Battle over Land Ambulence Base Continues

The Political battle between the Kenora District Services Board and the City of Kenora over the location of a new land ambulance base continues.


Frustrations peaked once again at the Annual Board meeting in Dryden Thursday as a motion was presented to members.

The motion went into great detail how efforts to acquire property in the City have been met with resistence and opposition at every opportunity and that the Board should look outside the City to build.

Bill Blower moved the motion and admits it was the build-up of 10-years of frustration.

Kenora Councilor Rory McMillan says the City has been more then open to suggestions and notes they have their own concerns.

McMillan says Council wants to see a central location for the base, given that 64-percent of their high priority calls are in Town.

The resolution was defeated by the Board.

Timmins Hunter Fined

A Timmins Ontario man has been banned from hunting for one year for shooting a deer on private property.


Sylvain Gravel was charged last year after admitting to shooting the deer to a Ministry of Natural Resources conservation officer who was investigating a complaint of a hunter trespassing on private land near Split Rock Rock in Sifton township, northeast of Fort Frances.

Gravel was also fined three-thousand dollars.

Police release name of North Spirit Lake man

The name of the North Spirit Lake First Nation man who died a week after being taken into Red Lake OPP custody has been released.


The Special Investigations Unit says 41-year-old Dalius Kakekagumick passed away at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre on Monday.

The Unit has so far identified one officer and eightwitnesses as part of its investigation.

The SIU has not said why Kakekagumick was taken into custody, or the cause of death.

Hampton opposes SuperCorp

Kenora-Rainy River MPP Howard Hampton is not impressed with what he calls is the latest McGuinty Government "scheme".

The Liberals are looking at selling portions of Hydro One, Ontario Power Generation, Ontario Lottery and the Liquor Control Board to raise money.

Hampton says Ontario residents have seen this movie before.

The NDP member calls it a pre-election bribe, using taxpayer dollars.

Safe Grad ready to roll

Graduation ceremonies for both Beaver Brae and Thomas Aquinas students will take place

this evening.

Following the individual ceremonies, all the graduates are invited to the Kenora Rec. Center for
the 10th annual Safe Grad celebrations.

Warren Brinkman is chair of Safe Grad and says they are keeping their 10th anniversary plans
under wraps right now.

Brinkman says graduates from Wabaseemung, Grassy Narrows and Whitefish Bay have also
been invited to attend the Safe Grad celebrations.

Events will be going on all night long at the Rec. Center.

Catholic School Board approves Budget

Both local school boards are planning to run deficits in the upcoming school year.

The Kenora Catholic District School Board approved its 2010/2011 budget last night.

It includes a 56 thousand dollar shortfall.
Erica Baily is the finance manager for the separate school board and says transportation
costs are the main reason behind this years deficit.

Total spending for the Catholic School Board next year will be about 19 million dollars.

Earlier this week, the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board announced it would also
be operating with a 1.5 million dollar deficit in the next school year.

OPP lay charges against Grassy Narrows woman

A 39 year old Grassy Narrows Woman faces four charges stemming from an incident
over two weeks ago in downtown Kenora that resulted in her being shot by police.

The OPP say that Helen Proulx is charged with assault with a weapon, assaulting
police, uttering death threats and possessing a weapon dangerous to the public peace.

OPP seargant Shelley Garr says its unclear when Proulx will be able to face the
charges in court because she's still recovering from her injuries in hospital.

Proulx was shot by an OPP officer on June 7th on 1st Street South.

The incident is also under investigation by the Special Investigations Unit.

Rickford reflects on last session of Parliament

Members of Parliament are on their Summer break and the MP for Kenora believes a lot was accomplished during the recent session.

Greg Rickford says it took some time, but everyone learned to get along in the end.

Rickford notes key Legislation related to free trade, immigration, employment insurance and parole eligibility all passed in the House of Commons.

Smoke gets in your Eyes

A shift in the wind direction has brought with it an unpleasant air mass to the region.
Late yesterday afternoon, smoke from fires burning in northern Manitoba
started wafting into northwestern Ontario.

