Lack of Moosonee public docks raises safety concerns

Residents in Moosonee and Moose Factory have expressed health and safety concerns after the Township of Moosonee sold off its public docks and blocked off road access to the area where boat passengers can be picked up.
For more than 60 years, Moosonee has installed public docks along the Moose River shoreline to facilitate passenger loading and unloading.
This spring, the Township of Moosonee determined it did not have the funds to put in the docks this summer and did not want any liability so it re-zoned the parcel of land along the shoreline, sold its public docks to a private individual and blocked road access to former location of the docks.
Residents often take a boat taxi to commute between the communities, with Moosonee residents needing access to the Weeneebayko General Hospital while Moose Factory residents often needing to access the train or airport.
According to a statement by a concerned Moose Factory resident, the lack of docks is a major concern for residents who may have trouble going up a steep rocky – and at times slippery – bank, especially Elders and those with disabilities.
“Elders and persons with disability have difficulty walking down the steep shoreline of Moosonee and have had their Human Rights violated,” reads an online petition description written by Stephanie Feletto. “The Township of Moosonee has placed the residents of Moose Factory in undue hardship.”
So far, more than 700 people signed the online petition.
“As a 92-year-old, I feel access to the hospital in Moose Factory is important for patients and family members,” reads a comment from one of the petition signees. “Public docks have been available in Moosonee for over 60 years.”
“I make trips to and from the island daily,” wrote another signee. “I have seen 80-year-old Elders having to navigate the steep and often muddy bank to climb over the side of a taxi boat from an uneven/rocky beach. Seems wrong to me.”
The petition calls for the provincial government to intervene and install docks along the Moosonee shoreline.
MPP Gilles Bisson has indicated the province will take on some of the responsibility and liability. He said to address the immediate needs, the province will partner with the municipality and attempt to re-purchase the docks from the private individual.
This is not the first time the lack of docks raised concerns. Last year, the public docks were not installed due to a lack of funds and residents raised similar safety concerns. The town eventually obtained a grant from a local development corporation to install the docks.
Moose Factory, home to Moose Cree First Nation, and Moosonee have a combined population of about 7,000 people.
Feletto said the concerns of people living in the north are often neglected by people in the south.
“What if this happened in downtown Toronto with the GoTrain, operated by a Crown Agency,” she said in a press release. “Just because we live in the North we feel like we don’t matter.”