Kitchener council to mull name change for Indian Road after community concern

Calls to renamea Kitchener street will go before city council on Monday.

In May 2020 studentsin a Grade 10 Canadian history class at Grand River Collegiate wrote an open letter to the cityasking it to change the name of Indian Road, which the school is located on. The students calledthe current name offensive and insensitive to Indigenous people.

Councillors will hear a presentation at the finance and corporate services meeting. It calls on councilto accept a four stage reviewwhich would seethe road renamed by 2023.

Barry Cronkite, the city's director of transportation services,says 36 residential homes, an apartment building and the high school itself wouldbe affected by the change.

"It really is about engagement and making sure that those that are directly affected by the name of Indian Road will be an essential component of the review," Cronkite said.

"Somaking sure that we connect with the residents, the students and staff of Grand River Collegiate and the Indigenous communities."

Cost and criteria

Cronkite says the current street naming policy in the city "requires that it has a local historical contextand it's something that can stand the test of time."

The cost to change the name will land in the range of between $65,000 and $90,000.

That cost covers the price of new street signs and also the costs residents will have to pay for changes to their identification and addresses.

That's far less than the cost of renaming Dundas Street in Torontowhich is estimated to affect 97,00 residents and 4,500 businesses.

School involvement

Monday afternoon's meeting will include student delegations from Grand River Collegiateand history teacher Stephen Gingrich,whose Grade 10 class started the process after a class discussion.

"This has already been positive on so many levels. Students taking an interest in history at school, young people being active citizens engaging in the political process,the municipal government responding to students' concerns about equity and inclusion," Gingrich said.

"Really, most of all, these conversations raise awareness in our community about the need for meaningful reconciliation in small increments like this and hopefully in the larger steps that need to be taken."