Shoal Lake Takes City of Winnipeg to Court

The Shoal Lake #39 First Nation is taking the City of Winnipeg to court to try and prevent the sale of water to other communities in Manitoba.

Winnipeg gets its water from Shoal Lake, but the First Nation has been trying to get the city to cough up 124 million dollars a year for that right.

The Shoal Lake Band argues Winnipeg doesn't have the right to sell the water and is launching a judicial review which could bring the dispute to court later this year.

Yesterday, lawyers went to Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench to prevent the city from concluding its water agreement's with West St. Paul and Rosser.

New Subdivision proposed for Black Sturgeon

Yet another sub-division is being planned for Black Sturgeon Lake.

The city's Property and Planning Committee is being asked to approve a 15 lot project on the site of the former Birchcliff property on the Coker Road.

Doug Lafreniere is planning to develop nine waterfront lots and six lots off the lake.

He submitted his proposal this week for a zoning change on the property from institutional to rural residential.

No objections were made to the proposal.

STR Closes local Snowmobile Trails

The recent warm spell has been great for pedestrians and cyclists, but not so much for snowmobile enthusiasts.

The Sunset Trailriders has been forced to closed down its trails in the Kenora area due to all the melting.

Shaun Clifford is a spokesperson for STR and says overall it was a good season on the trails.

He adds the Cross-Town Corridor got good reviews, but they will continue to look at possible changes in the Lakeside area.

Clifford says another concern was vandalism to some of their trail markers this winter, which were either pulled out or run over.

Local Service Agencies United

There's a new united front coming from the agencies who deliver social services programs in Northwestern Ontario.

Representatives from the Kenora, Rainy River and Thunder Bay District Services Boards joined as one in a recent meeting with the Province to push for more funding.

Spokesperson Deb Ewald says all three face similar struggles.

It's the first time the three have made a joint submission.

Early Start to Forest Fire Season Not in the Forecast

Record high temperatures may lead us to believe we are looking at an early start to the forest fire season.

That may not be the case as Ministry of Natural Resources Information Officer Debbie MacLean says the region experience minimal percipitation over the winter but the long-term outlook calls for wet weather in the Spring.

MacLean says staff training will begin in the next couple of weeks.

City Councillor Takes Premier to Task

Premier Dalton McGuinty's ears might be burning these days.

Councillor Sharon Smith took the premier to task this week for refusing to include an infrastructure program in the upcoming provincial government.

Smith says the time is ripe for government's to be spending money on public projects.

Smith was commenting on McGuinty's speech at the Ontario Good Roads Conference last month, where he told municipal leaders the government was going to focus on skills and education and sacrifice the infrastructure fund.

Lakeside Landmark to Close

A landmark in Lakeside will be going the way of the dinosaur.

The owners of the Lakeside Mini-Mart have made an application to the city's property and planning committee for permission to turn the convenience store into a four unit apartment complex.

There are currently two apartment's on the upper floor of the building and the owners are proposing to develop the lower floor to include two more apartments.

Jeff Port made the pitch to the committee this week and says the change in use of the building will result in less traffic in the area and is consistant with the land usage in the neighborhood.