Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Second Career Program Deemed a Success

The McGuinty Government is celebrating the success of the Second Career program in the North.

Just over 32 hundred Northern Ontario workers have particapated in the program, which offers financial assistance to laid off workers to retrain for a second career.

A recent survey shows 74 percent of Second Career students have found employment in less than a year after completeing the program.

The Second Career program was launched in 2008 by Employment Ontario. 

Woman fined for Illegal Deer Hunting

A Terrace Bay woman found out shooting deer can be expensive.


She was fined one-thousand dollars after pleading guilty to
shooting a deer from a roadway near Kenora last October.

Donna Parise was met by conservation officers on the Villeneuve Road after
they'd received a report of a high powered rifle been discharged in the area.

Parise said she fired a single shot at a deer from the centre of the road but believed she had missed.

The Ministry of Natural Resources reminds hunters it is illegal to shoot from, down or across a public road.

New Electronic Billboard Proposed for Harborfront

Its a sign of the times.

A national advertising company wants to put an electronic billboard up on
the Kenora Harborfront along the C.P. right of way.

Pattison Signs made a pitch to city council to replace the five conventional
billboards along the harborfront, with one electronic one.

Rob Sedgewick is a spokesperson for the company and says the concept is
a good one for the Harbortown area.

The only fly in the ointment, is that Kenora's new sign by-law prohibit any
new billboards from being erected in the Harbortown area.

Council has decided to set up an ad-hoc committee to look at the issue to
decide whether to allow the electronic billboard or not.

Free Parking for Veterans?

There may be no such thing as a free ride, but there is such a thing as

free parking, at lease if you are a military veteran in Kenora.

City council has re-visited a by-law allowing free parking for vets only
on certain days, such as Remembrance Day and D-Day.

Councillor Rod McKay feels anyone who fought for out country should be eligible for free parking.

He says it won't cost the city a lot of money.

There was some concern about people abusing the privaledge, but
Councillor Ron Lunny says the number would be so small, that it
shouldn't be a real issue.

LU closer to getting a Law School

Lakehead University is taking the next step towards getting a law school.


The proposed school's curriculum has received approval from the Law Societies of Canada.

University President Brian Stevenson says the curriculum focuses on aboriginal and resource based economy law.

The final law school decision rests with the Ontario government.

Healthy Food Basket comes to council

The Northwestern Health Unit says there are things City Council can do

to help people live more comfortably on a fixed income.

Health Unit dietician Chelsea Lecain made a presentation to council to
coincide with the Week of Action Against Poverty.

She says their healthy food basket program shows prices have
gone up higher in the Kenora area than anywhere else in Ontario.

Lecain says its costs about 918 dollars to feed a family of four, based on
the healthy food basket.

Plans for new land ambulence base coming together

Still no firm decision from the Kenora District Services Board when construction on
a new land ambulence base in Kenora will begin.

The city has given some land beside the new fire hall on Barsky's Hill to the Services
board to build the new facility.

Louis Roussin is the new council representitive on the board and says they still haven't
decided whether to begin construction this year, or next year.

He says the estimated cost of the project is about 2.8 million dollars.

Roussin says the District Services board may go ahead with the design portion of
the project this year, and wait til 2012 to begin construction.

Bronco hockey teams finish the regular season with a split

Beaver Brae's boys hockey team put a big exclamation mark on their season.


The Broncos beat the league leading Fort Frances Muskies 3-2 last night in
a shootout.

It was the second game in a row the Broncos beat the Muskies 3-2 in extra time.

With the win Beaver Brae finishes second overall in the Double "A" standings
and now faces Dryden in the First round next week.

Meanwhile, the Bronco Girls dropped a 3-2 decision to the Dryden Eagles in
a shootout.  Beaver Brae had already clinched first overall.

In Sioux Lookout, the Warriors edged the Thomas Aquinas boys hockey team 6-5 last night to wrap up the regular season.

The two teams tied for first in the single "a" division, but the Saints will have home ice advantage in the play-offs thanks to a better goals against average.


T.A. will face Sioux Lookout next Tuesday in game one of the best of three final.