Beaver Brae Evacuated due to a small fire

A fire drill at Beaver Brae Secondary School proved to be the real deal.

Staff and students were evacuated this morning due to a small blaze at the high school this morning.

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board says the fire was quickly extinguished  and damage is said to be minimal.

Classes have been cancelled for the rest of the day to allow the smoke to be fully ventilated from the school.

The public school board says it has sent a number of buses to the school to take students home.

The Board says all other school bus transportation will operate as usual this afternoon.

Census Forms Being Distributed this Week

Local residents should begin receiving their census forms this week.

Statistics Canada has begun the census process and has enumerators going door to door in the Kenora area.

Gary Dillion is the regional co-ordinator for Stats Can and says its important for all households to fill out the census form.

While every household is required to fill out the 10 question mandatory short form census, only one in three households will be given a long form survey.

Good Turn-Out for the Federal Election

It may have been the fourth federal election in seven years, but that didn't stop local residents from coming out in pretty good numbers.

With 154 out of 155 polls reporting, the voter turn-out for yesterday's federal election was just over 60 percent.

That means almost 25 thousand people came out to cast their ballots.

Incumbant Conservative M.P. Greg Rickford held onto the riding, increasing his margin of victory, by over two thousand votes.

Rickford re-elected easily in the Kenora Riding

Its wasn't a landslide, but it was a convincing win for the Conservatives in the Kenora Riding.

Incumbant M.P. Greg Rickford easily held onto the riding with a 45 hundred vote margin of victory over Tania Cameron of the NDP.

Rickford says while he's pleased there will be a Conservative majority government in the House of Commons, he won't speculate on what his role might be.

Roger Valley slipped to third place in the polls yesterday and says the party is going to have to take a close hard look at the results not only in this riding but nationally as well.

The other two candidates finished well back, with the Green Party Candidate, Mike Schwindt garnering just 2.6 percent of the vote, while Independant candidate collected just 146 of the almost 25 thousand votes cast.

Ministry of Labor Investigates Fatality in Stratton

The Ministry of Labour is looking into the death of a man at a garage in Stratton what OPP describe as a workplace accident.

Emergency personnel were called to Stratton Service Thursday afternoon where they found 42-year-old Shawn McDonald inside unresponsive.

He was later pronounced dead at the scene.

A post-mortem exam was conducted on Friday at Lake of the Woods District Hospital.

Canfield back as Vice-President of NOMA

No major announcements for Kenora at the annual Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association Conference in Thunder Bay.

The convention wrapped up on Saturday and Kenora mayor Dave Canfield was acclaimed again as vice-president of NOMA.

Canfield also hosted a forum on the forest industry and says they did get some clarification on what's  going on with the Forest Tenure Act.

Canfield adds that both the resolutions submitted by the City of Kenora, one dealing with funding for roads and bridges and the other dealing with the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway from Kenora to the Manitoba Border, were unanimously approved by the delegates.

Training Funding Announced by the Province

83 sites in Northern Ontario will be offering literacy training thanks to the Provincial Government.

Minister of Training and Colleges John Milloy says they'll be offering basic skills training.

Two million dollars will go towards local programs.

Milloy made the announcement at the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association Conference.

Rickford back as MP for the Kenora Riding

Conservative Greg Rickford is back as MP of the Kenora Riding.

Rickford finished the election in first with about 45 percent of the vote, while NDP  candidate Tania Cameron second and Liberal Roger Valley third.

Despite some mud slinging in the campaign, Rickford says he decided to take the high road.

Like his party, Liberal Roger Valley finished in third place, and he admits they are going to have to take a hard look at what went wrong this election.

Green Party Candidate Mike Schwindt was a distant fourth place with just over
two percent of the vote, while Kelvin Chicago-Boucher collected less than 200 votes.

To the east, John Rafferty of the NDP was re-elected in Thunder Bay-Rainy River.

Bruce Hyer of the NDP is also back in the riding of Thunder Bay-Superior North.

LOWDPOA Holds Annual General Meeting Today

It may be election day across Canada, but the Lake of the Woods District Property Owners Association is also taking time to meet with its members.

The Property Owners Association is holding its 49th annual general meeting in Winnipeg.

In addition to the AGM, their annual cottage show is being held at the Victoria Inn.

A number of businesses and agencies from Kenora area attending the afternoon and evening event.

