Hospital Takes Home Another Award

The Lake of the Woods District Hospital will soon need a bigger trophy case.

The hospital has won it's first ever Silver Designation Quality Healthcare Workplace Award.

Kathy Dawe is the VP of Patient Care and says the award recognizes their employee wellness program that's been in place since 2009.

Dawe says it's the first time the hospital has applied for the award.

Last month the board of directors received the Leading Governance Excellence award.

Three Days Grace and Sheepdogs Signed for Harborfest

Winter may be closing in on Kenora, but the Harborfest committee is only
thinking summer thoughts.

The first two acts for the August Long weekend festival have been booked.

Director of Entertainment Dave Blake says they have confirmed the Sheepdogs
and Three Days Grace will perform Saturday night.

Blake says the tickets will go on sale today at noon at Harborfest.ca or a
Donny B's.

Canfield Attends Norther Growth Forum

The Northern Growth Plan is going to be the focus of attention at a
meeting this morning in Timmins.

The Northern Leaders Forum will bring together cabinet ministers, municipal, business and aboriginal leaders.

Kenora mayor Dave Canfield says they are curious to see what the government has to say about the Growth Plan.

Canfield says he'd like to see more focus on forestry, because he sees that
as the big growth industry in the next year or two.

Legal Aid Lawyers Look to Organize

Legal Aid lawyers across Ontario are pressing for the right to collectively bargain with Legal Aid Ontario.

The effort start almost two years ago.

Legal aid lawyer Jillian Rogin says since then, 80 per cent of lawyers across the province has signed a petition asking the agency to voluntarily accept its wishes.

Legal Aid Ontario says there's no precedent for lawyers to be represented by what they call a trade-union, a claim disputed by Rogin.

Montreal Massacre Vigil Today

It will be a somber and chilly memorial today.

An outdoor vigil will take place at noon today to remember the 14 women killed in the Montreal Massacre 24 years ago.

Collette Surovy from Women's Place says they will be gathering near the corner of Matheson and Second Streets South.

Surovy says afterwards they will be moving over the the satellite office of the Kenora Area Health Access Center for a bite to eat and another presentation.

OSSTF targets Catholic Education System

Catholic Education would become a thing of the past if the Ontario Secondary School Teachers have their way.

The OSSTF made the suggestion in it latest public Education position paper.

President Paul Elliot says streamlining services will create more funding.

Elliot says there are studies showing that up to 2 billion dollars can be saved.

The new platform calls for an English and a French system.

Rae Speaks Out on Ring of Fire

The First Nations negotiator in the Ring of Fire mining development says it's important that the infrastructure is in place before work actually begins on the giant project.  

Speaking in Thunder Bay,  Bob Rae believes it's critical to get the system up and running to guarantee that First nations aren't led down the garden path.

Rae adds it's also important to make sure that environmental mistakes of the past aren't repeated.

Winter Farmer's Market Returns Tomorrow

Just in time for Christmas.

The Matiowski's Farmer's Market is at the Discovery Center
tomorrow.

Special Event's Coordinator Crystal Stokes says they have sold out all their
booths with a total of 30 vendors.

The Winter Market will run from 10 until 2:30.

PeeWee Thistles Host Weekend Tournament

The KMTS Peewee double A hockey tournament takes over the Rec Centre this weekend.

Kenora Thistles Captain Carter Tresoor says you have 3 round robin match ups.

Weekend passes for the tournament are 10 dollars or 5 dollars per day.

Their first game is this morning at 11:00 against Fort Frances

Broncos lose at home

A perfect road trip to Kenora for Red Lake's girls hockey team.

The Rams won both their games this week against Beaver Brae and Thomas
Aquinas.

The Broncos dropped a 7-4 decision to Red Lake yesterday at the Kenora
Rec. Center.

The Rams also be the Saints 3-0 on Wednesday.

Dryden Man Arrested in Robbery

A 26-year-old Dryden man has been arrested following a robbery at the Royal Bank around 11 o'clock this morning.

City Police say an elderly woman had withdrawn a significant amount of cash from an ATM.

The accused attempted to grab the money from her hands but the woman put up a fight.

Police say the man assaulted her and ran off with the money.

With help from witnesses, officers were able to locate the man, and place him under arrest.

Robert Chrest faces robbery charges and he will appear in court tomorrow.

