toward a committee and the previous attempts: a fundraising responsibility is attached to the possible committee this time around.
The majority of appointed members will be from the public, so it’s important to allow adequate time for scheduling and meeting. It was suggested in a report to council that the planning period extend to March 2026.
Committee member selection will take place until Sept. 2. Members will be appointed during the Sept. 8, 2025, council meeting and will meet at least once a month.
The group will be made up of one councillor, four people from the general public, and one person from the municipal administration staff to be secretary-treasurer.
Brunetta suggested the committee be comprised of two councillors.
“It’s a fairly tight timeline in terms of having some decision by this spring,” she said.
“If one council member couldn’t make it, I would hope that the second person could.”
With that, the plan was amended to include a second councillor.
The initial meetings in the fall will be to identify possible sites based on consideration of size and location within the town. Sites will be reviewed and designated as preferred locations.
It is recommended that once these preferred sites are selected, a public survey be put online to receive feedback from the community. Survey results will be brought to the committee for consideration and reporting to council.
Given public feedback, the committee will consider features, costing, and development for their recommendation to council on a desired site.
According to a report to council, a public Open House be hosted at the proposed site for the public to be able to attend and ask questions about the project.
That feedback will inform the group about direction for procurement and development of the off-leash park.
The committee will focus on final procurement and any fundraising or sponsorships over the winter.