Both the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Kenora Fire Department have
received calls from local residents wondering where the smoke was coming from.

About 40 fire rangers from northwestern Ontario are in northern Manitoba battling
wild fires there.

The fire situation in this region remains very quiet.

Just one new blaze was reported yesterday in the Thunder Bay District.

Whitedog resident tasered

Treaty Three Police say they had to use a taser in order to de-fuse a domestic situation on the Wabaseemung First Nation.

Police were called out just before midnight on June 18th to a home on Whitedog.

Officers say they witnessed man holding a weapon to a woman's neck.

They entered the house and told the man to drop his weapon.

He refused and as a result, the suspect was tasered.

He was taken into custody without injury.

32 year old William Boyd has been charged with assault with a weapon,
possession of a weapon, uttering threats and forcible confinement.

He's due to appear in Kenora Court later this morning.

Children's Aid Merge proposed

Two northwestern Ontario children's aid agencies are awaiting provincial approval to merge as one.

The proposal would see Kenora-Patricia Child and Family Services and Family and Children Services Rainy River become one agency in April 2011.

Rainy River board chair Bob McGreevy feels the move would be serve the region.

McGreevy says the province is supportive of the concept in principal, but has asked for more information before giving its blessing to the merger.

Farmer's Market Back

The farmer's market its making its annual return to the Kenora Harborfront this morning.

There will be 65 vendors under the big tent each Wednesday during the summer.

Buck Matiowski is the city's special events co-ordinator and says they have been working
to get more artisan's involved in the market.

The farmer's market opens at 9:30 this morning and will run until about 2:30 this
afternoon.

It will run on the Harborfront until the middle of October.

Chiefs of Ontario meet near Fort Frances

The top aboriginal leaders in Ontario have gathered on the Couchiching First Nation near Fort Frances

for their annual meeting.

Grand Chief of Treaty #3, Diane Kelly says she's looking forward to hearing the discussion around
revenue sharing.

The three day Chiefs of Ontario Conference will wrap up tomorrow.

Falcon Lake Accident

Five people were taken to hospital following a head-on collision on Highway #1 near Falcon Lake.


The accident took place yesterday afternoon shortly after 3:00 on the two-lane portion of
the roadway.
The RCMP say a westbound vehicle crossed the center line and crashed into an eastbound car.

Police say three people were in the westbound Chevy Malibu and two people were a Pontiac G-6.

They were taken to Lake of the Woods District Hospital and St. Anne Hospital in Manitoba for
treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

The Trans-Canada at Falcon Lake was closed for about two hours as a result of the collision.

OPP charge impaired boater

The OPP says a 19 year old Kenora man has been charged with impaired driving
after the boat he was driving overturned on Lake of the Woods.

Police were called out around 2:00 Sunday morning, after getting a report that
a boat had flipped over on the south side of Treaty Island.

When emergency service personnel arrived on the scene, they discovered five people
had been in the boat, but all made it to shore.

The OPP say further investigation showed the driver of the boat had been drinking
and also faces a number of charges under the Canada Shipping Act.

He's due to appear in Kenora Court at the end of July to answer the charges.

Public School Board Enrolment expected to decline

Enrolment is expected to decline in the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board once again this fall.

The board is projecting almost 300 fewer students for the 2010/2011 school year.
Superintendant of Business, Dean Carrie says that will have an impact on their
bottom line next year.

The school board expects enrolment will be just over five thousand students in
September, down from the current level of 53 hundred.

No Monopoly space for Kenora

Do not pass go and do not collect 200 dollars.

The City of Kenora has failed in its bid to earn a place on the newest
Canadian Edition of Monopoly.

Hasbro announced the 22 communities that will get a spot on the  newly designed board.

In the wild card race, Kenora was beaten out by        Beauceville, Quebec.

The only community from northern Ontario on the board is North Bay.

Keewatin-Patricia School Board expects to run a deficit

For the first time ever, the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is planning to

run a deficit to operate its schools across the region this year.

