The upcoming city council meeting will see the first discussion which will consider certain features of the trails in Thunder Bay.

This concept was brought forward by Current River Councillor Andrew Foulds, and the main focus is repainting the faded lines that many trails in the city currently have.

Foulds says he has received calls from individuals who have complained it is more difficult to navigate trails without the dividing line, especially considering the high and diverse traffic including walkers, runners, bikers, and rollerbladers.

“Sometime you have conflict between different users on trails,” says Foulds. “Certainly, over the last 18 months when we’ve been going through this pandemic, outdoor activities have become much more profound and much more important to us. It will make it safer, and then the other piece of this though is that we have to maintain our infrastructure. If you walk around Boulevard Lake right now you will see some very faded lines, and those need to be upgraded.”

The Councillor goes on to explain what he is hoping to see from the upcoming discussion.

“I’m hopeful that maybe other councillors have received the same complaints I have, and will also be interested in coming up with something that works and promotes safety, and makes people’s experiences on the trails more positive.”

Foulds concludes by saying if this is something that council agrees on, it would need to be done responsibly.

“Tax dollars are precious, so if we are going to move forward with this, we need to make sure the policy and the standard is reasonable, and it’s financially feasible and responsible,” explains Foulds. “Maybe not every trail needs to be done, but certainly there are some trails that are used more than others. I would leave it to the expertise to accumulate the data and move forward based on science.”

Councillor Foulds says he understands this is not a crucial or time sensitive issue, but believes it would benefit many people in Thunder Bay.

Council will determine at the next meeting whether or not to have a report started looking at repainting trail lines.