West Nile Confirmed in the region

For the first time in a couple of years, a mosquito in this region has tested positive for the West Nile Virus.

The Northwestern Health Unit says a number of mosquitoes were identified in a trap in the Fort Frances area.

West Nile can be spread to humans through the bite of mosquito.

The Health Unit ceased its west nile bird collection program last year, but continues to trap mosquitoes in several areas of the Kenora and Rainy River Districts to monitor for the presence of the virus.

Horwath Promises Northern Platform soon

The NDP plan to unveil a northern Ontario-specific platform in the next two weeks.

Leader Andrea Horwath, in Fort Frances for Monday night's nomination meeting, says it will include policies that will make a real difference for the region.

It's to includes previously announced plans to scrap the current wood allocation process and forcing mining companies to process their raw materials in Ontario.

A day of Severe Weather in Northwestern Ontario

(Tornado at Dryden Airport)

It was a day of severe weather in northwestern Ontario.

While there was a tornado warning issued for the Kenora area, none materialized.

We did get just over 41 millimeters of rain which was a record for August 16th.

The previous record rainfall was 26.6 back in 2006.

Meanwhile, there are no reports of damage after a large funnel cloud swept through the Dryden area.

The funnel cloud materialized near Oxdrift and swept past the Dryden Airport yesterday afternoon.

It appears to have made it all the way to Sioux Lookout before finally running out of steam.

OPP Dive Team Brought in to Search for Missing Man

OPP divers are being brought in to help search Shoal Lake for a missing Winnipeg man.

28 year old Lucas Janz was reported missing Sunday afternoon after he had gone for a swim near a camp on Galt Island.

An Emergency Response Team began searching the island and the immediate area yesterday, without any success.

Today an Underwater Search and Recovery Unit will help out with the search.

Prostate Cancer Run through Kenora

Dr. Riley Senft is back on the road again.

Senft brought his Step into Action run to Kenora yesterday.

Senft is on a cross-Canada tour to raise awareness for Prostate Cancer.

He arrived at the Kenora Jail yesterday afternoon and ran with local supporters to Husky the Musky.

Senft began his 36 hundred kilometer journey on May 7th and has raised 189 thousand dollars so far for Prostate Cancer Research.

NDP Select their Candidate in Kenora-Rainy River

NDP in Kenora-Rainy River have selected MPP Howard Hampton's constituency assistant in Dryden as their candidicate in the October 6th provincial election.

Sarah Campbell of Oxdrift beat out Kenora lawyer Robert Sinding following a series of nomination meetings that concluded last night in Fort Frances.

Campbell says the campaign for her is now underway.

No results were given, but a total of 137 people cast ballots.

Conservatives to Hold Nomination Meetings this Saturday

All the major parties should have their candidates in place by the end of this weekend.

The Conservatives are planning to send a travelling ballot box around the riding on Saturday.

Stops are scheduled in Fort Frances, Dryden and Kenora.

Two members of Kenora City Council are seeking the Tory nomination, with Louis Roussin challenging Rod McKay.

Houseboat Owners Speak out Against City's Threat to Move Them

Kenora city council is getting an earful about its decision to remove a number of houseboats moored off Coney Island.

A couple of houseboat owners made deputations to council last night.

Brian Finck says they don't have a lot of options as to where they can moor their boats.

Council was going to ask the houseboat owners to remove their vessels from the area by the end of September, but has decided to defer any decision on the matter until they can look at all the legalities first.

More Forest Fire Activity in NWO

New forest fires continue to rage across northwestern Ontario.

Ministry of Natural Resources fire information officer Gabby Rivard says of  the 53 new fires, 26 erupted on Sunday through yesterday.

Dry, sunny conditions returned to the region on the weekend, resulting in a number of new fires.

Firefighters hope for a break with rain forecast for the next two days.

More than two-thousand firefighters are battling 102 fires in the region.

NDP Accuse Clement of Covering Up G-8 Slush Fund

Thunder Bay NDP MP Bruce Hyer calls it a very smelly coverup.