Trustees approved the 2010/2011 budget at a special meeting last night and
it calls for a deficit of about 1.5 million dollars.

Superintendant of Finance Dean Carrie says there are a number of reasons why they
will be operating in the red this year, but the biggest cause is special education programs.

Carrie says they will be able to cover off their deficit through money they have
in reserve funds.

He adds that the Ministry of Education has approved their deficit spending estimates
for the next school year.

SIU investigates Red Lake fatality

The Ontario Special Investigations Unit has been called in to investigate

fatality involving a 41 year old man from the North Spirit Lake First Nation.

The SIU says the man was picked up by the OPP from the Red Lake Detachment
last Monday.

Later in the day he had to be taken to the hospital in Red Lake and then was
transferred to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Center.

Yesterday, the man died.

The SIU says four of its investigators are being sent to Red Lake to look
into the incident.

The SIU is called in any time someone dies while in police custody.

Eye Van Offers new programs this summer

There will be a new service offered when the Canadian National Institute for the Blind brings its Eye Van to northwestern Ontario next month.


Executive Director Monique Pilkington says people will able to screened for diabetes.

Pilkington says the service will be offered as a drop-in one when the Eye Van rolls through Kenora
the first week of August.

Rafferty on end of session

Thunder Bay-Rainy River M-P John Rafferty says the recent session of Parliament was filled with plenty of highs and lows.


M-P's began their 12-week summer break on Friday.

Rafferty says a positive for him was the approval of his private members bill on workers pensions to the committee level.

Rainy River Resources aquires more property

Rainy River Resources is purchasing more property south of Kenora.


The company is paying out 100-thousand dollars and 50-thousand shares for a patented claim covering 160 acres from an unnamed owner.

Rainy River Resources is conducting gold exploration in the area of Black Hawk, 25 kilometres north of Barwick.

Huge hunting fine

An Iowa man has been handed a large fine for illegally obtaining Ontario hunting and fishing licences.


Stephen Grupe pled guilty fined 10 thousand dollars to having a void outdoors card, making false statements on an application and illegal hunting.

The Ministry of Natural Resources says Grupe bought a hunting and fishing camp on Wabauskang
Lake back in 2004, but his primary residence was still in Iowa.

He managed to purchase an Ontario resident Outdoor card and hunting and fishing licences
over the next four years.

The MNR says he saved over three thousand dollars during that period.

Union Gas rates going down

Good news for people who heat their home with natural gas.


The Ontario Energy Board has approved changes to the natural gas
commodity price that Union Gas Limited will charge its customers
effective July 1st.

Union gas says the average customer in northwestern Ontario will
pay about 32 dollars less a year.

The change is due to a decrease in what Union forecasts it will
have to pay for natural gas.

Summer Officially here

Does it feel any warmer yet?


Summer officially arrived in northwestern Ontario earlier this morning

The first day of the new season began at 6:28 this morning.

Environment Canada's long range forecast for the summer calls for both
above normal temperatures and above normal precipitation in this
region.

Busy weekend for fire crews

A busy couple of days for Ministry of Natural Resources fire crews in northwestern Ontario.

Friday's windy weather resulted in more than 16 small wildfires in the region.

The MNR says the blazes were caused by trees falling onto hydro lines.

All of the fires were small and most were located in the Fort Frances and
Dryden Districts.

Fire Ranger Crews have also been dispatched over the weekend to
northern Manitoba to help battle wild fires there.

Hospital using new technology

Lake of the Woods District Hospital says its made great strides in diagnosing
patients with infectious diseases.

The hospital is one of the few in the province that now has molecular genetics
testing equipment.

Dr. Kerry McDonald is the hospital's chief of staff and says they can isolate
certain infectious diseases in a matter of hours, rather than days.

McDonald says in the past a patient could spend up to 72 hours in isolation
before they could determine if they had any infectious diseases.

The new technology allows them to diagnose any problems within two hours.

