A bypass road is still on Timmins Mayor George Pirie's priority list.
At Tuesday's council meeting, Pirie brought up the need for a bypass road around Connaught Hill, which he said the city has been talking about since 2006.
This week, Gowest Gold's mine production closure plan received official approval from the province. It provides details for how the mine will be operated and closed, and for site reclamation once mining activities are done. The company has now received all environmental permits required to bring Bradshaw into commercial production.
The mine is located off Highway 655 about 42 kilometres north of the city. The ore from the site is being processed at Northern Sun's Redstone Mill out Langmuir Road in South Porcupine. Processing is scheduled to begin Nov. 9.
To access the mill, the heavy truck traffic will pass through residential areas, in front of the South Porcupine Arena, and go by Golden Avenue Public School.
At this week's meeting, Pirie showed a conceptual drawing from a 2006 presentation of a bypass around Connaught Hill.
“It’s time we get this done. We’ve had a number of conversations, including with Greg Romain at Gowest, Newmont, there’s lumber companies involved and I’ve asked that all interested parties put their heads together to find a way to get this road done,” he said.
Back in 2006, Pirie said the funding didn't come together from companies for the bypass.
“I think there’s a different attitude that we’ve got right now within our large industrial users ... and we should be able to find a way to make this happen. We don’t want to see those trucks go by the arena, we don’t want especially to see those trucks come by the elementary school,” he said.
In his State of the City speech at the beginning of the year, Pirie said he'd like to see large industrial players in town coming to a consensus on a bypass road before his 2021 address.
There was no decision made on a bypass or staff report attached to Pirie's presentation this week.
- with files from Northern Ontario Business