Hyer says his party has discovered that FedNor Minister Tony Clement controlled a G-8 FedNor slush fund and kept it away from the eyes of the Auditor General.

Hyer says the so called slush fund had almost 50 million dollars in it.

Another Drug Bust on By-Pass

A 23 year old Winnipeg man faces drug charges after being pulled over the by OPP on the Kenora By-Pass over the weekend.

Around 11:30 Saturday night, officers stopped a vehicle on Highway 17-A for a traffic violation.

Police say they noticed the odor of alcohol and marijuana in the vehicle, and a search turned up five grams of pot and a qunatity of alcohol.

John Mullan has been charged with possession of a narcotic and operating a motor vehicle with alcohol readily available.

He's due to appear in Kenora Court next month.

IJC Begins Hearings on Task Force Report on Lake of the Woods

International Joint Commission held the first of a series of meetings last night in Fort Frances to gather input on a task's forces report regarding the management of the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake basins.

Nick Heisler, a senior advisor, says the input will help the IJC makes its decision on the recommendations.

There will be a meeting this Saturday morning in Kenora at 9:00 at the Best Western Lakeside Inn.

NDP to select their Candidate tonight

The last of four nomination meetings for the NDP in Kenora-Rainy River goes tonight in Fort Frances.

Sarah Campbell of Oxdrift and Robert Sinding of Kenora are vying to be the riding's candidate in this October's provincial election.

Tonight meeting at the Adventure Inn begins at 6 p-m.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is expected to be in attendance.

OPP Search For Missing Man on Shoal Lake

A search is continuing today for a missing 28 year old man on Shoal Lake.

The OPP's Emergency Rescue Team was called in after the Winnipeg man decided to go for a swim near Galt Island.

He had been staying with friends at a camp on the island.

When he failed to return later in the morning, a search of the island  and the shoreline was carried out.

The OPP were finally contacted around 2:00 yesterday afternoon, but officer were unable to locate the missing man.

City Invests in Solar Recycling Units

The City of Kenora is rolling out a new recycling device.

Solar Recycling units will soon start showing up in downtown Kenora.

Operations manager Rick Perchuck says they will be placing 16 units in the downtown area.

Perchuck says the units will cost about 100 thousand dollars, with the province picking up about half the cost.

District Services Board Warns of Budget Increases

Increased costs continues to haunt area Municipalities.

The Kenora District Services Board is out with its first draft of the 2012 budget, which shows an 800-thousand hike in the Municipal share.

CEO Dan McNeill says they are trying to find cost savings.

The first version calls for no increase in funding for repair and mainenance in the public housing and non-profit housing budget.

Busy weekend for fires in NWO

It was another busy weekend for firefighters in Northwestern Ontario.

There were 28-new confirmed fires Saturday and Sunday, with more expected.

There are over 2-thousand fire personnel dedicated to the fire fighting effort, with 454 people from Alberta, B.C., Nova Scotia, the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Yukon, Minnesota, Michigan and Parks Canada.

The Ministry of Natural Resources is also getting air support from Quebec and Minnesota.

The MNR says there is no end in site, with sunny skies and dry conditions forecast for this week.

Energy could become fall election issue

The Provincial Government's Renewable Energy program could be an election issue this fall.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the government went down the wrong track.

Meanwhile, the Progressive Conservatives have promised if they're elected they will cancel the green energy feed in tariff program.

NAN Conference Starts Tomorrow

Ontario's Lieutenant Governor will be speaking at the Nishnawbe Aski Nation's chiefs conference this week.
It kicks off in Summer Beaver tomorrow, with housing, mining, and education being discussed.

David Onley will speak about his work with aboriginal youth literacy.

Bombardier Workers Return to Work

Its back to work for seven hundred Bombardier employees in Thunder Bay.

Union members voted in favour of the new 3 year contract Saturday. Local union president Dominic Pasqualino says the deal is a good compromise.

The contract includes improvements to wages and pensions along with a change in the work schedule from a 5 day week to 7 days.

