KENMORE — It must have felt like Groundhog Day for Nik Wallenda.

For a third time, the American high-wire performer met with Niagara Parks Commission officials Thursday looking for permission to walk across the Niagara Gorge on a tight rope.

Wallenda, part of the famed Flying Wallendas family of circus performers and aerialists, wants to cross the Horseshoe Falls from the U.S. to Canada in the summer.

Although he has received permission from New York state to complete the walk, Wallenda's request was refused by the NPC after a vote by the commissioners in December.

The parks commission has been firm in its stance that any type of stunting is not allowed on its lands, which stretch from Fort Erie to Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Wallenda appealed to Ontario Minister of Tourism Michael Chan to overrule the decision, and the two met last month to discuss the proposal, which the performer said could attract more than 125,000 spectators and a worldwide television audience of 460 million.

After that meeting, Chan said he wouldn’t overturn the NPC, but encouraged chairwoman Janice Thomson to give Wallenda another meeting.

The third face-to-face between the two happened Thursday over lunch at Table Rock.

“I feel like it’s going in the right direction,” Wallenda said. “I feel like the parks have opened their doors back up as Minister Chan has asked them to.”

“We chatted about his dream and what it meant to him,” Thomson said after the meeting. “I shared with him the whole background of the parks commission and the challenges of considering an exemption to stunting. We both have great respect for each others’ opinions.”

Wallenda and his father, who is also the event’s safety co-ordinator, spent an hour and a half with the chairwoman and then met for another hour with NPC general manager Fay Booker, a Niagara Falls city engineer, parks police from both the U.S. and Canada, and an official with New York State Parks office.

“There were a lot of questions, but they were good. They were questions that would be asked if they were considering approving this event,” he said, adding much of the discussion had to do with safety and setup plans.

Parks staff will now put together a report and present it to the commissioners at their next meeting, which is Feb. 15, where a second vote on the proposal will take place. Unlike the first vote, which was held over the phone, this one is expected to be held at the public meeting.

Thomson wouldn’t say if Thursday’s meeting had changed her opinion on the proposal, but said she wasn’t surprised by any information from Wallenda.

“It was all pretty much what I had heard before. He’s very committed and passionate about what he does and we already saw that at the board meeting. So, there was nothing today that surprised me,” she said.

If the Feb. 15 decision is to deny the walk again, Wallenda said he won’t give up.

“It has turned into a political battle, which is sad to me, because this is my dream,” he said. “The politics aren’t so fun, but the drama is all part of it.”