Town council denied a request by Fort Frances resident Melvin Haukaas to rename La Verendrye Parkway as “Canada Street” at Monday night’s regular meeting.
“I’m surprised,” Haukaas said yesterday after learning about the decision. “From the response I got from the public and business people I talked to, they liked it.”
Haukaas made the request in a letter to council, dated Nov. 16, concerning an experience he had while on a bus tour in Waterford, Ireland back in March, 2001, where he noticed a street there named “Canada Street.”
“With our waterfront needing an identifying name, and the committee and council came up with La Verendrye Parkway, I would like them to reconsider and possibly change and name ours Canada Street,” Haukaas wrote.
“Vancouver has their Canada Place, but an Internet search didn’t produce a single Canada Street in Canada,” he noted. “Our newly-named Canada Street would be unique and fits right on the centre fold of the map!
“Just where you want to be found,” he added.
Haukaas went on to write that Fort Frances should adopt the name as it would affiliate the town with other countries in the world, be a patriotic statement, and be a means for marketing the area.
The route Haukaas suggested to be renamed included Colonization Road West to the junction of King’s Highway, following into Third Street West to Central Avenue to the Customs facility at Church Street, down Church Street to Veteran Avenue and then around to Portage Avenue, down Sinclair Street onto Victoria Avenue to Front Street, then to Colonization Road East and following the Canada/U.S. boundary into Pither’s Point Park, and ending at the Lookout Tower at the Ranier rapids.
The request was denied by the town’s centennial celebration advisory committee on the grounds a public consultation process and street naming procedure already had taken place for the La Verendrye Parkway.
But it did note the name could be taken into consideration in any future street naming.
Furthermore, Administration and Finance manager Darryl Allan said in a memo to the committee dated Nov. 26 that research he did as to the uniqueness of the name proved it simply wasn’t.
“I would like to inform you that his [Haukaas’] contention there is no Canada Street in Canada is in error.
“If you check an online map service such as http://mappoint.msn.com, you will find that there are Canada Streets in Hamilton, Ont., both Fredericton and St. John, N.B., and St. John’s, Nfld.,” Allan noted.
