Truth And Reconciliation Commission Returns to NWO

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada is making a return trip to northwestern Ontario.

The Commission will listen to the stories from residential school surviviors at a day long session in Thunder Bay.

Commission spokesperson Alvin Fiddler says it's part of the healing for First Nations residents.

Fiddler says the Commission was invited here by officials of the Nishawbe Aski Nation.

City Erects Christmas Tree on Main Street

Main Street definitely has a Christmas look and feel today.

Kenora Hydro Crews installed the traditional Christmas Tree yesterday afternoon at the intersection of Second and Main Streets.

The tree was harvested from some property on Florence Avenue and will boast over 13 thousand individual lights once its fully decorated.

The lights on the tree will officially be lit at a special ceremony on Thursday evening.

The bows that adorned the tree last year, have instead been placed on the parking meters in downtown Kenora.

City posts Surplus in 2009 Audit

The City of Kenora continues to remain relatively financially healthy.

Council approved the 2009 audited financial statements last week, and it

shows the city has strong financial reserves.

Karen Brown is the Chief Adminstrative Officer and says there is almost 80 million dollars in various reserve funds.

The city also has 11.5 million dollars in cash and temporary investments and 8.2 million in government business enterprises.

Saints Ranked #1 at OFSAA Volleyball Championships

The Thomas Aquinas Senior Boys Volleyball team is the number one ranked team heading into the All-Ontario Single "A" championships this week.

The Saints are heading to Missasauga today for the OFSAA finals.

T.A. head coach, Joanna Krisko admits their is a lot of pressure going for a three-peat.

The Saints first game in the round-robin is tomorrow morning at 11:30.

More Snow on the Way

Its good news for snowmobilers and skiiers, but not for anyone who has to shovel their driveway.

Another winter storm is being felt across northwestern Ontario.

Mark Shuster is meteorologist with Environment Canada and says this is less intense version of a classic Colorado Low.

Shuster says we can still expect about 10 centimeters of snow to fall over the next

couple of days.

That's on top of the 25 centimeters that fell over the weekend.

Catholic Board hires new Curriculum Coordinator

The Kenora Catholic District School Board has filled one of its administrative

vacancies.

The separate board has announced that Tammy Bush has been hired to take over as the

Curriculum Co-Ordinator.

Bush fills the vacancy created after Mary Cunningham took on the newly created

job as the board's School Effectiveness leader.

Bush is currently employed by the board at Pope John Paul II School as a grade one teacher.

New Winter Carnival Taking Shape

Kenora's revived Winter Carnival is starting to take shape.

The steering committee for the Carnival met last week to confirm some of the

events that will be taking place during the three day festival.

Heather Paterson is Kenora's Tourism Development Officer and says

there's a lot of excitement about the March event.

The carnival will take place from March 4th to 6th.

Paterson says they will be launching a website in the next

couple of weeks.

RCMP investigate Hunting Accident in Eastern Manitoba

A man is in a Winnipeg hospital after a weekend hunting accident in southeastern Manitoba.

R-C-M-P say the 43-year-old man and a 17-year-old male teen were hunting in the Rural Municipality of Piney on Saturday when the teen accidentally shot his companion.

The victim was taken first to the hospital in Roseau, Minnesota before being transferred to Winnipeg where he's listed in critical but stable condition.

Mounties say they're considering charges.

New Fiber Optic Network promised for Northern Ontario

Within five years, 26 Nishnawbe Aski First Nations Communities will hooked up to fibre optics.

The federal and provincial governments along with Bell Aliant are making it happen.

Kenora MP Greg Rickford says the 55 million government dollars is taxpayers money well spent.

Total cost of the project is 86 million dollars.

Hampton Joins Protest over high hydro costs

Spiralling electricity costs continue to plague the McGuinty Government.

Energy Minister Brad Duguid confirmed hyro rates will be going up 46 percent

over the next five years.

Kenora-Rainy River MPP Howard Hampton says its time for local northern residents to speak out.

Hampton demanded the Government remove the Harmonized Sales Tax off hydro bills to provide some relief.

A rally against high electricity rates took place in Dryden on Friday.

Local Judokas medal at a pair of tournaments

The competitive judo season is underway for the JM Judo Club.

The club recently attended the St. Boniface Tournament and took home a number of

medals.

Thomas Hertz and Calvin Legarde medalled in the Under 13 age group, while

Bo Rodgers and Daniel Gordon placed in the top three in the boys Under 13 age group.

Gordon and Luke Heatherington won medals in two different divisions.

Meanwhile, Ben Dennis won the only medal for the JM Judo Club at the Ontario
International Open Tournament in Toronto this past weekend.

He won gold in the Under 17 boys 46 kilo division.