Confederation College Graduation tonight

A big week for local students.


Graduation ceremonies will be taking place on three fronts over the next
four days.

This afternoon, graduating students from the Confederation College Campus
in Kenora will be holding their 2010 convocation.

The ceremonies will start at 4:30 at Pope John Paul the Second School.

On Thursday, both Beaver Brae and Thomas Aquinas will be holding their
graduation ceremonies for grade 12 students.

That will be followed by Safe Grad Celebrations at the Kenora Rec. Center.

More Fire Crews heading east

More fire crews from northwestern Ontario are heading east to battle wild fires

in Quebec.

On Friday, fire rangers from bases in Kenora, Dryden, Fort Frances, and Sioux Lookout were
dispatched to Val D'or.

Currently Ontario has 30- four person initial attack crews, four aircraft including two water
bombers and assorted support staff in Quebec.

Because of all the rain, there hasn't been any significant forest fire activity in northwestern
Ontario over the past few days.

Traffic meeting next week

Local residents will get not one, but two chances to give feedback about the
traffic design in downtown Kenora.

Public meetings will be held next Tuesday at City Hall after councillors
complained recently about everything from the length of the traffic lights to
left turns off of Main Street South and the pedestrian crossing.

The first meeting will take place at 8:00 in the morning in council chambers
followed by another session at 2:00.

People who can't attend the meetings can still submit their suggestions, in writing
to city hall by June 30th.

Hospital Wait Times Released

Lake of the Woods District Hospital still has some work to do in order to meet provincial targets for wait times.

In the most recent statistics released by the Ministry of Health, wait times in the emergency room were longer that the goal set by by the province.

For a minor medical condition, wait time in the Emergency room was
5.3 hours.

The provincial target is four hours.

For complicated conditions requiring more time for diagnosis, treatment
or hospital admission, the wait time was 9.6 hours.

The provincial goal is 8 hours.

HST exemptions for First Nations?

There are reports indicating continued point of sale HST exemption for Ontario's first nations will be

announced soon.

That's music to the ears of the Grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation.

Stan Beardy says treaty rights give his people PST exemption and having that continued with
the provincial portion of the HST is great for his people.

Beardy says the official annoucement is expected to come by Friday.

Machin Budget Passed

Homeowners in Vermillion Bay are going to have to dig a little deeper to pay their

taxes this year.

Machin Town Council passed the 2010 budget this week and it includes a four
percent increase.

Mayor Garry Parkes says initially there were dealing with an 8 percent hike
in taxes, but were able to chisel that down.

Parkes says they had to cut a few things from their capital budget, including
extra road work this year.

Treaty Three Demands Action from OPP Commish

The commissioner of the OPP is being personally asked to address, what Treaty Three describes as social unrest, which is the result of the shooting of a 39 year old Grassy Narrows woman last week.


Grand Council Treaty #3 issued the challenge yesterday.

Grand Chief Diane Kelly says the OPP promised to provide bias-free policing in the City of Kenora when they took over from the Kenora Police Service last year, but suggests the shooting is not a good start.

Kelly is also asking Public Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci to involve the Treaty Three Police as a partner or oversight agency in the SIU investigation of the shooting.

She says first nations people don't trust a fair investigation will happen, and have the
Treaty Three Police involved will provide some reassurance.

EQAO literacy test results

The Kenora Catholic District School Board is crowing about the most recent grade 10 literacy test results.

89 percent of Thomas Aquinas students who wrote the test were successful, which is a 14 percent improvement over last year, and 5 percent higher than the provincial average.

Assistant to the Director of Education, Murray Delorme says the results represent a lot of hard work and effort by their             teachers, parents and the students.

Over at Beaver Brae, the results weren't as positive.

68 percent of students who wrote the test were successful, down from 72 percent
last year.

Beware of Blue Green Algae

The Northwestern Health Unit is warning local residents to be on the lookout for blue/green algae blooms this summer.

The toxicpoisonous algae has shown up in recent years in local lakes and rivers.


