Saskatoon city council votes to keep 'Traffic Bridge' name

The Traffic Bridge will bear the same name it has for more than 100 years.

The Traffic Bridge opened in 1907 and was closed in 2010 due to public safety concerns before it was rebuilt.

The naming advisory committee consulted the public on renaming the bridge during the fall of 2017. It received 24 nominations suggesting the Traffic Bridge be renamed the TRC Bridge to acknowledge the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

City council made the decision to keep the name on Tuesday during a Governance and Priorities Committee meeting. They will, however, consider new names for the walkways on both sides of the bridge.

Coun. Darren Hill spoke out strongly in favour of maintaining the name the bridge was given after construction.

"I ask people to respect the fact that this bridge was named Traffic Bridge in recognition of vehicle and pedestrian traffic," he said.

"If you remove that and name those walkways something else, you're removing that part of history that was established in 1907 and reaffirmed by the citizens of Saskatoon in 2007."

Mayor Charlie Clark voted in favour of keeping the name but removing the walkways from that designation. The majority of councillors agreed.

The vote regarding the bridge name was called into question because Council previously decided on the matter in 2007.

"The naming advisory committee would not have gone out and consulted the public on this if there was go appetite for council to even talk about this bridge. The intention was not to put council in an awkward spot and I can see that, to some degree, there wasn't enough clarity about what was being asked in the report that came forward," Clark said.

Both the new Traffic Bridge and the North Commuter Parkway are scheduled to open in October 2018.

"There will be plenty of opportunity with the existing policy to name any other walkways moving forward," Hill added.