Highways in Northwestern Ontario Remain Open Despite Snow

Despite all of the snow, there are no road closures in our area.

Roads are still snow packed and motorists are asked to allow for more time when travelling.

Motorists may also encounter poor visibility with blowing snow.

If you are headed east, be prepared for several highway closures.

Highway 11 between Kapuskasing and Longlac is closed as is Highway 17 east of Wawa and Highway 101 between Wawa and Chapleau.

Colorado Low Passes Through Northwestern Ontario

The worst of the Colorado Low has passed through the Kenora area.

Yoseph Mengsha is a meteorologist for Environment Canada and says
we have received about 12 centimeters of snow in the last 24 hours.

Areas to the east of Kenora like Ignace and Raith were hit by more than
20 centimeters of snow.

The Sprague area of eastern Manitoba was one of the worst hit areas with about 25 centimeters of snowfall.

Energy Minister Refuses Special Electricity Rate for the North

The province's long term energy plan continues to make waves in northwestern Ontario.

Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli is deflecting criticism over the high cost of electricity in the North.

Chiarelli was asked yesterday during a call with media if the Province would entertain a separate electricity rate for Northerners since generating electricity in the region is done fairly cheaply.

We face a 33-percent hike in our electricity rates over the next 3-years according to the new plan.

Harper and Wynne To Discuss Ring of Fire Today

After weeks of playing the blame game Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Kathleen Wynne are scheduled to sit down this afternoon to discuss the Ring of Fire.

The two sides are at an impasse over who is responsible for the massive mining development.

Wynne stated last week that she was surprised to hear the prime minister dismiss the development of the Ring of Fire as a provincial issue.

Bob Rae, the chief negotiator and counsel for the Matawa First Nations, has called on both levels of government to stop squabbling over provincial jurisdiction and create some level of certainty for businesses and First Nations.

School Buses Canceled This Morning

Almost business as normal in the Kenora area.

While there are no highway closures to report this morning,
all school buses in the region have been cancelled, including
all Kenora buses, and the bus to Sioux Narrows.

The Northwest Student Services Consortium says it has also cancelled buses in the Vermillion Bay, Dryden, Red Lake and Sioux Lookout areas this morning.

The Rat Portage School Bus has also been canceled this morning.

Even though buses are not running this morning, all schools in the Kenora area will remain open.

OPP Nab Impaired Drivers in Festive RIDE Program

The first week of the OPP's festive RIDE program has netted impaired driving charges against eight drivers, including one in the Kenora area.

Four other drivers, had their license's suspended for either 3, 7 or 30 days for registered in the warning range.

The Festive RIDE enforcement program continues until January 2.


Impaired charges by districts:

Rainy River 1
Kenora 1
Marathon 1
Nipigon 2
Thunder Bay 2
Sioux Lookout 1

Another Blast of Winter Heading Our Way

A snowfall warning is in effect today for areas to the west of Kenora.

We could see about 10 centimeters by the time the system moves through by tomorrow.

Meteorologist Dayshanelle Matthews with Environment Canada says the storm is a large low pressure system coming up from Colorado.

A snowfall warning has also been issued for the Whiteshell, Lac Du Bonnet, Pinewa and the City of Winnipeg.

Areas to the east of Kenora towards Thunder Bay are also expected to get between 15 and 20 centimeters of snow in the next 24 to 36 hours.

OPP Release Name of People Killed in Crash Near Fort Frances

Provincial Police have released the names of the two people killed in a collision on Highway 11 Monday afternoon.

Police say a westbound PT Cruiser struck an unloaded logging truck around 4:40, roughly 15-kilometers east of Fort Frances.

The driver of the car has been identified as 82-year-old David Chambers and the passenger has been identified as 75-year-old Louise Chambers.

Both of the victims were from Fort Frances.

The driver of the logging truck wasn't injured.

Police continue to investigate.

Murray Defends Winter Road Maintenance in the North

Ontario's Transportation Minister is defending winter road maintenance service in northern Ontario.

Glen Murray was asked about a recent spate of fatalities across northern Ontario on Highway 17.

Murray says they have increased the number of plows on the road and believes that will make a difference.

In the past week, there have been three fatalities on highways in the Sudbury area, one just east of Kenora on Trans-Canada and two yesterday east of Fort Frances.