Hovi Leads Rifles to First Victory of Season

A former member of Beaver Brae's football program is powering the offense of the Winnipeg Rifles Junior football team.

Martin Hovi rushed for 122 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns to lead the Rifles to a 41-34 victory over the Edmonton Huskies in their first game of the season yesterday.

Three former Broncos are suiting up for the Rifles this season, including Hovi, Aaron Koch and Ryan Van Bellingham.

MNR Making Progress on Forest Fires

Fire crews continue to make good progress on wildfires burning across northwestern Ontario.

There are currently 83 blazes burning in the region, down from 96 yesterday.

Five new fires were sparked yesterday, and the Ministry of Natural Resources is worried that all the lightning we've had over the past couple of days will result in even more fire activity.

A total of 200 fire crews will be returning back to British Columbia and other provinces because their tour of duty is winding down.

Another 160 will start arriving later today.

Province promises to fix up By-Pass Bridges

A couple of bridges along the Kenora By-Pass are in for a makeover this year.

Reconstruction work on the Middle Lake and Winnipeg River Bridges are two of the projects included in this year's Northern Highways program.

The province will be spending 618 million dollars on roads in northern Ontario this summer.

The twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway east from the Manitoba Border is also included in the Highway programs budget this year.

NDP send Travelling Ballot Box Around the Riding this Weekend

The NDP will be taking a travelling ballot box around the Kenora-Rainy River Ridng to select a candidate for the upcoming provincial election.

The New Democrats are trying to hold onto a riding held for the past couple of decades by Howard Hampton.

Kenora Lawyer Robert Sinding is challenging Hampton's constituent assistant Sarah Campbell for the nomination.

Sinding believes the party's platform will resonate with local residents.

The travelling ballot box will start the day in Sioux Lookout and be in Kenora on Sunday afternoon, before ending up in Fort Frances Monday night.

Clement Announces Funding for Aboriginal Businesses

There's almost 2-million of Federal dollars going to help Aboriginal business development in the Northwest.

FedNor Minister Tony Clement says the support is needed because raising money to start a business in First Nation communities is totally different that in larger centres.

Clement made the announcement in yesterday while touring the region.

Household Hazardous Waste Disposal Day this Sunday

Waste Diversion Ontario is helping out the City of Kenora this year with its household hazardous waste disposal day.

Usually the city has to foot the entire bill for the waste collection day, but Operations Manager Rick Perchuck says they are eligible for some additional funding.

Perchuck says the city usually has to pay 35 thousand dollars every year to hold the Hazardous Waste Disposal Day.

You can drop of hazardous materials this Sunday at the Waste Transfer Station from 8:00 to 4:00.

Health Unit Re-Opens Keewatin and Round Lake Beaches

Good news for people who want to cool off this weekend.

The Northwest Health Unit has lifted the swimming bans at Keewatin Beach and Round Lake.

The most recent round of testing shows that bacterial levels have returned to acceptible levels.

The two swimming holes had been closed for the past week due to high levels of e-coli.

Province to Review lack of Aboriginal Representation on Juries

A former Supreme Court of Canada justice is going to look at why aboriginals are being shut out from juries in Ontario.

First Nations who live on reserves in the province say they have been excluded from juries for years.

Now the province has asked former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci to look at the issue and come up with ways to fix the problem.

Bombardier Strike in Thunder Bay over

Striking Canadian Auto Workers members at Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant have reached a tentative agreement after just one day on the picket line.

Both sides reached an agreement last night.

The 700 union members, who assemble rail cars at the plant, are expected to vote on the offer on Saturday.

Staff walked off the job Tuesday but both sides returned to negotiations yesterday morning.

Bike Trails coming to City

The City of Kenora hopes to become more cycler friendly in the next few months.

Work is underway to develop a bicycle route through town.

Councillor Sharon Smith says that will include a marked route along Lakeview Drive, once that section is re-paved in the fall.

The route will include "share the road" signage, as well as bicycle stencils on the shoulder of the road.

OPP Arrest Two people in Rideout area

The OPP have arrested two people as a result of a drug bust in the Rideout area of town.

The Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau and the Drug Unit executed a search warrant on a home on Mascott Avenue earlier this week.

Police say 3.5 grams of marijuana, six oxycodone pills and other drug paraphenalia were seized.

50 year old Leo Delorme and 22 year old Harley McLeod from Kenora have been charged with possession of a narcotic.

They are scheduled to make a court appearance in September.

Economic Development Commission Present Q2 report

All the city's investment in infrastructure over the past couple of years is starting to pay off.

That's the message of the chair of the Lake of the Woods Economic Development Commission.

Dennis Wallace presented the second quarter report to council this week and says there is a lot of interest in the former Abitibi property.

Wallace admits it could take a couple of years for the interest to translate into actual jobs, but says the foundation is there for growth.

City Council Turns Down Funding for Fellowship Center

Kenora City council has turned down a request from the Fellowship Center for a 12 thousand dollar grant.

The emergency shelter had requested the funding to help cover utility costs and recycling.

Councillor Sharon Smith says while the City doesn't have the funds to give the shelter money,

she suggested that Fellowship Center work with the Kenora Assembly of Resources to see if they can share some services.

The Kenora Assembly of Resources operates a couple of programs on the Kenora Harborfront

including the Green Team and Buck's Brigade.

Slight Improvement in Forest Fire Situation

The Ministry of Natural Resources continues to gain the upper hand on several wildfires in Northwestern Ontario.

There are now 95-active fires, down from 110-fires last night.

Information Officer Gabby Rivard says they are also getting fresh blood to help in suppression efforts.

There were just two new forest fires reported in northwestern Ontario yesterday.

US Economic Woes Good News for Local Housing Market?

Economic troubles south of the border could help out the housing market in Kenora.

Lakehead University Economics Professor Livio Di Matteo says the turmoil will likely mean interest rates will stay low which will make it easier for people to get a mortgage.

Di Matteo says the Federal Reserce Bank vowing to keep interest rates low will likely cause the Bank of Canada to do the same or even lower its rate.

Bombardier Strike in Thunder Bay over

Striking Canadian Auto Workers members at Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant have reached a tentative agreement after just one day on the picket line.

Both sides reached an agreement last night.

The 700 union members, who assemble rail cars at the plant, are expected to vote on the offer on Saturday.

Staff walked off the job Tuesday but both sides returned to negotiations yesterday morning.

City Considering Lawsuit over Bridge Repairs

The City of Kenora is talking legal action to get the provincial government to help pay for much needed repairs to a couple of local bridges.

The price tag to fix up the Keewatin Channel and the Winnipeg River West Branch Bridges is going to be at least six million dollars.

Kenora mayor Dave Canfield says a lawsuit is one way of forcing the government's hand.

The bridges were downloaded onto the municipality 14 years ago, and Canfield suggests some of the problems predate the transfer.

He plans to bring the issue up as his number one priority at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario convention in London later this month.

City Fails Safety Audit

The City of Kenora has received a failing grade in a recent work place safety audit by the WSIB.

Kenora was given 35 out of 100 in the Workwell audit.

While some councillors aren't happy with the audit results, Health and Safety officer, Bruce Graham says the news isn't all bad.

Another Workwell Audit will take place in February and the Graham predicts the city will perform much better.

NDP Releases more of its Northern Platform

Much of NDP's election platform for the north is still under wraps, but leader Andrea Horwath is giving us a sneak peak.

She is making promises that involve changes to the laws involving mining and keeping those resources here

The NDP is also promising to scrap the current wood allocation process.

City wants houseboats moved off Bush Island

The City of Kenora is planning to crack down on people parking houseboats illegally on municipal property.

Councillor Ron Lunny says they've been getting complaints from Coney Island residents about a number of houseboats moored just off Bush Island.

Lunny says the city will give the owners of the houseboats until the end of September to find somewhere else to park.

A lull in Forest Fire Battle

For the first time in two months, there were no new forest fires reported in northwestern Ontario.

