A town councillor is looking to make active transportation an area of focus for Fort Frances.
Coun. Rick Wiedenhoeft said when he first served on council in the early 2000s, the town commissioned a study on active transportation.
“Over the course of the next few years, we took some very small steps towards the goal of making our community a safe and more sustainable town,” he noted.
Under the active transportation implementation study of 2011, Fort Frances would encourage a sustainable form of transportation which would help promote, enhance, and restore the environment.
“The town needs to develop a diverse transportation system which supports a wide variety of transportation modes. The town shall implement in a staged program a development of a continuous safe system of on and off road cycling trails,” Coun. Wiedenhoeft remarked.
Unfortunately, the significant costs and other priorities pushed the development and the study to the shelf where it has remained dormant for several years, he explained.
“One of the original [active transportation] committee members, Elaine Fischer from the [Northwestern Health Unit]–a passionate cyclist herself–and I think that given the present circumstances, it is time to dust off the report and bring it back to life,” Coun. Wiedenhoeft said.
“We know that these are and will continue to be very difficult, challenging financial times for the town,” he added.
“Even small steps will require provincial, federal, and private financing going forward, but the time to begin, we believe, is now.”
