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.