Saints win First Ever Game At OFSAA

Thomas Aquinas has won its first ever game at the All-Ontario girls soccer championships.


The Saints earned a 3-0 win over Ecole Secondaire St. Marie yesterday in round-robin action in Pain Court.

T.A. got goals from Lila Degagne, Brittani Swail and Josee Gautier.

The Saints have a 1-1 record after two games.

Their next match is against the third ranked team from Char-Lan at 10:00 this morning.

Meanwhile, Beaver Brae is still looking for its first win at the OFSAA double A championships in Windsor.

The Broncos dropped a 4-0 decision to Holy Cross from St. Catharines yesterday afternoon.

Earlier in the day they lost 1-0 to St. Christopher from Sarnia.

Beaver Brae's next game is at 8:30 this morning against Bishop Strachan from Toronto.

All Day Kindergarten to be extended to five more local schools

The Province has outlined its plan to have full-day Kindergarten in all schools by 2015.

The program will be rolled out in Ear Falls, Keewatin, New Prospect School, Sioux Narrows and Upsala for 2013 and 2014.

Public School Board Superintendent Caryl Hron says the program has been well received by parents and teachers in Dryden and Kenora.

The final phase of the program will take place in 2014-2015 at Crolancia School in Pickle Lake, Golden Learning Centre in Red Lake, Ignace, King George and Vallyeview Schools in Kenora as well as Lillian Berg and Savant Lake.

Local Petition gets noticed at Queen's Park

A local resident has received some fairly high profile publicity for her petition.

Grace Jorgensen is a Keewatin resident and has collected about 500 signatures on a petition calling on the provincial government to remove the Harmonized Sales Tax home heating bills.

NDP leader Andrea Horvath made mention of the petition at Queen's Park yesterday and asked the premier to eliminate the HST on heating oil, hydro,  gas, and diesel.

She promises to make that a major campaign promise for the October 6th provincial election.

Council spends 2.3 million dollars this week

Kenora City Council has approved over 2.3 million dollars worth of projects this week.

Council held a special meeting earlier this week and agreed to spend 300 thousand dollars to paint the interior and exterior of the Keewatin Water Tower.

The City has also agreed to hire Dominion Divers out of Winnipeg to repair the Second Street Wharf, at a cost of 360 thousand dollars.

In one other piece of business council also approved a 90 thousand dollar tender for Don Hagar Contracting to carry out sidewalk repairs in the city this summer.

New Tim Horton's Camp gets approval for Whiteshell

Great news for local kids following another successful Camp Day at Tim Horton's.

A new camp for underpriveleged kids is opening in Whiteshell Provincial Park near the Ontario/Manitoba border.

Company spokesperson Aaron Brown says the camp will house two thousand campers and will be situated on Sylvia Lake.

The camp will include the Tim Horton Leadership specialty program.

Beaver Brae and Thomas Aquinas Girls Soccer Teams at OFSAA

The provincial girls high school soccer championships get underway today and Kenora is being represented by two teams this year.

Beaver Brae is in Windsor for the Double A championships.

Broncos head coach Janis England is hoping third time is a charm for her team.

Beaver Brae's first game is at 10:30 this morning against St. Christopher from Sarnia.

Meanwhile, the Thomas Aquinas girls are in Pain Court near Chatham for the OFSAA single A championships.

They play their first game at 9:30 this morning against West Elgin.

Water Walkers Heading to Duluth

The Mother Earth Water Walk will be leaving northwestern Ontario today and will be entering Minnesota.

Spokesperson for the group, Heidi Smith the walk was first organized by Josephine Mandamin to  bring awareness to the state of the world's water supplies.

The walkers passed through Kenora on Friday evening.

The group is one of four bring water from different areas to Duluth  where they'll dump it in Lake Superior.

Hospital Foundation Warns of Local Phone Scam

The Lake of the Woods Hospital Foundation is warning of a scam that's been going around.

Someone has been calling up local residents looking for donations for the Children's Project at the hospital.

The Hospital Foundation says there is no such project underway at the hospital.

The foundation also says it does not use third parties to solicit donations.

Local residents are also encouraged not to give credit card information should you receive such a phone call.

Pinecrest still waiting for long term care beds

The Northwest Local Health Integration Network still has not signed off on  ten temporary new beds at the Pinecrest Home for the Aged.

Administration at the long term care home has been working with the LHIN's for months trying to get funding to open the beds, but CAO, Kevin Queen says they have nothing in writing yet.

He's hoping there will get approval to open the beds by the end of the month.

Pinecrest has been waiting since the beginning of the year for the extra long term care beds to help ease a critical shortage in the community.

