Bombardier Strike in Thunder Bay over

Striking Canadian Auto Workers members at Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant have reached a tentative agreement after just one day on the picket line.

Both sides reached an agreement last night.

The 700 union members, who assemble rail cars at the plant, are expected to vote on the offer on Saturday.

Staff walked off the job Tuesday but both sides returned to negotiations yesterday morning.

City Considering Lawsuit over Bridge Repairs

The City of Kenora is talking legal action to get the provincial government to help pay for much needed repairs to a couple of local bridges.

The price tag to fix up the Keewatin Channel and the Winnipeg River West Branch Bridges is going to be at least six million dollars.

Kenora mayor Dave Canfield says a lawsuit is one way of forcing the government's hand.

The bridges were downloaded onto the municipality 14 years ago, and Canfield suggests some of the problems predate the transfer.

He plans to bring the issue up as his number one priority at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario convention in London later this month.

City Fails Safety Audit

The City of Kenora has received a failing grade in a recent work place safety audit by the WSIB.

Kenora was given 35 out of 100 in the Workwell audit.

While some councillors aren't happy with the audit results, Health and Safety officer, Bruce Graham says the news isn't all bad.

Another Workwell Audit will take place in February and the Graham predicts the city will perform much better.

NDP Releases more of its Northern Platform

Much of NDP's election platform for the north is still under wraps, but leader Andrea Horwath is giving us a sneak peak.

She is making promises that involve changes to the laws involving mining and keeping those resources here

The NDP is also promising to scrap the current wood allocation process.

City wants houseboats moved off Bush Island

The City of Kenora is planning to crack down on people parking houseboats illegally on municipal property.

Councillor Ron Lunny says they've been getting complaints from Coney Island residents about a number of houseboats moored just off Bush Island.

Lunny says the city will give the owners of the houseboats until the end of September to find somewhere else to park.

A lull in Forest Fire Battle

For the first time in two months, there were no new forest fires reported in northwestern Ontario.

Two days of showers has brought some relief to firefighters battling more than a 100 wildfires across northwestern Ontario.

Up to 30 millimetres of rain fell in some parts of the region.

The precipitation and cooler temperatures, will allow FireRangers to consolidated hose lines around some of the bigger fires and help crews focus their suppression efforts.

Elections Ontario Getting Ready for October 6th

The Ontario provincial election is just under two months away.

Elections Ontario, the agency tasked with managing the election, is getting prepared.

Deputy chief electoral officer Lauren Wells says for the first time, voters will get the chance to vote by mail.

Wells says Elections Ontario will have its returning offices up and running in early September.

Clean Energy Grants Awarded

Two companies in the Kenora District are getting funding to change over to clean energy.

Slate Falls Outposts will get just over nine thousand dollars to install a new solar powered system to replace propane appliances.

Dorsey Contracting is a tree-planting company, and is getting a grant for just over 13 thousand dollars to install a new geothermal heating system to power one of its buildings.

The funding from the province's Northern Energy Program.

Canoer Rescued from Woodland Caribou Park

A 51-year-old Florida man is in good condition after he was rescued from Woodland Caribou Provincial Park.

Red Lake OPP received an emergency call in regards to a stranded canoeist inside the park on Friday.

Police say the canoeist severely injured his knee on the first day of his planned 15-day canoe trip.

Once OPP got the call and the emergency beacon was activated on the man's GPS, it took officers about 5-hours to rescue the man.

Two City Councils vying for Conservative Nomination

It looks like there will be a race for the Conservative nomination in the Kenora-Rainy River Riding.

Louis Roussin has confirmed that his nomination papers have been accepted by the party.

Roussin is a member of Kenora city Council and is the seat mate of the other candidate seeking the Conservative nomination, Rod McKay.

Roussin is a former real estate agent in the City of Kenora.

Still no word as to when a nomination meeting will be held.

Two Kenora Bridges in Need of Repair

A sobering report on the state of Kenora's Bridges.

Stantec Engineering has conducted the review and it looked specifically at the West Branch of the Winnipeg River Bridge and the Keewatin Channel Bridge.

