GERALDTON – Greenstone council has almost completed a key item in the municipality’s Reconciliation Action Plan by deciding on a new name for a road in Longlac.
Councillors and Mayor Jamie McPherson voted Monday night to change the name of Indian Road to Nishnabe Miikena, which translates to “Ojibwe Road.”
But new signs won’t be going up soon on the old roadway, McPherson told Newswatch after council’s decision.
First, a bylaw must be drafted and passed to make it official.
Then, McPherson said, residents and businesses on Indian Road will need time to change the addresses on their identification and stationery.
“So we'll need to find the time frame to give people the opportunity to make those changes. And then we should have a celebration as we make the change.”
But McPherson said Monday night’s decision was an important step.
“We have approximately 16 areas that we’re looking at on the Reconciliation Action Plan,” McPherson told Dougall Media after the decision.
“It’s something we put together during the development of a strategic plan. We knew that we had to step back and take a look. We’ve made good progress.”
Renaming the Longlac road, the third item in the plan, got delayed when the municipality received “some new information,” he said.
McPherson said council was heading towards naming the road Reconciliation Road until community feedback led them to decide to seek input from area First Nations.
The Longlac ward is adjacent to two First Nations: Ginoogaming and Long Lake #58.
One of those neighbours offered the name Nishnabe Miikena, McPherson said, though he wouldn’t say which one.
“I don’t believe that’s necessary,” he said. “It was … courtesy of the elders that they gave us that name, and we need to respect that, independent of the community.”
Long Lake #58 Chief Judy Desmoulin said Tuesday she didn’t know who put forward the replacement name but “it was good that (the municipality) paid attention” to the issue.
McPherson told Newswatch in January 2025 that Greenstone formed a road-renaming committee about a year earlier and that the Longlac road “needs to be changed.”
Longlac is the east-end ward in Greenstone, a sprawling municipality that also includes the communities of Geraldton, Nakina and Beardmore.