OPP Commissioner worried about staff shortages

The Ontario Provincial Police is facing a severe shortage in staff.

The Police Force stands to lose about 400-officers due to retirement.

On a tour of Northwestern Ontario detachments last week, Commissioner Chris Lewis says this region is not immune.

Lewis says they want to recruit as many officers from the north as possible, so they will stay and

work in the north. 

More MNR Fire Rangers Heading to Alberta Today

The Ministry of Natural Resources is sending more personnel to the forest fire fight in Alberta.

Another 102-fire staff are expected to leave today, replacing some of those who have been in the western province for the past two weeks.

85 of the 190 Ontario personnel now in Alberta are expected to return later this week.

Here at home there is only 1-active fire, a 13-hundred hectare blaze currently under control near Savant Lake.

Grassy Narrows Blockade back in Action

Grassy Narrows First Nation says its long-running blockade in the woods is seeing action.

Women from the Kenora-area community blocked Ministry of Natural Resources enforcement officers yesterday who were attempting to stop road repair work by the First Nation.

Judy Da Silva says the community is repairing a bridge used as an alternate route out of the community during forest fires, flooding and other emergencies.

Da Silva says the Ministry has threatened 10-thousand dollar fines if the work is not halted, but she says work continued behind the blockade.

The blockade began in 2002 when women and youth from the community blocked logging machinery from entering what they say is traditional territory.

NAN Grand Chief Speaks out against OPP Commendations

The head of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation says a decision to reward some OPP officers last week sends a wrong message to First Nations.

Grand Chief Stan Beardy says the commendations are glorified and unnecessary

One award was for exemplary performance in the Pikangikum First Nation dispute last year and the other, a bravery award for the officer who shot an aboriginal woman in downtown Kenora last June. 

Abitibi completes the sale of its Hydro Assets in Ontario

AbitibiBowater has completed the sale of its hydro-electric assets in Ontario which include the dams in Kenora and Fort Frances.

The company is receiving 300-hundred million dollars for the sale to a consortium of a Canadian investor and a private Canadian renewable energy company.

Chief executive officer Richard Garneau says it allows the company to reduce its debt and help improve its finances.

The hydro dam in Iroquois Falls is also on the list of assets being sold by AbitibiBowater. 

Pioneer Wins 2011 Municipal Paving Contract

The City of Kenora is going to spend just over 1.6 million dollars on its municipal paving program this year.

That's a lot higher than usual, due to the carry over of about 900 thousand dollars from last year's paving of the highway 17 east and west entrances into the city.

The city has received approval to use the extra money to pave a secion of  Lakeview Drive from the Keewatin Bridge, east to the Husky Station.

Paving will also be done in the Valley Drive, Second Street North, Eighth Street South, and 8th Avenue South areas this year.

Pioneer Construction had the lowest of two bids for the road work.

Another Illinois Man drowns in Northwestern Ontario

OPP say an American angler was not wearing a life jacket when he fell into Red Lake and died.

Police and emergency crews were called to the McFinley Mine Site Dock, near Cochenour last Wednesday, where local residents were trying to bring the 58-year-old man back to life.

An investigation found that Robert Glick fell into the water while fishing with 2-other men.

Glick was visiting Red Lake from Highland Park, Illinois.

Discovery Center Nearing Completion

Tourism Kenora is hoping to move into its new digs in another month or so.

The finishing touches are being put on the Discovery Center on Lakeview Drive on Cameron Bay.

Tourism development officer, Heather Paterson says the building will provide more than just a tourist information office.

The two million dollar building is scheduled to open to the public by the end of June.

Rickford gets ready for news session of Parliament

MP's are back to work Thursday with the election of a new Speaker.

Kenora Conservative representative Greg Rickford is expecting a quick session.

The budget will be presented next Monday.

Rickford says the budget will set out plans for the next phase of the government's economic action plan.

Conservation Camp begins today

55 Years running and still going strong.

The Annual Dryden Conservation Course opens today with Grade 10 students from Dryden, Kenora and Southern Ontario participating.

Domtar is one of the major sponsors and Spokesperson Bonnie Skene says activities are taking place at Blue Lake Park, Aaron Park and Domtar's harvesting operation.

The course is geared towards getting kids interested in conservation and resource management.

Search for Missing Angler on Lake of the Woods Continues

A search for a missing American angler continues near Morson.

Provincial Police were back in Lake of the Woods yesterday looking for 69-year-old Richard Herman.

The Illinois man was with another fishing on the lake last Monday.

Their capsized boat and the body of a 73-year-old man were found by police the next day.