Trustee upset over EQAO test results

Aboriginal High School literacy test results have caught the attention of a Sioux Lookout Trustee with the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board.

Bob O'Donohue says the success rate has dropped 10-percent over the past 5-years and he believes all the time and energy spent on aboriginal education is not paying off.

Superintendent of Education Sean Monteith is defending the results.

89 students wrote the mandated exam last year and 57-passed.

46 of 70 students were successful in 2009-2010.

McGuinty Says No to Northern Leaders Debate

Premier Dalton McGuinty is the lone holdout for a Northern Ontario leaders debate ahead of the October 6th election.

The Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association is hosting the debate in Thunder Bay next Friday.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says that McGuinty is once again turning his back on Northerners.

P.C. Leader Tim Hudak says the Liberals don't care about local issues.

McGuinty says he'll instead push for a Northern segment in the televised leaders' debate September 27th in Toronto.

EQAO

More students in the Keewatin-Patricia School District are passing the EQAO reading and writing exams.

The success rate for reading is 74-percent for Grade 6 and 63-percent for Grade 3 students.

Superintendent of Education Caryl Hron says she's not surprised by the results.

The success rate for writing is 64-percent in Grade 6 and 61-percent for students in Grade 3.

All-Candidates Forum

Local and Provincial issues will be in the spotlight tonight as the first All-Candidates Forum of the Provincial Election is being held in Dryden.

The Kenora-Rainy River candidates will debate the hot topics.Candidates will be able to grill one another and questions will also be accepted from the Media and the Floor.The Forum starts at 7 o'clock at the Royal Canadian Legion.

If you can't make it, the debate will be broadcasted live on Shaw Cable 10.

Kenora Hydro

Kenora Hydro is trying to find the cause of regular power outages in the Lakeside, north end and
Coney Island areas.

Over the past few weeks, electricity has been interrupted several times, sometimes for hours on end.

President and CEO of Kenora Hydro Dave Sinclair says they've done a complete inspection of the system, but haven't been able to find out what's triggering the outages.

Sinclair says if anyone notices any strange activity, or noise on the hydro lines in their neighborhood, they should contact Kenora Hydro with the details.

Riverside Foundation for Health Care

A long-time resident of the Rainy River district is presenting Riverside Foundation for Health Care with one-hundred thousand dollars.
Foundation Director Nicke Baird says gift comes from someone who is choosing to remain anonymous.


Baird says the individual is also leaving it up to the Foundation on how the money will be used.

Full-Day Kindergarten

Area classrooms are bustling with little ones this year as the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board enters the second year in implementing the Full-Day, Early Learning Kindergarten Program.254-students are enrolled in the program across the District this year, 86 of those right here in Kenora

College Student Alliance

A student advocacy group is calling for a resumption of negotiations in the strike by support workers at Ontario community colleges.

Brian Costantini, president of the College Student Alliance, says the impact on students will increase the longer the strike that started Sept. 1 continues.

The group says students from various colleges have reported problems getting needed services such as IT, child care and tutoring, and adds some students' semesters are threatened by the walkout.

The workers are members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents about 8,000 cleaners, food service staff, registration officers and other workers at the province's 24 colleges.

Wages and job protection are major issues in the dispute. The colleges say they will remain open during the strike, using management and non-unionized part-time staff.

Lake of the Woods

The federal government should get some high level recommendations on how to protect
water quality on Lake of the Woods by Christmas.

The International Joint Commission is looking through a report by a Task Force that was set up last year to look at the local watershed.

Kelly Saunders was a member of the committee and is hoping the commission takes their recommendations seriously.

The governments in Canada and the United States are expected to announce their water quality
plans for Lake of the Woods by the spring of 2012.

Bob Bernie

A member of the Kenora Detachment of the OPP is getting a provincial honor.

Constable Bob Bernie has been chosen as Officer of the year.

He was singled out for his work with the Kenora Mental Health and Drug Awareness Task force.

Bernie will pick up his award at the OPP Accolades Ceremony in Orillia next Monday.

