Community Foundation Ready To Launch Fundraising Challenge

10 thousand dollars in 10 hours.

That's the fundraising goal of the Kenora and Lake of the Woods Regional Community Foundation this month.

Darlene McGillvray is the executive director and says they will be trying to raise the month on May 30th as part of their 10th anniversary celebrations.

The 10 hour challenge will be held at both the Copperfin Credit Union and Lake of the Woods Brewing Company.

Dryden Residents Pushing For Zero Tax Increase

The City of Dryden is out with its 2014 budget.

The 25.3-million dollar budget follows 4-million dollars in savings found by staff, including 900-thousand dollars in department cost savings.

Chief Administrative Officer Andre Larabie says they did their best to reduce operating costs.

However, residents attending a public meeting last night demanded Larabie to go back to the table and find more savings.

They were quite vocal on a zero percent increase.

Justice Murray Sinclair To Speak At Seven Generations

The chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is making a return
appearance in Kenora.

Justice Murray Sinclair will be the keynote speaker this evening at Seven Generations
in the gymnasium in the old Lakewood School.

The Museum is reprising it's exhibit We Were Taught Differently, about the
aboriginal experience in the residential school system.

Sinclair will  be making his address at 7:00 this evening.

Kenora Drug Unit Arrests Two Men

A couple of Kenora men face drug charges following an investigation by the Community Drug Action Team and the Kenora Drug Unit.

Police say they witnessed what looked to be a drug transaction on Monday.

The OPP say a small amount of hydromorphone pills were seized.

25 year old Harley McLeod has been charged with trafficking a controlled sustance and possesion of property obtained by crime under five thousand dollars.

He's being held pending a bail hearing.

A 54 year old man faces a charge of possession of a controlled substance and breach of probation.

TSB Looks Into Red Lake Airport Accident

The Transportation Safety Board says no further action will be taken after a scary incident in Red Lake.

A Sky Care aircraft belly-landed at the Red Lake Airport last Friday.

Reports say 9 residents of Pikangikum were on board.

A letter from the First Nations community indicates that one person was transported to hospital, while another one suffered a knee injury.

The letter also indicates a lack of response from emergency personnel and states no one attended to the passengers to see if they were all right.

The TSB says the incident was reported and investigators have taken a look at the matter.

Highway 17 Near Wawa Closed

Long distance drivers take note.  

Highway 17,  18 kilometres south of Wawa remains closed.  It's so road repair work can take place.

OPP say traffic is being detoured on to Highway's 101 and 129 and they advise that long distance truck traffic may wish to take Highway 11 from North Bay to Nipigon.

The Highway should reopen today.

The Names of Weekend Accident Victims Released

The OPP have released the names of two men killed in a collision on Highway 17 east between Kenora and Dryden.

37 year old Adrian Chapados of Saskatchewan was the driver of a Ford Mustang and was pronounced dead at the scene.

18 year old Frisco McRae of Quebec was taken by ambulence to hospital in Dryden, but later died from his injuries.

The accident took place near Eagle River shortly after 6:00 Sunday morning and closed that section of the
Trans-Canada for much of the day.

The occupants of the semi were not injured and the OPP say no charges have been laid.

No Clear Cut Winner in Northern Leaders Debate

Just who won Monday's northern ontario leaders debate?

Liberal Kathleen Wynne and NDP Andrea Horwath went head to head on a number of issues.

Lakehead University Professor Laure Paquette says to her there wasn't a clear winner.

Paquette adds that the NDP's Andrea Horwath had more reason to go after the Liberals since she had to show how different their platforms are.

Mosquito Season Just Around the Corner

Don't look now, but the onslaught of mosquitoes is about to begin.  

Ken Deacon is a regional insect expert, and says we should start noticing them any day now.

He says the wet spring means there is more standing water, which is an excellent breeding
ground for mosquitoes.

Deacon says to expect some great big mosquitoes to show themselves by the weekend.

Meantime, Deacon says West Nile virus shouldn't be a problem since the species of mosquito that spreads the disease isn't common here

Saints Soccer Teams Win Gold

A pair of gold medals for Thomas Aquinas soccer teams.

The Saints girls continued their offensive on-slaught in a 4-1 win over Rainy River.

T.A. scored 13 goals in the two NorWOSSA play-off games they played this week.

They now head to Terrace Bay for the NWOSSA finals this weekend.

Meanwhile, the Thomas Aquinas boys eked out a 1-0 win over Sioux Lookout.

Ben Dennis scored late in the game to earn T.A. another trip to the NWOSSA Finals.

The Saints will host Manitouadge in a best-of-three affair starting Friday.

