Fire Marshall Investigates Nipigon Blaze

The Ontario Fire Marshall's Office is being brought in to help investigate a fatal house
fire near Nipigon.

A 66 year old woman was killed Friday night after the house she was in in Lyon Township
went up in flames.

The woman has been identified as Fern Marquardt.

The OPP's Northwest Crime Unit has also been brought in to help out with the investigation.

More Fire Crews Heading Out-of-Province

The Ministry of Natural Resources is sending firefighters to three other provinces and territories.

Fire Information Officer Heather Pridham says 185 of them will head to Manitoba, Quebec and the Northwest Territories to help with the forest fire situation.

Pridham says it's not a simple overnight trip, with most crews gone for at least a 14 day stint.

Back in Northwestern Ontario, there are 40 active forest fires with a total of over 32 thousand hectares of land burned.

Charges Laid in Truck Accident

No one was injured in a single vehicle crash on Highway 105.

Provincial Police in Dryden say a transport and trailer left the road, about ten kilometres north of Red Lake Road yesterday morning around 11:30.

The vehicle stuck the east ditch and flipped over on its side.

The truck was loaded with dry cement.

The driver, a 36-year-old man from Winnipeg, has been charged with making an unsafe lane change.

Cleanup efforts will continue to today.

Child Found After Leaving Dryden Daycare

The City of Dryden is trying to figure out how a child managed to sneak out the main door of the Child Care Centre undetected.

The child left the Centre Friday morning and managed to walk to the Wal-Mart parking lot.

A concerned citizen noticed the child and contacted police.

The child was safely located and returned to their family.

Acting Chief Administrative Officer Debra Kincaid says they take this event seriously and they apologize to the family for the stress this has caused.

Kincaid says an investigation has been launched.

The Kenora District Services Board and the Ministry of Education have been notified.

Fort Beats Out Dryden in Kraft Celebration Tour

Fort Frances will host the final leg of the Kraft Celebration Tour.

A bid submitted by the Fort Frances Curling Club received more than 518-thousand votes in last weeks on-line vote to Dryden's 272-thousand.

Club president Ron Silver says it was tremendous support.

Kraft and TSN will be in the community August 25th.

Richards Invited to Olympic Identification Camp

Mike Richards will have another chance to win Olympic Gold.

He is one of 47 invitees to an orientation camp slated for the
end of August in Calgary.

He's one of 15 players who won gold in Vancouver in 2010 to invited back to try out for Team Canada.
 
Detroit's Mike Babcock will return as coach of Canada's Olympic hockey team. Babcock, will have Ken Hitchcock, Lindy Ruff and Claude

Julien as assistants at next year's Sochi Games.

Treaty 3 Police Services Board AGM Tomorrow

The Treaty 3 Police Services Board is set to host its annual general meeting tomorrow.

On the top of the agenda is the auditors report for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

Many supporters of the police force are asking to see the financial statements since the board announced it would close down the service next month.

The meeting is likely to face some tough crowds outside as a rally has been planned at the Best Western Lakeside Inn through out the day to protest the closure.

The meeting starts at 9:00.

Barwick Mine Releases Draft Environmental Assessment

An important document in the development of a gold mine in the Rainy River district is now out.

The draft environmental assessment report for Rainy River Resource's project outlines key environmental and social issues and how they will be addressed.

Vice president Kyle Stanfield says its a very comprehensive.

The company will hold a public meeting next week in Barwick as part of the public input gathering process.

Stanfield says they hope to have a final report completed in 5 weeks time and begin construction of the mine next year after getting government approval.

Rain Washes Out Section of Minto Crescent

The clean-up has started from heavy rains overnight.

The rain caused localized flooding in areas where storm sewers were
overwhelmed by water.

The Minto and Valley Drive areas were also hit hard.

A long section of Minto Crescent has been undermined by water, creating
a 50 foot long gulch.

Pylons have been placed alongside the washout.

In other areas a large amount of sand, gravel and soil has washed down to the bottom of streets in that area of town.

Nault Reflects on AFN's Challenges

A former Aboriginal Affairs minister says he's not surprised that the
Assembly of First Nations is being challenged by a splinter group.

Last week leaders of a new first nations alliance held a seperate meeting
from the AFN's national Assembly.

Former Kenora-Rainy River M.P. Bob Nault says this isn't the first time this has happened.

During Nault's time as Indian Affairs Minister, he slashed the budget of the
AFN, because he felt it was just becoming another large bureaucracy.

Biking for Boobies Tour Hits Kenora

A young man is "biking for boobies".