It runs from 2:30 to 8:30 this evening.

Polls open today

It should be a good day, weather wise to go out and cast your ballot.

Today is election day across Canada, with the polls opening at 8:30 this morning right across the Kenora Riding.

Gerry Oulette is the returning officer and says polling stations will be open right across the region.

The polls will close at 8:30 this evening, and CJRL will be providing live election coverage starting at 9:00 this evening.

Another OPP Drug Bust

Two Kenora residents face charges following a bust by the OPP.

Last Thursday, members of the OPP Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau, the Drug Enforcement Unit, assisted by Kenora Detachment Street Crimes Unit  executed a search warrant on a 12 Street north residence.

Police seized about 50 grams of marijuana.

42 year old Darren Coughlin and 42 year old Lori Powell have been charged with possession of narcotic for the purpose of trafficking.

They are scheduled to make an appearance in Kenora Court in June.

Atikokan Approves 2011 budget

Atikokan town councillors have finalized a budget that will include a 2-point-four per cent tax increase.

Mayor Dennis Brown says it amounts to about a 30 dollar increase to the average homeowner's tax bill.

The township will spend just over 8-million dollars over the next year.

Two more wood agreements accepted

Two more companies in northwestern Ontario have accepted wood supply offers from the provincial government.

Domtar will use its wood supply for full-time softwood pulp production at its mill in Dryden.

Wagner Forest Management Limited has indicated that it will use its wood fiber to build a pellet manufacturing plant in Ignace.

The business is expected to be up and running by October of 2013 and employ 20 new jobs.

Future of Biomass Research in Limbo

There's no committment from Michael Gravelle for future funding for a biomass research centre in northwestern Ontario.

The centre received 25 million dollars three years ago, but the forestry minister is reluctant to talk about additional dollars.

To this point the centre's website lists only one publicly approved project but is promising to announce 5 more.

Evergreen Closing Delayed for one year

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board says its still plans to close Evergreen School, they are just going to take a bit longer to do it.

Trustees held a special board meeting last week and agreed to extend the life of the elementary school by one year.

Evergreen is now scheduled to shut its doors for good at the end of the 2012 school year, instead of this year.

The public school board says it made the decision after conducting a survey of parents at the school.

Students at Evergreen will be transferred over to Lakewood in the fall of 20102.

New Report Raises Questions about FedNOR

A report says FedNor, the federal development agency for northern Ontario, is slow to approve projects and fails to measure its long-term effectiveness.

The study by an independent consultant in Winnipeg says it takes an average of six months to get a green light on a project.

The Industry Canada program has spent at least 150 million dollars in the region since 2006.

Prairie Research Associates found that every job created or maintained under the program cost taxpayers about 52-hundred dollars.

The analysis also shows the administration of the program eats up more than one of every five dollars spent.

OFIA Continues to Lobby Against Bill 151

The Ontario Forest Industries Association is once again expressing disappointment with the McGuinty Government and its handling of the Forest Tenure Reform Bill.

Spokesperson Scott Jackson says they've attended all of the hearings and have gone through all written submissions and no one is happy with Bill 151 in its current state.

The Government has filed a time allocation motion that would fast track Bill 151 through the Standing Committee and eliminate debate during Committee meetings.

Kenora Rockets win Four Gold at year end tournament

A good way to wrap up the season for the Kenora Rockets badminton team.

They held a wind up tournament up at Beaver Brae on Saturday and claimed 16 of the 21 medals up for grabs.

Andrew Neil was the only double gold medalist, teaming up with Logan Ginn to

win the boys doubles event, and then took top honors in the Singles "B" division.

Boe and Rhianna Rodgers won the mixed doubles competition, while Tanner

Olson was first in the Singles E division.

Scribilo Sworn in as NOACC President

The Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce has a new president.

Andy Scribilo, president of the Kenora and District Chamber of Commerce was sworn in last night.

Scribilo says he's looking forward to the challenge.

Barry Streib is the outgoing president of NOACC.

NOACC Drafts Five Resolutions

A total of five resolutions were approved by the Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce during yesterday's afternoon session.

The resolutions dealt with a wide range of issues, including Bill 151, the Forest Tenure Act, to urging the provincial government to move ahead with the twinning of the section of the Trans-Canada Highway from Thunder Bay to Nipigon.

The resolutions will now be forwarded to the Ontario Chambers of Commerce for debate later this year.