Meanwhile, the NorWOSSA double "a" soccer championships take place at the Tom Nabb Soccer

Complex today.

Beaver Brae's boys and girls teams will play Dryden in Semi-final action starting at 10:00 this morning.

The winner of those games will move on to play Fort Frances for Gold this afternoon.  

Do One Thing Conference Underway

The CEO of the Northwestern Health Unit has officially opened the Do On Thing Conference.

In his opening remarks Mark Perrault says health is not accomplished by 1 single entity.

Perrault notes the 3 themes of the conference are healthy communities, healthy workplaces, and the importance of partnerships.

Board of Health Chair Julie Roy noted that health is the culmination of environment, lifestyle choices, policies, and systems.

She also noted her excitement to build on partnerships during the 3 days conference.

Moncrief Getting Ready To Start Downtown Revitalization

You might start noticing some new street signs around Kenora today.

The city is preparing to direct traffic around downtown with Phase III of Downtown Revitalization set to begin next week.

This morning crews were out erecting road closure and detours signs around the city.

Parts of Second Street South, which is part of the main Trans-Canada route through the city, will be closed during construction.

The 4.7 million dollar project is scheduled to start on Monday.

Canfield Pleased With Northern Leaders Debate

Not alot of content, but words the president of Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association wanted to hear.

That from Dave Canfield after the debate.

In an interview with Net Newsledger, Canfield says there was a willingness from both leaders to work with northern Ontario.

Canfield says he will also hold the leaders to their word after the election.

Northern Heritage To Run Three Candidates for June 12th Vote

The party pushing for northern Ontario become it's own province is running three candidates in the provincial election.

Leader and founder of the Northern Ontario Heritage Party Edward Deibel is running in Thunder Bay-Atikokan.

Association president Paul Sloan is running in Thunder Bay-Superior North.

The party says it has a registered riding association for Kenora-Rainy River, but no candidate for this election.

KWG Suggests Help For Ring of Fire

KWG Resources is demanding a new provincial government should turn Ontario Northland into a transporation authority, similar to port and airport authorities in the province.

Spokesperson Frank Smeenk says it would help to raise money for capital projects in the Ring Of Fire, in which his company has a stake.

Smeenk says the new role for Ontario Northland would only require a change in the legislation.

Treaty Three Holds Spring Assembly This Week

The Grand Chief of Treaty 3 is preparing for the annual spring assembly.

Warren White says they assembly covers topics such as health care and child welfare.

White says unfortunately they won't have any provincial representatives attending.

He notes Kenora MP Greg Rickford and Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt have not responded to their invitations.

Dryden City Council Finally Ready To Release Budget Details

The City of Dryden will take the wraps off the 2014 capital and operating budget tonight.

A public meeting is being held at the Royal Canadian Legion at 7 o'clock.

Chief Administrative Officer Andre Larabie says they didn't move forward with all of the cuts suggested by consulting firm KPMG.

He says the cost of the severance packages would have just been too high.

Larabie notes details on severance packages issued to impacted staff will also be released.

Unifor Ratifies Deal with Resolute

The first collective agreement between Unifor and Resolute Forest Products has been ratified.

The new four-year agreement covers approximately two thousand
unionized workers at eleven of the company's mills in Ontario and Quebec.

The deal sets the pattern for negotiations with as many as eight thousand workers with other forest companies in eastern Canada.

Kowalik/Carpenter Bronco Athletes of the Year

Beaver Brae honored it's top athletes last night at the annual Bronco Athletic Awards Banquet.

Kyle Kowalik was named the male athlete of the year and says it's the culmination of years of hard work and fun.

Kowalik was also named boys curling MVP and won the Pete Fair Award for football.

Tyanna Carpenter was named the Broncos female athlete of the year.

Carpenter was also named the senior girls basketball MVP.

Other award winners last night were Halle Stasiuk with the Pete Fair Spirit Award, Lisa Ressing with the Diana Clark Award and Taylor Alcock with the Riel Tucker Award.

Saints Advance to NorWOSSA Soccer Finals

Both Thomas Aquinas boys and girls soccer teams are easily into today's NorWOSSA finals.

Yesterday, the Saints girls cruised to a 9-1 win over Red Lake to advance to the final.

Kiera Riel led the offense with four goals.

T.A. will now face Rainy River in the today's gold medal game at noon.

Meanwhile, the Thomas Aquinas boys earned a 3-1 win over the Rams setting up
a final against Sioux Lookout.

Aiden Tayor scored a pair of goals for T.A. in the victory.

The boys gold medal game goes at 10 this morning in Red Lake.