City of Thunder Bay prepares to take possession of Current River commercial dock | CBC News

The City of Thunder Bay is poised to take over a Current River commercial dock, which is currently operated by the federal government.

A report going to city council on Monday is recommending councillors approve the transfer of the dock — located at the end of Fisherman’s Road and known as Fisherman’s Wharf  — from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada.

If council approves the transfer, the city operate the dock “beginning in 2024 for a minimum 5-year period, including establishment of docking contracts with the local commercial fishers currently using the facility,” the report states.

Cory Halvorsen, the city’s manager of parks and open spaces, said DFO initially approached the city about the dock in about 2015 or 2016.

“They had tried to operate the facility through a local harbour authority, comprised of the fishers, but for the size and the scale of the operation there it wasn’t working that way,” he said. “So they approached us at that time, and basically our initial response was that what we’d need to make sure that the infrastructure was fully renewed.”

“That process then took sort of a number of years to to come to fruition.”

The work saw DFO fund the renewal of the commercial docks at the site, as well as the boat launch and lighting, Halvorsen said.

“They should be good for another 25 to 30 years,” he said. “So that asset is basically renewed and ready to be divested to the city, where the operation would be overseen by parks, kind of an extension of our other docking operations that we have at at Marina Park and the cruise ship docks.”

Halvorsen said if council approves the transfer, the city would release DFO from the existing lease.

The city would be responsible for negotiating new contracts with the commercial fishers who use the site, but Halvorsen said the boat launch would remain free to use by the public.

“I think with a formal relationship between the city and the fishers, there may be opportunities there that we haven’t explored in the past,” Halvorsen said. “That operation essentially ran on its own underneath the lease that was in place with DFO.”

“Now that we’re more closely aligned, we may be able to coordinate something with them if there is an opportunity for either use of the space, or promotion of the type of activities that they do through their business.”