Mike Boisseneault is the project engineer and says the West Branch Bridge in particular, is in need of repair.

Boisseneault says the steel girders on the bridge are corroding in some places and the concrete footings are also starting to crumble in areas.

The total price tag to do basic repairs to the two bridges is about six million dollars.

OPP Investigate weekend break-ins

The OPP are investigating a couple of break and enters at the west end of town.

Over the weekend, someone broke into a business on Ottawa Street in Keewatin.

Police say the incident took place sometime between 6:30 Friday night and 7:40 Saturday morning.

An undisclosed amount of money was stolen.

Officers responded to a complaint of another break and enter on Lakeview Drive on Sunday.

Once again, the suspects broke into the business and made off with a quantity of cash.

KeeMan Elects Five Member Board

Organizers of a vote to select a slate of officers to oversee the new KeeMan Local Services Board say they are happy with the turn-out of their elections over the weekend.

A total of 135 people turned up at the McKenzie-Clearwater Bay Fire Hall on Saturday.

Six people were in the running for five positions on the board.

Jerry Perras, Terry Wright, Laurie Bracken, Roger Giguere, and Larry Warelis were all elected.

The board now has to meet to decide who will take on specific duties such as chair, treasurer and secretary.

Right to Play gets more money

The provincial government is boosting the amount of money its giving the Right to Play organization.

Right to Play will be getting 1.5 million dollars this year to expand programs into at least 30 first nation communities in northern Ontario.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Chris Bentley says the groups youth leadership program has been particulary successful.

The Leadership program was initiated a couple of years ago in two first nation communities and was expanded to four first nations last year.

Nature Conservance of Canada Develops plan for Lake of the Woods

A natural area plan for Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake is ready to be put into action.

It was worked on by the Nature Conservancy of Canada for the past decade.

Regional vice-president Chris Maher says the aim is to protect the area from over development.

Maher says the plan goes to its board of directors in the fall before work on its implementation takes place..

OPP Use Taser to subdue brawl

The OPP say they had to use a taser to subdue a man who was involved in a brawl in downtown Kenora over the weekend.

Around 2:00 Saturday morning, police say they were called to deal with a large disturbance on Matheson Street South.

Officers tried to break up a fight involving a large number of people.

One man refused to back down and started to act agressively towards the police.

The OPP say a conducted energy weapon was used to subdue the assailant.

24 year old Kane Smith of Kenora was charged with assault with intent to resist arrest.

Local Paddlers excel at Dragon Boat Festival

The Super Troopers were super once again at the 9th annual Dragon Boat Races on Rabbit Lake.

The Kenora team, made up of members from the Seymour and Boucha Families won the A-side final Sunday afternoon.

The B-side went to a new team called ThinkHeadwaters from Winnipeg, while Aeolian Arc won the Ladies division for the third year in a row.

In the youth races, Sink or Swim took top honors.

A mixed youth squad also won the 200 meter sprint race, beating out five other adult boats.

Storm Damages Harborfront Tent

Its a good thing the city is getting a new tent for the Kenora Harborfront, because the old tent isn't going to be of much use for a while.

A sudden windstorm yesterday afternoon ripped the tent off its moorings, snapped the ropes holding the tent in place, and toppled the structure.

While no one was hurt, a few vehicles sustained some minor damage.

The loss of the tent means there will have to be a change in venue for the farmer's market tomorrow.

Its still not known where it will take place.

KFP Uncertain when sawmill will re-open

The Manager of the Kenora Forest Products Mill still isn't exactly sure when the sawmill might re-open.

The province announced 101 thousand cubic meters of wood from the Kenora Forest to expand the mill operations.

Rod McKay says they are tentatively looking at the spring of 2012, but that's still dependant on the American market.

Kenora Forest Products is hoping to hire back 98 of its laid off workers and hire as many as 36 new employees, once things get back up and running.

Red Cross In NWO Accepting donations for Somalia

Red Cross officials in northwestern Ontario are collecting money for famine relief in Somalia as the situation there remains critical.

Spokesperson Rob Zuback says people across the region are starting to respond.

Zuback says more donations started to come in when the Harper government announced it would match them dollar for dollar.