Kaitie Dennis lost a pair of bronze medal matches in the women's Under 20 and Senior

divisions.

Common Ground at an Impasse

The once-promising Common Ground Initiative has hit a bit of a roadblock.

Common Ground is a partnership between the City of Kenora, four local first nations and Treaty Three, but development of a management plan has reached an impasse.

Kenora Mayor Len Compton says they haven't been able to agree with Treaty Three on whether to include a dispute resolution mechanism in the plan.

Compton says Treaty Three doesn't seem to feel a dispute resolution mechanism is needed, and that's held up development of the management plan for months now.

Greenpeace and CEP unveil Green Jobs Report

Greenpeace and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union are teaming up to create green forestry jobs.

The environmental group released it's green jobs report for northern forestry on Friday.

CEP Spokesperson Kim Ginter explains why the union is getting involved.

Ginter hopes by launching the report in northwestern Ontario, Minister of Northern, Development, Mines and Forestry Michael Gravelle and the Liberals will sit up and take notice.

New Fire Hall Almost Ready to Open

The new Fire Hall on Barsky's Hill will be officially opened at the end of this month.

Fire Chief Warren Brinkman says while almost all the work on the building is complete, there are still a few minor details that have to be finalized before they can begin moving their equipment in.

The new fire hall opened its doors last week to Kenora City council so they could tour the building and hold their special meeting of council in the second floor training room.

No Free Parking This Christmas

Don't expect any free parking in downtown Kenora this holiday season.

Kenora City council has turned down a request by the Business Improvement

Zone for five days of free parking in the week leading up to Christmas.

A representitive from the BIZ had suggested allowing free parking at all
metered stalls from December 20th to 25th.

But councillor Dave McCann says that could cost the city anywhere from 18 to
23 thousand dollars in lost revenue.

Council voted unanimously against the free parking initiative.

Kenora Cleans up after Snow Storms

Don't put away your snow shovels just yet.

After getting anotehr 10 centimeters of snow yesterday, another system is expected to drop couple more centimeters of white stuff over night.

Yesterday's snowstorm caused some travel problems in the Kenora area.

The Kenora By-Pass was closed down for a couple of hours due to a number of accidents involving tractor-trailor units.

Over the past four days, the Kenora area has received over 25 centimeters of snow, but road conditions are slow starting to improve as city crews are out this morning clearing major routes through town.

Most of the major highways in the area are listed as bare and wet with slushy
sections.

Confederation College signs deal on Aborignal Education

Confederation College is again getting involved with educating our First Nations communities.

College President Pat Lang says they're partnering with Matawa to try to make a difference in educating young Aboriginals.

The two organizations have signed a memorandum of understanding to achieve their objectives.

Matthyson tours Northwestern Ontario

The Women's critic for the NDP feels the federal government isn't doing enough

to ensure the safety of aboriginal women in Canada.

Irene Mathyssen was in Kenora last week and spoke with representitives with local women's groups.

Mathyssen says the National Status of Women committee has been touring the country looking into the issue of violence against women.

Mathyssen says her committee has been fighting the federal government for funding to complete their report which will look at the disappearance and murder of  aboriginal women across Canada.

Senior Thistles Win Opener

The Kenora Triple "a" Senior Thistles started their march to the 2011 Allan Cup with a victory.

The Thistles played their first game of the season on Saturday night and blanked the Southwest Prairie Thunder 3-0.

Jeff Richards, Jeff Heringer and Ryan Bowen scored for the Kenora Seniors, while Tyler Gordon back-stopped the team with the shutout.

The Thistles next game is at home against Fort Frances on December 10th.

Meanwhile, the Kenora Triple "A" midget Thistles snapped a seven game winless streak Saturday night.

The Thistles wrapped up their road trip to Thompson, Manitoba with a 3-2 shootout

win over the Norman North Stars.

On Friday, the North Stars upended the road weary Thistles 5-1.

And Beaver Brae's girls hockey team improved its record to 3-0 in the young NorWOSSA

season.

The Broncos shutout their cross town rivals, the Thomas Aquinas Saints 4-0 Friday night.

Alberta Clipper hits Kenora

Motorists might want to give themselves a few extra minutes to get to get around town today.

An Alberta clipper continues to blow across northwestern Ontario.

About 15 centimeters of snow has fallen so far and another five more are expected throughout the day.

Crews are currently working to clear area roads and highways.

Highways in the Kenora area are described as snow-covered, with some slippery sections and poor visibility.

Meanwhile, Severe Weather Specialist Geoff Coulson says he expects the snow to hang around for the rest of winter.

Coulson says another weather system could bring another five to ten centimeters of snow to the Kenora area on Monday or Tuesday.