City Council Ready to Take the Wraps off the 2011 Budget

Kenora City Council will be taking the wraps on the 2011 municipal budget.

A public meeting is being held this afternoon to go over the fine print in this year's fiscal document.

Council has been meeting over the past few months to try and whittle down both the operating and capital budgets.

The budget meeting will take place at 2:30 this afternoon prior to the committee of the whole meeting.

The actual budget won't officially be passed until next week.

Hospital Hoping for Funding increase in 2011

Lake of the Woods District Hospital says it still isn't sure exactly how much money it will have to work with in the 2011 fiscal year.

The provincial government promised a 1.5 percent increase in health care spending this year.

But CEO of the Hospital, Marc Belcaen says there are indications that the funding will be tied to performance related data.

Last year, the hospital had a budget of about 45 million dollars.

Allan Cup Ready to Roll

Two years of planning comes to fruition this week with the Allan Cup tournament taking center stage in town.

The week long event gets underway this afternoon with the first game at the Thistle Rink.

Judy Bain is chair of the Allan Cup Committee and says they are pleased with ticket sales so far.

Bain says their goal is to basically even, but expects they should be able to post a small surplus.

LOWBIC Lending up in 2010

The Lake of the Woods Business Incentive Corporation has a profitable year in terms of small business loans.

LOWBIC held its annual general meeting on Friday and its balance sheet showed about 1.2 million dollars lent out to 12 businesses in 2010.

Ryan Reynard is the Executive Director of LOWBIC and says there is some optimism in the tourism sector, despite a downturn in that industry in recent years.

LOWBIC says it also offered one on one, in-depth business councilling to 167 clients last year.

Hospital Bed Shortage Continues

Lake of the Woods District Hospital is seeking another two week extension to its 1-A crisis status.

The status gives patients in alternate level of care the first shot at a long term care bed when one opens up at either Pinecrest or Birchwood.

Director of Patient Care Leslie Brown says they currently have 16 patients waiting for long term care beds, which is the same, when the 1-A status was approved by the Northwest Local Health Integratin Network one month ago.

She says the 1-A status is due to expire on April 11th, but they are hoping to extend it beyond the Easter Long weekend.

Hospital CEO Marc Belcaen adds that they still haven't heard any word as to if or when Pinecrest will be able to open up 10 interim long term care beds.

Canadian Military Plans Forest Fire Training Exercise

The Ministry of Natural Resources is working with the Canadian Military in a 7-day firefighting training excercise.

About 100-military personnel and helicopters will be participating with MNR waterbombers, helicopters and firefighters.

Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Hill says the Military needs to fine-tune their policies in the event of an emergency.

'Trillium Response' will take place in Bon Echo Park near Trenton the first week of May.

Hill was one of the keynote speakers at the Northwest Response Forum in Dryden.

Teams gearing up for Allan Cup

All the teams in this weeks Allan Cup have arrive in town and are getting ready to start play today.

The round-robin begins this afternoon, with Fort Frances taking  on the South East Prairie Thunder from Steinbach.

Tonight's feature game has the host Kenora Thistles taking on the Ontario champs, the Dundas Real McCoys.

Thistles Fordward, Jeff Richards says even though they don't know much about these teams, their game plan is pretty straight forward.

The Opening Ceremonies take place at 7:30 this evening, with the puck drop in the Thistle Game at 8:00.

The other game between Fort and Southeast will start at 2:00.

OCN wins 22nd Annual NAFN Tournament

The OCN Penguins proved to be the team to beat at the 22nd annual North American First Nations tournament of Champions.

The Penguins cruised to the A-Side final and easily dispatched Norway House 8-2 in last night last in the championship game.

OCN also claimed the first prize money of 20 thousand dollars.

In the B-Side final, Shoal Lake edged the Whitedog Falcons 3-2.

In the old timers tournament, Rat Portage reclaimed the title with an easy 11-3 victory over Whitedog.

Hospital moving towards a year-end surplus

Lake of the Woods District Hospital is still in the black with just one month left in its fiscal year.

The hospital was running a surplus of 204 thousand dollars through the first 11 months of the 2010/2011 fiscal year.

Chief Executive Officer Marc Belcaen says they still expect to have a very small surplus

once all their bills are paid this year.

He adds that a freeze on travel and education for the hospital staff this year, helped keep

them in the black.

Common Ground Story Sharing this weekend

The 6th annual Common Ground Story Sharing Celebration will take place this weekend.

A number of new stories about the Lake of the Woods area will be presented during the day long event.

Barb Manson is one of the organizers and says they never seem to have a shortage of stories to share.

