Support and improvements to the proposed Ojibway National Urban Park continue, with efforts to protect wildlife in the area.
During Tuesday afternoon's meeting, Windsor City Council voted unanimously in favour of sending a report to Parks Canada to come up with a solution to protect wildlife and species at risk in the park area with an overpass.
The Ojibway Parkway Wildlife Overpass Project was also approved to receive an additional $150,000 for the project.
The first report proposed the overpass start from Ojibway Park, over Ojibway Parkway, but stop before the Essex Terminal Railway Tracks.
However, council approved a report to go forward to look at having the overpass start from Ojibway Park, and pass over both the Ojibway Parkway and over the Essex Terminal Railway Tracks, letting wildlife roam into Black Oak Heritage Park.
Fred Francis is the councillor for Ward 1, where the project is taking place.
He says the whole report comes down to wildlife having the opportunity to safely cross.
"And after further consultation with partners and stakeholders, the report came back with City of Windsor administration and their partners to see if we could expand the wildlife overpass. So making it, essentially, larger spanning Ojibway Parkway, thus making it bigger, wider, and having more wildlife to potentially use it."
He says he thinks it's fantastic the work that is being done to try to help the wildlife and the environment.
"Anything we can do to protect the wildlife and protect the environment, or sensitive land around Ojibway, I think the onus is on us to do that. Obviously we have some constraints, we have some challenges, but with technological advancements like we see with these overpasses, we see them in other parts of the country, there's ways we can overcome those challenges and impediments and the onus is on us."
Francis says a public consultation will be held once the report goes through to Parks Canada.
"If anybody wants to know, I would direct them to 311 and let the operator at 311 know that they want to be informed of when that meeting happens. And then the city's clerks office will take that information and certainly make them aware of when that meeting is scheduled and what day."
The report will have a variety of study's to be conducted on the land to observe the natural environment of the area, a stormwater management review and more.