Health inspector, Brian Norris says the algae is recognizeable by the smell of fresh mown grass in newer blooms and rotting garbage in older blooms.

Side effects in humans can range from skin irritation to vomiting.

If you think you have come into contact with the algae you should contact your doctor.

MaxMillions winner in Kenora?

                                                                                    A Northwestern Ontario resident may be a    million richer after buying a winning Lotto Max ticket.

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation spokeswoman Sarah Kiriliuk says the identity of the winner has yet to be announced.

The five dollar ticket was purchased at a Kenora store.

The Maxmillions prize is one of twenty one-million dollar prizes associated with a bigger jackpot worth $50 million.

Kiriliuk said nobody has won the jackpot yet.

That means the $50-million jackpot is still up for grabs on Friday, along with an estimated 45 Maxmillions draws.

Human Remains still unidentified

Local police say they still don't know the identity of a woman whose body was

found near Miller's Rapids Road last year.

The human remains were found in a tent in a wooded area just off the D-2 one
year ago today.

The OPP say the woman was camping in the area no longer than a week before
her body was discovered.

She is described as a light-skinned female, between the ages of 26 and 50, about
5 feet 5 inches tall, about 110 pounds with shoulder length light brown hair.

She was wearing oval shaped eyeglasses with wire rims and three colored bead
necklaces.

Anyone who might have information as to her identity is asked to contact the OPP.

Parks, Beaches and Trails plans

Kenora's green spaces are due for some upgrades.


That's the feeling of the Lake of the Woods Economic Development
Commission.

Conceptual plans have been presented for local beaches, trails and
parks to upgrade them.

The city's economic development officer Jennifer Findlay says they want
to get some feedback from local residents on their plans.

Plans have been unveiled for Anicinabe Park, Coney Island, Garrow Park,
Portage Bay and Beatty Park.

Movie Gallery Closing outlets

Its going to be a little harder to rent a movie this weekend in Kenora.


The Movie Gallery has announced its closing all of its stores in
northwestern Ontario.

The company has 181 outlets across the country and says it will be
liquidating the merchandise from its stores over the next few weeks.

The Movie Gallery Corporation says its being affected by internet downloads,
video rentals from cable providers and subscription-based male delivery services.

American Hunters face hefty fine

Two American hunters face a huge fine for illegally hunting deer in the Kenora

area last fall.

Jamie Doucette and Jesse Caswell from Michigan have been fined a total of
over 11 thousand dollars for hunting deer at night.

The two were driving along Cynet Lake Road last Hallowe'en when a large
buck ran across the road in front of them.

One of the hunters turned the truck to point the headlights at the deer,
while the passenger got his rifle out to shoot at the buck out the side
window.

The shot missed its mark, but the gun discharged and the bullet ripped through the floor of the truck
as one of the hunters tried to put it back in its case.

Caswell and Doucette have also been banned from hunting in Ontario for three and six years
respectively.

Rickford defends FedNOR

The federal government is defending the FedNOR program.


Critics have said the Harper government is backing away from FedNor or has been mispending
funding.

But Keora M.P. Greg Rickford says the Harper government is still committed to the program.

Lakehead University, Confederation College and the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund recently
benefitted from 1.1 million dollars in FedNOR funding.

Van Wallenghem Not Running Again

There will be at least one vacancy on Kenora City Council this fall.


Councillor Chris Van Wallenghem says he doesn't intend to run in
the upcoming municipal elections.

Van Wallenghem made the announcement at the end of last night's
open council meeting.

Councillor's Dave McCann, Wendy Cuthbert and Jim Parson have
all submitted their nomination papers for the October 25th municipal
elections.

Councillors Charito Drinkwalter and Rory McMillan have not indicated if
they plan to run again.

School Boards gear up for All-day Kindergarten

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is gearing up for all-day kindergarten

this fall.

Two schools will be offering the day long junior and senior kindergarten classes.
Director of Education of the public school board Jack McMaster says they have been
working with the Kenora Catholic and the Northwest Catholic School Boards on the
roll-out of the program.

