NOSM contract talks set to resume

OPSEU and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine are heading back to the bargaining table.

The 2-sides haven't talked since Union members rejected the Schools last offer earlier this month.

Support staff at the school have been striking since the middle of August.

Talks are set to resume on Monday.

NOTO Conference Starts today in Dryden

The 83rd Annual Northern Ontario Tourist Outfitters Association Annual Conference starts today in Dryden.

Tourism officials and camp owners will sit down for 2-days to discuss the state of the industry.

An update on the new Tourism Zones and the benefits of a Tourism License for Ontario will be discussed on Day 1.

The contenous issue of on-going border problems will highlight day number 2.

Parkes reacts to Machin election results

The outgoing Mayor of Machin says he had a great run during his tenure.

Garry Parkes says his main goal was to better the community and he believes great strides have been made in that.

Parkes says he plans to spend some more time on his small business and do some traveling with his wife.

Parkes says a number of projects are close to moving forward and he hopes Council keeps them on the priority list.

Fort Hope Funding announced

Ottawa is working with an aboriginal community in northwestern Ontario that's declared a state of emergency over high crime.

The Fort Hope First Nation says its overwhelmed by recent murders and arsons.

Indian Affairs says it is providing 275-thousand dollars for staff and basic supplies for patrols and to repair the community's only school.

Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan says one option is to call in a reserve military unit with a large Aboriginal component such as the Canadian Rangers.

IJC Task Force in Town tonight

A task force set up to help governments address water quality and related issues in the Lake of the Woods and Rainy River watersheds will hold a series of public meetings this week.

The International Lake of the Woods and Rainy River Watershed Task Force was in International

Falls last night and travels up to Kenora tonight.

The session will take place at the Best Western Lakeside Inn starting at 7:00.

The Task Force is to submit its recommendations to the International Joint Commission by July 15.

Wicked weather wanes

The Kenora area has so far been relatively unscathed by a huge storm system that is moving over central Canada.

Rain, high winds and even some snow has been attached to the system.

Geoff Coulson is a severe weather specialist for Environment Canada and says things should start to improve later today.

The storm system has caused a number of power outages in and around Thunder Bay, and even forced the closure of the Trans-Canada Highway between Nipigon and

Schreiber for a short time last night.

No power outages have been reported in the Kenora area so far.

Great Lakes Cyclone Heading Our Way

Windy and wet.

Those are the two key words for the next couple of days.

Environment Canada has issued a weather advisory for Kenora and much of northwestern Ontario.

Severe Weather Specialiist Geoff Coulson says the system is described as a Great Lake Cyclone.

Coulson adds that we could also see winds gusting anywhere from 60 to 70 kilometers per hour

during the next day or so.

Final results in for City Council

Everything old is new again at Kenora City Hall.

Former mayor Dave Canfield was re-elected after a four year hiatus.

Canfield collected 4,178 hundred votes, compared to 1,754 for Andrew Poirier and 715 for Jim Parson.

In the council race, former councillor Ron Lunny topped all vote-getters with 4,021, followed by Sharon Smith at 3,746, Rory McMillan at 3,456 and Rod McKay with 3,037 votes.

Rounding out council are Louis Roussin at 2,838 and Charito Drinkwalter with 2,743.

In the vote for the District of Kenora Unicorporated Ratepayer Association representitive on

the Kenora District Services Board, Barry Baltesson beat out Ingrid Parkes.

There will be a couple of new trustees from Kenora on the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board.

Cecile Marcino garnered the most votes and will be joined by new comers Bob Onysko and

Michelle Ott.

Kahoot elected mayor in Ear Falls

A surprise in Ear Falls where political rookie Kevin Kahoot as defeated Councilor's Tracey Simon and Rob Doyle for Mayor.

Former Mayor Jim Demarais will sit on Council along with Vic Robinson, Rob Eady and Fred Melanson.

Kahoot  is a former Kenora resident and says he's got a great team.

Political veteran Rob Bergman and incumbent Councilor David Wilson finished 5th and 6th respectively.

Nuttall elected mayor in Dryden

A lot of new faces will sit at the Council table across Northwestern Ontario following yesterday's Municipal Election.

In Dryden, Craig Nutall defeated incumbent Mayor Anne Krassilowsky by about 300 votes.

Nuttal says he could sense victory.

Mary Trist, in her first election, was the top vote getter for Council, followed by Mike Wood, Ken Moss, Brian Collins, Martin MacKinnon and Mel Fisher.

Voter turn-out in Dryden was an impressive 61.15-percent.

Sioux Narrows/Nestor Falls council vote

Some familiar faces are back in town council in Sioux Narrows Nestor Falls.

Former Mayor Gerry O'Leary topped all vote getters with 376 and was elected as

a councillor at large along with Norbert Dufresne.

They beat out former councillors Chan Motlong and Lou Kabel.

