www.4lanehighway17kenora.ca

The four-laning of Highway 17 within the District of Kenora is being carried out under the requirements of the Class Environmental Assessment (Class EA) for Provincial Transportation Facilities (2000) for Group "B" projects.

The environmental assessment documents that must be prepared for this project are Transportation Environmental Study Reports (TESRs).

Each TESR will document:

Study objectives;
Project-specific earlier and related work;
Significant transportation engineering issues;
Significant environmental issues;
Transportation engineering and environmental protection alternatives developed and evaluated;
Project-specific external consultation;
Changes made as a result of external consultation;
Recommended plan; and
Commitments to future action, including external approvals known to be required.

TESRs for Section 1 and Section 2 were prepared separately in November 2009. An additional TESR will be prepared upon completion of Preliminary Design for Section 3.

Once completed, each TESR will be made available for a 30-day public review period. If concerns are raised during the review periods that cannot be resolved through discussions with the Ministry of Transportation, then members of the public, interested groups or technical agencies may request that the Minister of the Environment make a Part II Order (“bump-up”) of the project, thereby requiring an individual environmental assessment. This would require submission of a formal letter (as required by Section 5 (1) of the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act) to the Ministry of the Environment for formal review and approval.

The decision whether a Part II Order ("bump-up") is appropriate or necessary rests with the Minister of the Environment.

If no "bump-up" requests are outstanding by the end of the 30-day review period, the project is considered to have met the requirements of the Class EA, and MTO may proceed with the project subject to obtaining any other outstanding environmental approvals.

Notification for the submission of the TESR documents will be published in local newspapers and posted on this website. Once complete, the TESRs will also be posted on this website. To review the Section 1 and Section 2 TESRs, please see the Reports page.