In Kenora the public school board will be offering all-day kindergarten at Evergreen
this fall, while the Catholic board will be using St. Louis for its program initially.

Local Services Board Proposed for Pellatt

The Pellatt United Fire Department is hoping to have a more reliable source

of funding soon.

Residents in four unincorporated townships west of Kenora are being asked to
support the creation of a local services board.

Barry Balteson is one of the people behind the proposal and says the goal is
to impose a small levy on each home owner in the area served by the fire
                                            department.

The first of two public meetings on the local services board will take place
tonight at the Pellatt Fire Hall at 7:00.

The actual vote will take place on August 14th.

Sioux Narrows fatality update

The name of a 22 year old man who died after jumping off the Sioux Narrows

Bridge over the weekend has been released.

Gerald Jonasson of Edinborough, North Dakota was killed after he jumped
off the bridge early Sunday morning and failed to resurface.

The OPP's Underwater Search and Recovery Unit as well as the Kenora Marine
Unit were able to locate the body later in the day.

No other details about the incident have been released.

Environment Committee releases annaul report

The City of Kenora is getting a passing grade for its work on environmental issues.


The city's Environmental Advisory Committee has submitted its annual report to council and its generally favorable.

Dave Schwartz is a member of the committee and says they are pleased with a number of initiatives undertaken by the city last year.

Schwartz says the implementation of an Electronics Waste Depot is a positive move, but suggests he would have liked to have seen solar power used in the building of the new fire hall on Barsky's Hill.

A new principal at Beaver Brae

A couple of schools will see administrative changes next School year.


Beaver Brae Secondary School will get a new principal next year.

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board says Clinton Bruetsch will take over from Katherine McIvor.

Bruetsch is currently the vice-principal at Queen Elizabeth High School in Sioux Lookout.

Steve Poling becomes the new principal at Queen Elizabeth, while Wayne Mercer becomes the vice-principal.

Council decides against Parking changes

Parking could be at a premium in downtown Kenora over the next couple of months.


The big tent has gone up on the Harborfront, meaning that all monthly parking is being
moved to other lots in the downtown core.

City council has spent a long time debating how it wants to deal with the parking issue
and has decided against extending a two hour limit at the metered parking spaces
in the downtown area.

Recreation Manager Colleen Neil says she would like to see the time limit expanded
so visitors can spend more time touring Kenora.

The Tourism Office does issue visitor parking passes to tourists, but instead of day-long
passes, council says it would like them to be for two hours only.

Water Levels up

All the rain over the past couple of weeks has convinced the Lake of the Woods Control Board to

increase the outflow from the Norman Dam into the Winnipeg River.

Outflow rose from 150 cubic meters per second up to 200 on Friday.

The Control Board says water levels on the lake have increased two inches
over the past week and are expected to rise another two to three inches
over the next seven days.

The Control Board is also preparing for an open house in Kenora this
week.

It will take place at the Best Western Lakeside Inn on June 17th starting
at 7:30. 

Sioux Narrows Fatality

A bizarre incident in Sioux Narrows has resulted in the death of

an American visitor.
Just before 2:00 Sunday morning, the Sioux Narrows Volunteer
Fire department was called out to help look for a man who had jumped
off the Sioux Narrows Bridge.

There are reports that two people had jumped off the bridge, but only
one managed to make it to the surface.
The OPP's Underwater Search and Recovery Unit was called in and divers
managed to locate the body of the missing man around 5:00 yesterday
afternoon.

The deceased was a 27 year old man, but his name has not been released
yet.

IJC encouraged to assist Lake of the Woods

The Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation says its pleased with a number of initiatives that have been taking place over the past couple of weeks on the political front.

Earlier this month, a motion was passed in the House of Commons urging the protection of waters on Lake of the Woods.

Todd Sellars is the executive director of the Foundation and says a similar bill has also been passed in Minnesota.