Two days of showers has brought some relief to firefighters battling more than a 100 wildfires across northwestern Ontario.

Up to 30 millimetres of rain fell in some parts of the region.

The precipitation and cooler temperatures, will allow FireRangers to consolidated hose lines around some of the bigger fires and help crews focus their suppression efforts.

Elections Ontario Getting Ready for October 6th

The Ontario provincial election is just under two months away.

Elections Ontario, the agency tasked with managing the election, is getting prepared.

Deputy chief electoral officer Lauren Wells says for the first time, voters will get the chance to vote by mail.

Wells says Elections Ontario will have its returning offices up and running in early September.

Clean Energy Grants Awarded

Two companies in the Kenora District are getting funding to change over to clean energy.

Slate Falls Outposts will get just over nine thousand dollars to install a new solar powered system to replace propane appliances.

Dorsey Contracting is a tree-planting company, and is getting a grant for just over 13 thousand dollars to install a new geothermal heating system to power one of its buildings.

The funding from the province's Northern Energy Program.

Canoer Rescued from Woodland Caribou Park

A 51-year-old Florida man is in good condition after he was rescued from Woodland Caribou Provincial Park.

Red Lake OPP received an emergency call in regards to a stranded canoeist inside the park on Friday.

Police say the canoeist severely injured his knee on the first day of his planned 15-day canoe trip.

Once OPP got the call and the emergency beacon was activated on the man's GPS, it took officers about 5-hours to rescue the man.

Two City Councils vying for Conservative Nomination

It looks like there will be a race for the Conservative nomination in the Kenora-Rainy River Riding.

Louis Roussin has confirmed that his nomination papers have been accepted by the party.

Roussin is a member of Kenora city Council and is the seat mate of the other candidate seeking the Conservative nomination, Rod McKay.

Roussin is a former real estate agent in the City of Kenora.

Still no word as to when a nomination meeting will be held.

Two Kenora Bridges in Need of Repair

A sobering report on the state of Kenora's Bridges.

Stantec Engineering has conducted the review and it looked specifically at the West Branch of the Winnipeg River Bridge and the Keewatin Channel Bridge.

Mike Boisseneault is the project engineer and says the West Branch Bridge in particular, is in need of repair.

Boisseneault says the steel girders on the bridge are corroding in some places and the concrete footings are also starting to crumble in areas.

The total price tag to do basic repairs to the two bridges is about six million dollars.

OPP Investigate weekend break-ins

The OPP are investigating a couple of break and enters at the west end of town.

Over the weekend, someone broke into a business on Ottawa Street in Keewatin.

Police say the incident took place sometime between 6:30 Friday night and 7:40 Saturday morning.

An undisclosed amount of money was stolen.

Officers responded to a complaint of another break and enter on Lakeview Drive on Sunday.

Once again, the suspects broke into the business and made off with a quantity of cash.

KeeMan Elects Five Member Board

Organizers of a vote to select a slate of officers to oversee the new KeeMan Local Services Board say they are happy with the turn-out of their elections over the weekend.

A total of 135 people turned up at the McKenzie-Clearwater Bay Fire Hall on Saturday.

Six people were in the running for five positions on the board.

Jerry Perras, Terry Wright, Laurie Bracken, Roger Giguere, and Larry Warelis were all elected.

The board now has to meet to decide who will take on specific duties such as chair, treasurer and secretary.

Right to Play gets more money

The provincial government is boosting the amount of money its giving the Right to Play organization.

Right to Play will be getting 1.5 million dollars this year to expand programs into at least 30 first nation communities in northern Ontario.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Chris Bentley says the groups youth leadership program has been particulary successful.

The Leadership program was initiated a couple of years ago in two first nation communities and was expanded to four first nations last year.

Nature Conservance of Canada Develops plan for Lake of the Woods

A natural area plan for Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake is ready to be put into action.

It was worked on by the Nature Conservancy of Canada for the past decade.

Regional vice-president Chris Maher says the aim is to protect the area from over development.

Maher says the plan goes to its board of directors in the fall before work on its implementation takes place..