Ontario Scotties ready to Rock the Kenora Curling Club

A bit of an economic boost for the City of Kenora.

The 2012 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts comes to town next week.

Sue Loewen is co-chair of the event and says while their reserved seating is sold out, there are still lots of good seats available.

Curling will begin on Monday night, with the finals set for the following Sunday at the Kenora Curling Club.

Snow Sculpture Competition set for the Greenbelt

The Kenora Harborfront is going to be transformed over the next few weeks.

A number of large boxes have been installed on the greenbelt and will become snow sculptures.

Heather Paterson from Tousism Kenora says the wood boxes will be filled with snow this weekend.

Paterson says they are now accepting applications for the snow sculpture competition.

February 7th is the final day to enter.

Doors Open to Return in 2012

Doors Open is coming back to Kenora.

The two day event allows local residents and visitors to tour local heritage landmarks.

This years Doors Open will be held in conjuction with Trails Open.

The Kenora Urban Trails Association will be showcasing the Mink Bay

Wetlands and the new and improved Rabbit Lake Trails.

Doors Open will be taking place the last weekend of September.

OPP Investigate Train Collision in Upsala

The OPP is investigating a collision involving a train and motor vehicle in Upsala.

Police say the accident took place just before 11:00 this morning at a CP rail crossing.

The Upsala Ambulence and Fire Department responded to the accident.

The lone occupant of the vehicle was airlifted by helicopter to hospital in Thunder Bay for treatment.

The extent of his injuries have not been released.

Thistles Host Central Plains this weekend

The Kenora Triple "a" Midget Thistles will try to snap a four game losing skid tonight.

The Thistles are hosting the Central Plains Capitals for a pair of games.

The Capitals have 27 points on the season, one more than the Thistles.

Game time tonight is 7:30 at the Thistle Rink.

The same two teams will match up again tomorrow night at the Rec. Center.

Pikangikum First Nation School

It's back to school time for kids in the Pikangikum First Nation.


A number of elementary and secondary classes were cancelled earlier this month because of mould problems in the teacher's living quarter.

Chief Jonah Strang says the band was able to co-operate with the Federal Government to bring in some new trailers and clean up the mould in some of the existing homes.

He says students from kindergarten to Grade 8 are already back at school, and secondary school pupils will be back next week.

Strang says a cold snap should make the ice road solid enough to bring the trailers in over the next few days

Sioux Lookout Departments Merge

Restructuring in Sioux Lookout.


Council has agreed to combine the Public Works and Development Services Departments.

A second Public Works management position within the Public Works Department has been eliminated.

The restructuring is expected to save the Municipality roughly 100-thousand dollars annually.

Peter Moyer will become the Director.

ScotiaBank Commercial

For the second time in less than a year, a local hockey team is getting some national

exposure.

The Kenora AA PeeWee Thistles are being featured this weekend in a commercial for ScotiaBank.

The Thistles were included in the intro to a Hockey Night in Canada game last spring.

Portions of that video are now being included in a new TV ad for Scotiabank.

The ads will begin airing this Saturday on CBC and also at Cineplex Theatres across
the country on February 3rd.

Cancer Care Northwest

The cancer situation in northwestern Ontario is a good news/bad news story.


The bad news is that cancer rates are on the rise across the region.

Vice-president of Cancer Care Northwest, Michael Power says the disease seems to cut across all age groups.

Power says more people are getting cancer because people are living longer.

Sioux Lookout Drug Bust

Four Sioux Lookout residents face possession for the purpose of trafficking charges following a drug bust in the community.


OPP searched a Meadwell Crescent home and located 13-hundred dollars worth of pot, a quantity of cash and 3-firearms.

45-year-old Sharon Bunting has also been charged with careless storage of a firearm and unauthorized possession of a firearm.

OPP say 29-year-old Ricky Machimity and 18-year-old Ryan Sapay face charges of possession of property obtained by crime.

Police say 22-year Ryan Machimity faces the one count of possession charge.

Cliff Natural Resources

Cliff Natural Resources has released its 2012 Capital investment plan and it includes some major numbers for the Ring of Fire. 

The document pegged mine development at 150 million, 800 million for the concentrating plant and 1.8 billion for the processing plant. 