Sellars says they also met recently with representitives from the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department and says a reference has also been drafted for the International Joint Commission to work on water quality issues on Lake of the Woods.

A good year for Relay for Life

A record year for fundraising at the Relay for Life.


In the 10th year of the event, over 74 thousand dollars was raised for
cancer research.

Ralph Page was one of the organizers of this years event and says they
managed to smash the previous best for the Relay locally.

A total of 25 teams showed up to walk in support of local cancer patients
at the Relay for Life this year.

Hearings begin on Far North Act

Consulation sessions are scheduled to take place in remote first nation communities this week.


The hearings are on the Ontario Government's Far North Act.

Nishinawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Stan Beardy says they need more time to translate the Far North document.

The far north act recently passed second reading and is subject to further revision prior to the third reading which is scheduled to happen this fall.

HST Tolls Threatened

A number of First Nations communities are preparing to impose toll fees on traffic passing through their territories over the HST.


Anishinabek Nation Chiefs meeting at Fort William First Nation endorsed a resolution directing their bands to begin advertising their intentions for this summer.

Native leaders want a point-of-sale tax exemption now given to aboriginal people extended when HST kicks in July 1st.

Rainy River Resources results

Rainy River Resources has hit more high-grade gold mineralization on its Rainy River Gold project about 80 kilometers south of Kenora.


Company officials say the exploration program continues to demonstrate the potential for underground mining.

They add the Company will be aggressively pursuing a drilling and engineering program to look at an all-underground mining operation or an open pit and underground operation.

Go Electric Biker

A Southern Ontario man is travelling across Canada on an electric bike.


Art Burns left Dundas, Ontario at the end of May, and hopes to be in Langley, B.C. by June 22nd.

Burns is scheduled to ride through Kenora today and says he's promoting green transportation.

Burns is driving a bike which is equipped with a small generator to charge its lithium batteries.

Free Fishing for Military weekend

A big thank-you is going out to Canada's armed forces this weekend in Kenora.


About 30 members of the Canadian Military will be in town for a day of fishing
on Lake of the Woods tomorrow.

Woody Linton is one of the organizers of the fishing weekend and says it was
really the idea of a local guiding service.

Linton says most of the soldiers who have signed up for the day of fishing are
veterans of the Afghan mission.

They will be spending the night at the Kenora Armories before going back to
their home bases.

New Gateway Signage for Kenora

The City of Kenora is planning to spend about 100 thousand dollars for new
signs at the east and west boundaries of the municipality.

The funding for the gateway project is being included in the money earmarked for
the Highway 17 east and west rehabilitation projects.

The city's economic development officer, Jennifer Findlay says a request for
proposals for the new signs will be going out shortly.

The city is budgeting about 50 thousand dollars for each sign.

Relay for Life tonight

The 10th Relay for Life gets going this evening at Lakewood School.

Relay volunteer Ralph Page says they are looking forward to holding the event
at a new location this year.

Page says there is going to be lots of activities to keep people going all night long.

There are 25 teams registered for this year's event.

Electronic Waste Recycling Coming soon

The City of Kenora will soon have the only waste electronics recycling depot in
northwestern Ontario outside of Thunder Bay.

The city has reached an agreement with the Ontario Electronics Stewardship to
collect old computers, televisions, monitors, printers and cellphones.

Operations manager Rick Perchuck says local residents will have to pay to
dispose of their old electronic equipment.

Perchuck says the recent electronic waste disposal day was quite successful
with two and a half semi loads collected in one day.

Action Plan on Policing Demanded by Treaty Three

Grand Council Treaty #3 is demanding an action plan to deal with
policing relations in the City of Kenora.

The aboriginal group says there have been several regretful incidents
involving use of force by police and First Nation residents over the years.
The most recent event took place on Monday when a 39 year old Grassy Narrows
woman was shot twice in downtown Kenora after brandishing a knife at police.

Grand Chief Diane Kelly says she wants the OPP to take steps to assure
Treaty Three leadership that aboriginal citizans are safe to walk the streets
of Kenora.