Swine Flu in the Far North

The swine flu has hit First Nations communities in northwestern Ontario, with more than 100 sick on the Sandy Lake reserve.

Nurses and a doctor are distributing the antiviral drug Tamiflu to the sick.

Authorities have asked people from Sandy Lake to not travel to other First Nations communities in the region to keep the virus from spreading.

Hospital Foundation Exec Resigns

The Lake of the Woods Hospital Foundation is welcoming a new Director.

Former Sioux Narrows/Nestor Falls Economic Development Officer Megan Barr will be filling the role.

Outgoing Director Darrily Michiluk says he enjoyed his time at the helm of the foundation.

Michiluk is stepping down to further his education at the University of Toronto.

Grassy Narrows Walk

A number of members of the Grassy Narrows First Nation are scheduled to resume their mach to Ottawa today.

The walk is a continuation of a march that began on Earth Day from Grassy to Kenora.

The march in part has to do with clear-cut logging activity that hastaken place surrounding the community in recent years.

Members of the Treaty Three Coalition Group says they also will join the Grassy Narrows residents on their cross-province walk.

Forestry Pensions

The NDP's forestry critic is demanding the Federal Government protect workers pensions.
Various forest industry companies have failed to pay out severance and pension packages.

Thunder Bay Rainy River MP John Rafferty says the Conservative Government could help workers and protect their hard earned pensions.

Recently, Kenora Forest Products failed to make a payment deadline for severance packages.
Abitibi Bowater also stopped paying pensions during its time under bankruptcy court protection.

Adult Education

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board says its seen good successwith its adult education classes, after re-instating the program this year.

A total of 30 students are scheduled to graduate later this month.

Program Co-ordinator, Cyndi Cossais says they are also working withhigh schools to ensure day students also have access to the adult education courses.

Cossais says in all, they had 275 students enrolled in adult educationclasses this year in five locations within the board.

Rent Bank gets money

By: Sheri Leviski

2009-06-12

07:25:44

Northwestern Ontario's "Rent Bank" will be a little bit richer thanks to the Provincial Government.

The Kenora District Services Board received just over 18 thousand dollars for their rent bank.

Ontario Works Director Dianne Apland says the bank is for low income families.

Apland notes the recession has meant an increase in residents applying for funds from the rent bank.

Hospital Funding and Construction

 

By: Sheri Leviski

Photo courtesy of: http://www.lwdh.on.ca/  

The Provincial Government is helping the Lake of the Woods Hospital replace its aging air conditioning system.

The hospital recently received its share of the annual Hospital Infrastructure Renewal fund.

C.E.O. Marc Balcaen says they saw an increase in their funds, with 191 thousand dollars coming their way.

Balcaen notes they won't start the project until September since it will interfere with the existing cooling system. 

Meanwhile, Construction work on phase 2 of the Lake of the Woods Hospital's capital redevelopment project is almost complete.

The hospital used Provincial Government funds to install new nurse call systems, and safety alarms.

C.E.O. Marc Balcaen says its all part of a 4.9 million dollar 3 phase project.

Balcaen notes they've asked the Provincial Government to hurry up the process so they can start construction before the colder months.

Phase 3 includes replacements to the back up emergency generating system and bulk oxygen operating system.

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Child Minding Center

 

By: Tim Davidson

Photo by: www.kenora.ca

2009-06-11

05:37:59

The Kenora Rec. Center will continue to have a place for families to care for their children while using the facility.

But it will no longer be staffed.

The city cut funding for the Child Minding Center in the budget, but Recreation Manager, Colleen Neil says they want to keep the space available for families to use.

Neil says it will be free to use the space, but it will be available to rent for birthday parties or other special occasions. 

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Kenora's Heritage Properties

 

By: Sheri Leviski

2009-06-11

05:36:40 

The City of Kenora's Heritage Committee wants several buildings added to the municipal registry of cultural heritage properties.

The Best Western Lakeside Inn, Keewatin Memorial Building, Moncrief Barn and Del Art Manor are just some of the area properties that are steaped in local history.

Chair Laurie Nelson says they look at the buildings that are on the property.

Nelson notes properties on the registry are not subject to any construction rules or regulations.

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KPDSB OSSLT Results

 

By: Sheri Leviski

2009-06-10

11:36:33

The Ontario Secondary School Literacy test results are in, and the Keewatin Patricia District School board scored just below the Provincial Average.

The public board saw a 3 percent decrease in their OSSLT test success rate.

Director of Education Larry Hope says their board wide score was 72 percent.

Beaver Brae came in at 73 percent, while Dryden improved their score at 80 percent.

The most drastic decrease in OSSLT results was in Ignace, with their marks going from 89 to 33 percent.

Meanwhile, the Kenora Catholic District School Board scored just 10 percent below the Provincial OSSLT average.

75 percent of St. Thomas Aquinas students were succesful with their first attempt at the literacy test.

The board's average dropped this year from 86 percent in 2008, to this year's 75.

