Thursday, January 21, 2010

Hunting Fine

A Red Lake man has been fined 35 hundred dollars and prohibited from hunting in Ontario for two years for illegally hunting deer in the Rainy River District.

Conservation officers say they heard a shot being fired last November in Patullo Township.

Two men were spotted walking out of the bush and getting into a truck.

The MNR says a buck was killed in a farmers field and then dragged to a fence near
a road.

James Rousseau was questioned by conservation officers and initially he denied
killing the deer.

But the CO's match the bullet that killed the animal to his rifle.

Rousseau has been charged with tresspassing on private property to hunt and
failing to affix a seal on the deer.

Kenora Chamber of Commerce Business Survey

43 percent of businesses surveyed in Kenora say they expect their company will perform better financially in 2010 than last year.

That was one of the findings from the 4th annual Chamber of Commerce Business Survey.

Joe Fregeau from Meyers, Norris, Penny helped draft the survey and says he was a bit surprised that few business owners felt tourism should be one of the main focuses of the city.

Only 12 percent of respondants felt tourism should be the focus of the City of Kenora's economic revitalization.

19 percent felt there should be more focus on roads and other infrastructure.

OFAH Cabinet Shuffle

For the second time in four years a Toronto area Member of Provincial Parliament has been appointed Minister of Natura Resources.

Linda Jeffrey was sworn in at a ceremony at Queen's Park on Monday.

Greg Ferrant is a spokesperson for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters and says they're willing to give the rookie minister the benefit of the doubt.

Jeffrey replaces Donna Cansfield, who was ousted from cabinet by Premier Dalton McGuinty.

HST Meeting Today

Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Bruce Hyer says the Harmonized Sales Tax, set to take effect in Ontario in July, is indeed a Federal issue.

The NDP member disputed Conservative claims that the issue is a Provincial one while speaking in Dryden and Sioux Lookout on the weekend.

Hyer says the HST is bad for Northerners.

Hyer claims Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has been pushing for this tax for years and is now shifting blame over to the Province because it's becoming unpopular.

MP John Rafferty will be in Kenora today for another town hall style meeting.

Teen Suicides Northeastern Ontario

The province is freeing up 470-thousand dollars to bring four suicide prevention workers to remote James Bay aboriginal communities.

A recent Toronto Star investigation revealed that, in 2009, 13 teens took their own lives in the isolated towns dotting the James Bay basin.

Another 80 have tried to take their own lives in what child protection workers say is an ``epidemic'' of teen suicides in northeastern Ontario.