Truckers and local businesses can finally breathe easier after amendments to North Battleford's traffic bylaw passed at Monday's council meeting.
The long-awaited bylaw changes, lobbied for by the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce and by the Saskatchewan Trucking Association, had been in the works since last fall. The discussion and drafting took several months, but when the final bylaw amendments were introduced Monday, councillors passed them in swift fashion. All three readings for the traffic bylaw amendments passed unanimously.
The changes were designed to address most of the concerns raised over the past several months over what were seen as oppressive fees and restrictions associated with the initial traffic bylaw - restrictions that would have seen trucks over 16,400 kg face annual fees of $6,000 for driving off the main trucking routes into the city.
The amendments are essentially designed to divide the city into three zones for truck traffic. One zone is a heavy vehicle route around Territorial Drive where heavy vehicles of allowable weights can drive without a permit fee, The second zone is in the industrial park area in the southeast where the same rules apply.
The third zone consists of the area outside the heavy vehicle routes. A key change included in the amended bylaw was wording to allow trucks with weights up to 47,000 kg to operate off of the designated heavy vehicle routes without requiring the purchase of the $6,000 Heavy Vehicle Permit. Those overweight would still need the permit.
That is a change from the 16,400 kg requirement under the initial bylaw wording. Changes included amending the definition of heavy vehicle permit by deleting "16,400" and substituting "47,000" in its place, as well as spelling out in detail the requirements for operating a heavy vehicle on city streets.
Another key requirement of the amended bylaw is that the operator of a heavy vehicle must use the most direct route to or from the heavy vehicle route to its destination points.
Mayor Ian Hamilton said he is happy with the amendments.
The bylaw better articulates the heavy weight routes, he told reporters. "We've better defined those," said Hamilton, who adds the bylaw provided "access to those delivering within the city the most direct route."
The vote puts an end to the controversy that erupted last year when the initial bylaw was introduced. Truckers and members of the local Chamber of Commerce raised alarm bells over the initial bylaw's requirements the $6,000 annual fees that would have been assessed for trucks driving off of the primary heavy truck routes.
Truckers argued the fees would negatively impact their businesses and that the weight restriction was set too low, impacting most trucks on the road that needed to make deliveries off of the primary routes.
The bylaw was designed to address the costs of maintaining city roads, but the provisions saw immediate blowback from truckers, with some threatening to pull their routes from the city. Al Rosseker of the Sask. Trucking Association went to council last fall to relay truckers' concerns and find a solution.
A number of discussions have taken place since then, including a meeting held Feb. 26 that included the Sask. Trucking Association. There was also further feedback from the Battlefords Chamber.
The changes and discussions were met with a positive reaction. Monday, Councillor Trent Houk relayed to the rest of council that he had spoken with members of the Chamber and with Al Rosseker and Terry Siemens of STA following the February meeting. "They conveyed to me they were happy with how the amendments were going and that it was going to be doable, totally doable for the city of North Battleford."
Hamilton says he believes the amended bylaw satisfies everyone.
"We've heard the Saskatchewan Trucking Association concerns and the Chamber of Commerce concerns and I think we addressed them," said Hamilton. "We did communicate with them the intended amendments and they seem to provide support for those."