Ford Canada

Forty-four years of production comes to an end today at the Ford of Canada plant in the southwestern Ontario community of St. Thomas.

When the last Crown Victoria rolls off the assembly line, the plant's last 12-hundred hourly-paid employees will be out of work. Sales of Crown Victorias and other large rear-wheel drive cars made by Ford have been falling in recent years as consumers opt for more fuel efficient models

Randall Hopley

A psychiatric examination was ordered for Randall Hopley when he appeared in a court in Cranbrook, B-C yesterday.

The evaluation will determine if Hopley is fit to stand trial on charges of kidnapping and abducting a child under 14. He has been ordered to be back in court for a bail hearing on November 9th.

Hopley was charged after three-year-old Kienan Hebert vanished for four days in Sparwood, B-C.

Canadian Blood Services

253 Kenora residents took one hour of their time over the last 2 days to donate blood at Thomas Aquinas High School. Harvey Heather from Canadian blood services says over 600 patients will benefit from this weeks blood donor clinic. For more information about becoming a blood donor call 1-888-2-DONATE or visit: www.bloodservices.ca

AbitibiBowater

AbitibiBowater says it's concerned about proposals for managing the Abitibi River forest.


The Northeastern Ontario Municipal Association has said the proposal would immediately cut the conifer wood supply in the area by 25 per cent.

AbitibiBowater says the such reductions in wood supply could jeopardize future forest sector investments.

It says it could also impact the economic foundation of 25 northern Ontario communities.

The Ontario Health Coalitions

The Ontario Health Coalitions wants to make health care a priority in the provincial election campaign.

Spokesperson Natalie Mehra says the political parties need to explain where they stand on the key issues in health care. Mehra says more than 18-thousand hospital beds have cut since 1990 while 24-thousand people wait for nursing home beds and 10 thousand wait for home care.

Randall Hopley

The Mounties say kidnapping charges await Randall Hopley when he  appears in a court in Cranbrook, British Columbia today.

Hopley was arrested yesterday 20-kilometres east of Sparwood. Three-year-old Kienan Hebert was returned to his Sparwood home on Sunday, four days after he disappeared.

R-C-M-P Inspector Brendan Fitzpatrick says it appears Hopley acted alone. Fitzpatrick adds no deal was made for the safe return of the boy

Air Canada Strike

Air Canada's flight attendants voted overwhelmingly to give their union leadership a mandate to call a strike.

Some 68-hundred workers could walk off the job as early as September 21st after giving the airline 72 hours notice.

The two sides continue to negotiate, but union president Jeff Taylor says progress has been very slow. Air Canada says it's business as usual until a strike is launched, when it plans to operate a partial schedule including code share flights operated by its partner airlines

Forest Fire Update

A shift in weather conditions has drifted smoke from a forest fire in Minnesota into Northwestern Ontario and as far east as Owen Sound and Barrie.


The lightning caused fire is 60-thousand acres in size and is about 15-kilometres south of the Canadian Border.The fire poses no threat to Canadian communities; however some U.S. road closures and evacuations have taken place.There are 45-active fires in the Northwest Region, with an area of nearly 480-thousand hectares burned.

Saskatchewan Man fined for Illegal Hunting in NWO

An Estavan, Saskatchewan man has been fined 25-hundred dollars for several hunting-related offences.

Justice of the Peace Daisy Hoppe heard the case in Ignace.

Richard Pesola pleaded guilty and fined for possessing a void hunting licence, moose hunting without a valid licence and making a false statement on a Ministry of Natural Resources Ontario Resident Outtdoors Card application.

Court heard that last May, Pesola provided false information when applying for a card and went moose hunting in this area.

Council to vote on Coney Houseboats next week

House boats moored off Coney Island will find out next week whether they will have to move.

City Council is expected to vote on a resolution calling for the removal of the house boats by October 31st.

Kenora mayor Dave Canfield says they have looked at some of the legal issues raised by the house boat owners.

He says now that they have the answers, council will have to make a final decision on their fate.