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Rafferty on Forestry

 

Story By: Sheri Leviski

Photo By: www.thunderbayrainyriver.ca

2009-06-10

07:17:25

Thunder Bay Rainy River MP John Rafferty says the Conservative Government is doing nothing to help the ailing forest industry.

The NDP MP says the Harper/Rickford partnership has provided no real solutions to stemming the region's mill closures.

Rafferty was a guest speaker at the Ontario Federation of Labour's "Drive To Work Caravan", a Province-wide tour to find out how the resession is affecting Ontario workers.

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Taxi By Law

 

By: Tim Davidson

2009-06-10

07:16:24

The City of Kenora is considering some changes to its Taxi Law.

Local cab companies have been lobbying to allow older vehicles on the road.

Eric Lovas from Co-Ot Taxi says having a 10 year old vehicle on the road doesn't necessarily mean its unsafe.

Council has agreed to increase the age of taxis on the road from a maximum of six years, up to 10 years, as requested by local cab companies. 

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Visitor Ban at Hospital

 

Photo by www.ontariotowns.net

Story By: Tim Davidson

2009-06-10

07:15:36

A stubborn respiratory illness has forced Lake of the Woods District Hospital to close the facility to all visitors.

Leslie Brown is the head of patient care and says they decided to impose the visitor ban Tuesday afternoon because the illness seems to be spreading.

Birchwood Terrace Nursing Home has also closed its doors to visitors due to the respiratory illness.

Brown says they don't known when they might be able to lift the visitor ban.

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Redditt Gets Money

 

By: Tim Davidson

2009-06-10

05:52:14

Redditt is getting extra funding from the federal government to help out with its community water project.

The community has been promised another 121 thousand dollars from the federal government to install a membrane filtration system.

Jack Martin is chair of the Redditt Services Board and says the community has been working hard to get the project off the ground.

The total project will cost about 270 thousand dollars.

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City Potholes

 

By: Tim Davidson

2009-06-09

12:11:39

The cool, damp weather this spring has been playing havoc with the city's roads.

Operations manager Rick Perchuck says pot holes has been particularly bad.

He says one of the options they are looking at is a new truck, that fills potholes more efficiently.

Perchuck says the trucks tend to do a much better job of filling potholes.

At this point, he says they are looking at leasing a truck rather than buying one.

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School Board Review

 

By: Tim Davidson

Photo by: www.kpdsb.on.ca  

2009-06-09

12:11:04 

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is planning to conduct of review of its elementary schools in the City of Kenora.

Director of Education, Larry Hope says declining enrolment means that a number of schools are being underutilized.

He says the review doesn't necessarily mean the closing of any schools in the city.

Hope says it currently costs the school board about 300 thousand dollars more than it gets from the province in grants to operate the elementary schools in Kenora.

The review is scheduled to be complete by April of 2010.

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School Board Budget

 

By: Tim Davidson

Image by: www.kpdsb.on.ca

2009-06-09

12:10:02 

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is looking at a big increase in its budget this year.

Trustees were presented the draft budget last night, which included 96.7 million dollars in spending.

Superintendant of Business, Dean Carrie says that's an increase from this years budget, which was projected at 89.8 million.

Carrie adds that due to a projected drop in enrolment next year, they had to cut about 900 thousand dollars in spending from the budget to ensure that it was balanced. 

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Drive to Work Caravan Kicks off in Kenora

 

By: Sheri Leviski

2009-06-08

12:21:18

The Ontario Federation of Labour is standing up for Ontario's workers.

The OFL kicked off its Drive to Work Caravan this morning in Kenora.

President Wayne Samuelson says they intend to demand the Premier take action to protect workers pensions, benefits and severance pay.

The OFL's caravan will be making stops in Dryden and Fort Frances later today.

The caravan will arrive in Toronto on June 25th.

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Kenora Assault

By: Tim Davidson

2009-06-08

05:34:49

The OPP have arrested a suspect in connection to an assault in Memorial Park in downtown Kenora.

The assault took place late last Thursday evening.

Police say the victim was taken to the Winnipeg Health Science Center for treatment of what were believed to be life-threatening injuries.

He is now reported to be in stable condition.

The OPP's Northwest Regional Crime Unit was brought in and a 28 year old Sioux Lookout man has been charged with aggravated assault.

Joseph William Wesley is currently in custody at the Kenora Jail is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.

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Kenora Man Charged

By: Tim Davidson

2009-06-08

05:26:57

A 25 year old Kenora man is facing a number of charges after a motor vehicle collision on Valley Drive.

On Thursday, Kenora OPP and Kenora Police were advised that someone was driving erratically and had hit a tree.

Police found the vehicle still running against the tree, and were advised by witnesses a number of males had fled on foot.

Two of the males were located shortly after and it was determined that while fleeing from the scene, one of the men assaulted a citizen walking his dog.

The investigation is continuing.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Kenora OPP or Crimestoppers.

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