That's the name of the campaign set up by McMaster student Kyle Chevalier, who has been spending the weekend in Kenora as he continues his journey to British Columbia to raise funds for breast cancer research.

Chevalier encourages folks to support this important cause.

Chevalier says so far he's raised almost 20-thousand-dollars since he started in May and he's also holding a charity barbeque today in front of the Standard Insurance to help raise more money.

The charity barbeque is being co-hosted by the Lake of the Woods Hospital Foundation and will take place
from 11-2 today.

More Fire Activity over the Weekend

Despite some rain over the weekend, the Ministry of Natural Resources
says there were at least four new forest fires in the region.

Two of those in the Kenora District.

One was a small blaze on an island on Lake of the Woods, the other
located north of Minaki.

The MNR says no problem is anticipated with either blaze.

Overnight rain has dropped the fire hazard to low across the region, but fire
crews will continue to monitor lightning strikes from last night's storm system.

Brandon Tops At Ladies Soccer Tournament

Out of town teams took top honors at the annual Lake of the Woods Women's Soccer Tournament.

Brandon blanked Portage La Prairie in Sunday afternoon's A-Side Final.

It was an all-Kenora affair in the B-side final, with Tagg's prevailing over Moncrief United 1-0.

The game was scoreless through regulation and overtime.

Tagg's won the game in the shootout, capitalizing on all of their shots, while United missed twice.

Sedesky/Whitta win Bronzeback

Jason Sedesky and Darren Whitta took top honors at the 7th Annual Bronzeback Classic.

The Kenora anglers were second after day one, but took home the first prize of 35 hundred dollars by hauling in 29.63 pounds of bass.

They beat out the tandem of Trevor Gudreyan and Jayden Belanger by less than a pound.

Gudreyan and Belanger also won a thousand dollars for being the top team in the adult/youth division.

Third place went to Jeff Engstrom and Chris McDiramid.

Sioux Narrows and Dryden Hit Hard by Overnight Storm

Hydro One is starting to make some progress in its battle to restore power
to homes in the Sioux Narrows and Nestor Falls area.

As many as 900 homes were without power overnight, but that's been
reduced to about 300 this morning.

The area was hit with heavy rain and severe wind and reports on social media indicate trees were snapped and left lying on area roads.

In the Dryden area, about 15 hundred homes are without power this morning.

Health Unit Continues to Monitor West Nile

The Northwestern Health Unit may no longer be testing dead birds for the West Nile Virus, but that doesn't mean it's not monitoring for the disease.

The Health Unit is continuing to trap mosquitoes across the region.

Kurt Casey is a Public Health Inspector with the Northwestern Health Unit, and says even though the risk of West Nile is low, property owners should still take precautions.

Casey says symptoms of the virus are usually flu like symptoms.

Iacobucci Heads North

Frank Iacobucci is fully immersed in his role as the province's chief negotiator for the Ring of Fire mining project.  

Just before leaving on a trip from Thunder Bay to visit area First Nations, he spoke of how he's been getting himself up to speed on the complex issues he must face.

He says his talks will not be leaving any stone unturned

Iacobucci says he will be meeting with First Nations negotiator Bob Rae in the coming days.

Gold Canyon Working on Agreement with First Nations

Gold Canyon Resources and three area First Nations are moving forward on an agreement relating to mining activity in the Red Lake area.

The Vancouver based company says the deal relates to the Springpole Gold project, about 110-kilometer
s northeast of Red Lake.

Gold Canyon, Cat Lake, Lac Seul and Slate Falls have set a framework to negotiate an agreement.

Officials say the deal sets the foundation for future talks on the project, potential opportunities and concerns.

Northwest Angels Recognized

The Northern Ontario Angels group is being ranked as one of the top investing groups in Canada.

 Executive Director of the investment group, Mary Long-Irwin says it's great for their national body to recognize their hard work.

Long-Irwin says the 51 deals they made created a thousand new jobs in Northwestern Ontario.

She adds that over 16 million dollars has been loaned out over the past three years.

Dryden Vs. Fort Today in Kraft Celebration Tour

The town's of Dryden and Fort Frances will be duking it out on national TV today.

The Kraft Celebration Tour competition ends today with Dryden going up against Fort Frances.

Starting at 11 o'clock, you can vote as much as you like for a 24-hour period.

Mike Wood of the Eagles on Track program says they are hosting a community event at the High School.

The winner of the on-line vote will win 25 thousand dollars to fix up a recreational facility in their town and
will also host an episode of TSN's SportCenter.