GREENSTONE — Greenstone municipal council has officially changed the name of Indian Road in Longlac.
At its meeting on Monday, council approved a bylaw which renames the street to Nishnabe Miikena, following consultation with nearby First Nations, including Long Lake 58 and Ginoogaming. The change is “to recognize those with Indigenous heritage in the region while also being more culturally appropriate,” said a staff report to council.
Greenstone mayor Jamie McPherson said he’s pleased the change is now final.
“It's huge that we took the opportunity and worked through the whole process,” he told Newswatch in an interview a day after the council vote. “This is something that took us almost two years to go through, and so patience certainly was a virtue, perseverance was the desired (result) and we made it.”
Council first approved the change at a meeting in June and directed administration to draft the necessary bylaw to change the name on street signs, mailing addresses and other documentation. Monday’s decision — which narrowly passed 4-3 — confirmed that bylaw, including plans to notify property owners, emergency services and other authorities of the change.
Renaming the street was identified as a key component of Greenstone’s reconciliation action plan.
“It's nice to have said that we were going to do it … and to be able to say ‘we've now done it,’” McPherson said.
City staff wrote in their report that costs to change the name of the road should be “minimal,” adding that people should be able to change the name of things like their driver's licenses, other government identification and banking information for free.
“For any other items, if there is a small charge, the municipality would be open to considering re-imbursing reasonable direct costs from the organization or company themselves,” the report said, adding that some time may be required to officially change addresses.
“However, these are one-time only and the experience in other communities has been that this is not significant,” according to the report.
“If, economically, it's going to impact somebody or a group and they wish to come to the municipality, the opportunity is there for us to help them with that, because we're putting this on them,” McPherson said.
The now-former name for the road was established in the 1950s, McPherson previously told Newswatch.
The thoroughfare branches off of Forestry Road and runs up to the Trans-Canada Highway; it has several schools, some homes, businesses and a church along its stretch.
Prior to the vote, Coun. Elaine Mannisto, one of the representatives from Longlac, said she had been hearing “explosive comments” from people living on the street about the name change.
“One of the comments they made was that they all received letters asking about this initially and that they didn't agree to a name change,” she told her colleagues.
No one else around the council table made comments on the matter at the meeting prior to the vote.
The bylaw will go into effect on Oct. 1.