The company says it anticipates early work to start in 2014 with most of the development happening later that year and into 2015. 

Resolute Forest Products

Resolute Forest Products is seeking  reduced manning numbers at the Fort Frances mill.

This comes as the company is making preparations to return to pulp production later next week and resume paper production on one machine beginning the first week of February. 

CEP National Rep Steve Boon said they are still trying to determine the impact for CEP Local 92 and 306.

Resolute Company spokeperson  Pierre Choquette would neither confirm nor deny the report, saying only that the company is facing  market uncertainty but  is looking forward to getting one machine back into production.

Fire Destroys a transport near McMunn

Fire has destroyed a semi-tractor trailor unit on Highway 1 in Manitoba near McMunn.

The RCMP in Falcon Lake were contacted about the blaze around 8:00 this morning.

Police say the driver of the rig noticed a mechanical problem and pulled over in a parking lot and discovered the fire.

He tried to put it out, without any success.

Local fire crews were finally able to bring the blaze under control.

The Mounties say the rig is a total loss, but both the driver and a passenger from Ontario managed to escape unharmed.

The Trans-Canada remained open while emergency crews dealt with the fire.

Vaudeville in Kenora

Until February 25th, The Lake of the Woods Museum is home to a traveling exhibit.


Vaudeville comes to us from the Peterborough Museum and features a few staples in Canadian history like archive pictures from the Ballsillie collection,

Braden Murray of the Lake of the Woods Museum says “You don’t want to miss tomorrow’s grand opening at the First Baptist Church”

Fan favorites like the Kenora Circus Kids will be on hand to entertain as well as Olivia Wynne and Wayne Kelso.

Performances start at 7:30 tomorrow night at the First Baptist Church. Doors open at 6:30. Tickets to the show can be purchased at the museum or at the door for $10 a piece.

Lake of the Woods District Hospital Expenses

Lake of the Woods District Hospital says new reports show they are running a tight ship.

The hospital is now required to post the expenses of its management staff on-line.

Chief Executive Officer Marc Belcaen says they are very careful with how they spend hospital money.

Belcaen had the highest expenses of hospital employees at just over 31 hundred dollars last year, including travel and accommodations while attending out-of-town conferences.

Winter Road Network

The Provincial Government is spending 4.7-million dollars on the winter road network in the Far North this year.


Minister of Northern Development and Mines Rick Bartolucci says over 3-thousand kilometres of road will connect 29-First Nation communities.

Individuals and businesses will be able to use the roads until the Spring thaw, usually in mid-March.

The McGuinty Government has invested a total of 30.7-million dollars in the winter roads program since 2003.

Plan Nord

There are some envious leaders in Northwestern Ontario after they heard a presentation on Plan Nord, an economic blueprint for Northern Quebec.


Harold Wilson is with the Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce and says it shows we have some catching up to do

Plan Nord is a 25 year program designed to get 80 million dollars invested in Northern Quebec.

Annual Business Awards

The Kenora and District Chamber of Commerce is getting ready for its annual business awards.


The Chamber has released the nominees for this years awards.

A total of 48 businesses and individuals have been nominated in 12 different categories.

Ray-solar was the most nominated business and is up for Environmental Business of the Year,
the Best Home Based Business, and best new business.

Three people are up for this year's Mayor's award, including Pat Brett, Mort Goss and Collette Surovy.

The Business Awards will be handed out on February 15th at the Best Western Lakeside Inn.

OPP on Local Highways

The OPP is concerned with the number of fatal accidents reported across northwestern Ontario so far in 2012.

Through the first two weeks, 17 people have been killed, including two here on Highway 17 between Kenora and Dryden.

Sergeant Shelley Garr admits poor weather conditions are partly to blame for the increase in accidents.


The OPP say at the same time last year there were eight fatal motor vehicle collisions, which is
less than half the number reported for far in 2012.

Provincial Police across Northwestern Ontario are set to increase enforcement on local Highways.

UNESCO

A United Nations group will soon consider whether to grant special status to the boreal forest along the
Ontario-Manitoba boundary.

The two provinces, along with the Pikangikum First Nation, want the region northwest of Kenora, declared a world heritage site. Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger says the recognition would be a big boost.

The provinces and First Nations are now submitting their bid for recognition, which would be considered as early as this spring.