Friday, September 17, 2010

Passage of Far North Act Delayed

The contraversial Far North Act still hasn't been passed into law.

Bill 191 was supposed to be up for third and final reading Thursday afternoon
at Queen's Park.

Kenora-Rainy River M.P. Howard Hampton says the vote never took place because there were just too many people demonstrating against the legislation.

Hampton believes the premier will try to ram the bill through this fall.

Hampton suggests the premier will try to bring the bill back for final passage
just before the Thanksgiving long weekend, when there will be less attention
on Queen's Park.

Rafferty to Oppose Federal Long Gun Registry

Thunder Bay-Rainy River M-P John Rafferty is standing firm on his position on the long-gun registry.

In a statement issued yesterday, Rafferty reiterated his decision to vote in favour of a Conservative private members bill that proposed to scrap the registry.

Rafferty says he's following the wishes of his constituents by doing so.

Richards Ready for Training Camp

The leaves are starting to fall, so that must mean NHL training camps are getting ready to open.

Players begin reporting to their teams today.

Mike Richards is the captain of the Philadelphia Flyers and says while the teams made a number of upgrades on defense, they will be sticking with the same goaltending tandem that go them through the play-offs.

Richards says they expect to make another strong play-off run again this year, after
coming within two games of winning the Stanley Cup in June.

Junior Boys Volleyball Tournament this weekend

The Beaver Brae and Thomas Aquinas junior boys volleyball teams get their first real tests this weekend.

The annual Kenora Invitation Volleyball tournament will be taking place at both the Beaver Brae and T.A. gyms.

The Broncos see their first action of the season at 1:00 against a Fort Frances split squad.

The Saints play their first game an hour later at 2:00 against the other Muskies split squad.

A total of seven teams are entered in the two day tournament.

Bronco Football Team Hits the Road

The schedule in the Winnipeg High School Football League is about to get tougher for the Beaver Brae Broncos.

The Broncos are in Winnipeg this afternoon for a game against the Maples Marauders.

Beaver Brae Head Coach Chris Penner says they should be able to the play with the teams from Winnipeg this year.

The Broncos opened the season with a 27-0 win over Dryden last week, while Maples lost their first game.  Game time is 3:00 at Maples Collegiate.

Terry Fox Run Turns 30

The Terry Fox Run turns 30 years old this year.

The annual run for cancer research will take Sunday starting at Valleyview School.

Laurine Goertzen is one of the organizers of the Kenora run and says the
event has been very successful over the years.

The Terry Fox Run will start Sunday morning at 9:00, with a barbeque to
follow at noon.

Goertzen says they are expecting about 400 participants this year.

Organizers gearing up for 2011 Allan Cup

Organizers of the 2011 Allan Cup Senior Hockey Championships says the event will have a significant economic impact on the City of Kenora.

The official launch for the event took place last night.

Frank Bastone is the marketing manager for the event and says the championships should have the same impact on the city that the National Midget Championships did a couple of years ago.

Bastone says ticket packages for the week long tournament will be going on sale shortly.

There is also a new website with information about the the event at http://www.allancupkenora2011.ca/

Exhance Income Bullish on Bearskin

Winnipeg-based Exchange Income says its excited about the future of the airline industry in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario.

The company signed a letter of intent to purchase Bearskin Airlines this week.

President Michael Pyle explains why they targeted Bearskin.

Pyle says the Company has no interest in amalgamating Bearskin with its Manitoba airlines.

New Fire Hall gets more money

Kenora's Fire and Emergency Services Department will be getting a bit more funding to outfit the new fire hall on Barsky's Hill.

Council recently approved 188 thousand dollars for the fit and finish of the new facility.

Fire Chief Warren Brinkman says they had initially budgeted about 138 thousand dollars to finish the new fire hall.

Brinkman says so far, the nearly six million dollar project is pretty close to being on
budget.

The only real change is to the roof, at a cost of about 24 hundred dollars.