Manson says there are still a few tickets left for Common Ground, which will run from 9:00 to 3:30 tomorrow at the Best Western Lakeside Inn.

Grassy Narrows and Province sign Memorandum

Ontario continues to work with the Grassy Narrows First Nation towards a logging agreement in the Whiskey Jack forest north of  Kenora.

Minister of Natural Resources Linda Jeffrey signed an agreement with Chief Simon Fobister in Thunder Bay yesterday.

Jeffrey says they'll work on creating sustainable forest practices with the first nation.

Chief Simon Fobister says the agreement is a step in the right direction but notes they will not dismantle their blockade.

Children`s Aid Merger in Kenora and Rainy River ready to proceed

Kenora Patricia Child and Family Services says it has received assurances from the provincial government that it will cover the costs of the merger with Family and Children's Services of Rainy River.

Bill Leonard is the executive director of the new child care agency and says they were supposed to join forces last week, but they were waiting for word from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services that it would cover the costs of the amalgamation.

Leonard says transition costs were about 180 thousand dollars.

The merger of the two child care agencies is expected to take another six to eight weeks to complete.

Hospital Board Chair resigns

The chair of the Lake of the Woods Hospital Board is calling it quits.

Debbie Baldwin is moving out of the community and tendered her resignation to the board last night.

Marc Belcaen is the hospital's chief executive officer and says they will have to shuffle their board duties, with

vice-chair, Fred Richardson taking over as chair on an interim basis. 

Richardson says the board will have to decide whether to fill the vice-chair's job for the next two months, or leave the position vacant until the annual general meeting in June.

Envirothon takes place today at Blue Lake

High School students from Kenora and Dryden are putting their environmental smarts to the test today for the first ever Envirothon Regional Competition.

Environmental Curriculum coordinator for the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board, Kathy Boone says teams of 5 will take part in various challenges.

Boone says the 15-participating teams will have to be experts in forestry, aquatics, wildlife, soils and salt water.

10 of the teams will be from Beaver Brae, the other from Dryden High School.

Envirothon is being held at Blue Lake Provincial Park in Vermilion Bay.

More calls for the Far North Act Hearings to be moved out of Toronto

The McGuinty government is being called out of touch, arrogant and uncaring about the north.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath is still hounding the government over it's refusal to hold forest tenure committee hearings outside of Toronto.

Horwath predicts however, the government won't change it's mind about the issue

The Real McCoys the final team to Qualify for the Allan Cup

The Dundas Real McCoys will be making their four straight appearance at the Allan Cup this year.

Dundas won the Ontario men's senior championship last night with a 8-5 victory

over the Norwood Vipers in the seventh and deciding game of their series last night.

The Real McCoys are the last of the six teams to qualify for next week's national championships.

Dominion Curling Club Playdowns start today

Lori Hoppe's Kenora Foursome will be in action today at the Dominion Curling Club Playdowns in Sault Ste. Marie.

The Kenora rink is one of six competing at the Northern Championships.

The Kenora foursome will take on Kakebecka Falls at 1:30 this afternoon in their first game.

Grassy Narrows to meet with Minister of MNR on forestry issues

After years of negotiations, it looks as if an end in the impasse between the Grassy Narrows First Nation and the provincial government over forest activity in their Traditional Land Use Area could be coming to an end.

A press conference is scheduled this morning in Thunder Bay with Natural Resources Minister Linda Jeffray and Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister.

A press release issued by the MNR only says the two sides will discuss plans to move forward on forestry talks.

Former Supreme Court Justice, Frank Iacabucci will also be on hand.

He was hired by the province to help find a resolution to the impasse over

harvesting rights in the Grassy Traditional Land Use Area.

Police Use Spike Belt to Stop Pick-Up

A 33 year old Calgary man faces dangerous driving charges after a short police chase.

The OPP say officers tried to pull over a vehicle last night around 7:00 for speeding, but the driver refused to pull over.

A spike belt was deployed on Highway 17 east near Transmitter Road and a pick-up truck was finally forced off the road.

Police say the driver was taken to hospital for treatment of minor abrasions and was released a short time later.

Robert Reid remains in custody while the OPP continue to investigate the incident.

Voter Cards for May 2nd Election in the Mail

Voting cards for the May 2nd federal election should start showing up in local mail boxes over the next couple of days.

The returning office in Kenora began mailing out the cards last night.

Gerry Oulette is the returning officer and says while the vote is still four weeks away, local residents will be able to cast their ballot at three advance polls.

Oulette says local residents can also drop by the returning offices in Kenora and Dryden at any time to vote using a special ballot.