In ward one, Gail Black was returned as a councillor and in ward two

Wayne Helliar edged out Randy Hanson 103 votes to 91.

Mayor Bill Thompson was acclaimed.

Machin elects a brand new mayor and council

Sweeping changes in Machin as voters decided to elect a brand new Council.

Incumbent Mayor Garry Parkes was unseated by Gord Dingman.

Gordon Griffiths, Ronald Kujansuu, Joseph Ruete and Dennis Peterson were elected to Council.

Incumbent's Laurie Huffman and Paul Kelly finished well behind.

Long time mayors re-elected in Rainy River District

Two long-time municipal leaders retained their seats in municipal elections across the Rainy River District last night.

Dennis Brown captured 80 per cent of the vote to beat out Bob Davidson in a successful defence of his mayor's seat in Atikokan.

Valerie Pizey outdistanced challenger Gerald Fisk to hold on to her mayor's seat in Lake of the Woods township.

Vince Sheppard is the new Mayor of Emo, defeating incumbent Ed Carlson by about 80 votes.

Canfield returns as Kenora mayor

Former Kenora Mayor Dave Canfield is heading back to city hall.

Canfield won last night's mayoralty election in convincing fashion.

He garnered over 41 hundred votes compared to 17 hundred for runner up Andrew Poirier.

Jim Parson was a distant third with 715 votes.

In the council race, Ron Lunny was the top vote getter followed by community activist, Sharon Smith.

Rory McMillan placed third, followed by Rod McKay in fourth, Louis Roussin in fifth and Charito Drinkwalter in sixth.

In the race for public school board trustee, Cecil Marcino was the top vote getter, followed by Bob Onysko and Michele Ott.

Around the region, its a changing landscape in the mayor's chair.

Craig Nuttall upset Anne Krassilowski for mayor in the City of Dryden, and

former Kenora resident Kevin Kahoot is in as mayor of Ear Falls.

Highway 596 Closed between Darlington Bay and Highway 17-A

Residents living on Highway 596 between the Darlingon Bridge and the Kenora by-pass could find it a little more difficult to get home today.

The City of Kenora is doing some emergency road work on the section of the road, about one kilometer south of Highway 17-A.

A culvert is being replaced, and the work isn't expected to be complete until about 4:30 tomorrow afternoon.

Traffic will be stopped at the Darlington Bay Bridge, and only people living south of the dig site will be allowed through.

No-one will be able to cross the dig site until the work is complete.

Traffic is also being stopped at the by-pass for vehicles trying to head south on Highway 596.

Greenpeace Caribou Caravan hits NWO

Greenpeace is touring northwestern Ontario with its "caribou caravan"

The environmental group is pressuring Minister of Northern Development Michael Gravelle and the Ontario Government to save woodland caribou.

Spokesperson Catherine Grant says the government can balance both the environment and forest industry.

Greenpeace started the caravan out last week at Queen's Park in Toronto.

DOKURA Votes for DSAB reps today

There is another vote taking place today as well.

The District of Kenora Unincorporated Rate Payers association is

set to elect a couple of representitives to the Kenora District Services Board.

In the Lake of the Woods North area, Ingrid Parkes and Barry Baltesson are vying for one position.

Polling stations will be set up in a variety of community halls and fire stations throughout the area.

Municipal Election Campaign wraps up today

The 45 day long municipal election campaign wraps up today.

While about 50 percent of the mail-in ballots have already been received at

city hall, people can still do some last minute voting today.

Returning officer, Joanne McMillin says they have two polling stations set up

for anyone who didn't get a voting kit in the mail.

The polls will close at 8:00 and CJRL news will be providing live coverage of the

results this evening right after Radio Bingo.

Busy weekend for High School Sports

 

A good weekend for Thomas Aquinas sports teams.

T.A. entered two teams into the annual Dryden Pumpkin Smash Junior Boys Volleyball tournament.

Both team red and team black finished second in their pools.

While team red lost in the quarter finals to Red Lake, team black advanced to the finals and beat the host Dryden Gold squad two games to one.

In Fort Frances, the Saints girls hockey team won all three of its round robin games, knocking off Beaver Brae, Dryden and Red Lake.

T.A. advanced to the final, but lost a close decision to the defending tournament champions, the Pembina Valley Tigers.

The Beaver Brae junior girls volleyball team also had a strong tournament in Fort Frances.

The Broncos finshed with a 3-1 record including victories over St. Pat's,

Westgate and St. Ignatius, all Thunder Bay high school teams.

Thistle lose twice on the road

A tough weekend for the Kenora Triple "a" midget Thistles.

The local midget squad played two of the toughest teams in the

league and lost both game played over the weekend.

Saturday, the Thistles dropped a 7-1 decision to the Winnipeg

Thrashers.

On Friday, the Eastman Selects overcame an early 2-0 deficit

to beat the Thistles 6-2.