NOSM Hosts European Dignitaries

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine is hosting an international recruitment conference tomorrow.

Dean Dr. Roger Strasser says northern European countries are coming to Thunder Bay to learn how to attract health care professionals to under serviced areas.

Strasser says later in the afternoon they'll listen to the delegates from the European nations on what they're doing to attract Doctors.

Resolute Set For Paper Machine Shutdown

The last operating paper machine at Resolute Forest Products mill in Fort Frances will go silent at the end of the month.

The company says paper machine number 5 will stop running January 31st because of poor market conditions.

Spokesperson Xavier Van Chau says it's not certain when or if the machine will run again.

About 150 employees will be impacted, leaving about 60 other workers to manage operations afterwards.

OPP Offer Ice Hut Drinking Reminder

Provincial Police are reminding folks that it's illegal to drink booze in an ice shack.

Police say they know it's happening and add they have received several complaints.

Constable Erin Huckell says their main concern is drinking and driving.

Anyone caught drinking alcohol in an ice hut could be hit with a fine.

Huckell says officers will be patrolling area ice roads.

Council Enters Final Year of Four Year Term

It's the beginning of the end for Kenora City Council.

This edition of council begins it's fourth and final year of the
current term today.

The first committee of the whole meeting of 2014 is just getting
underway.

A new council will be elected in October.

So far, only one person has entered the council race.

Kelvin Chicago-Boucher, who ran in the last federal election as an independent, filed his nomination papers last week.

CUPE Challenges School Board to Accept Contract

The Canadian Union of Public Employees is calling on opposition parties at Queen's Park to reject new legislation being fast-tracked by the provincial government.

Fred Hahn is president of CUPE Ontario and says Bill 122 would allow the government to collectively bargain for all school boards across the province.

Hahn says the government still hasn't honored legislation it drafted last year dealing with school support workers.

Hahn says the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is one of 12 across the province that hasn't signed onto a collective agreement reached last year with CUPE.

BIZ Bullish On Shop Local Campaign

A shop local campaign launched just before Christmas seems to have paid dividends for local business.

The Harbortown Business Improvement Zone says it's pleased with it's
Black Friday promotion.

Mort Goss is chair of BIZ and says they'd like to carry out similar campaigns during special events in 2014.

Goss says they are looking at tax free shopping events attached to events
like the Winter Carnival, Canada Day and Harborfest.

Northwestern Ontario Skater Heading to Olympics

Balmertown's Eric Radford is headed to the Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

Radford, who trained briefly in Kenora and his partner Meagan Duhamel have been named to the Canadian Figure Skating team.

The pair defended their title and won the pairs competition at the Canadian nationals over the weekend in Ottawa.

Radford says it's a dream come true.

The pairs short program is set for February 11th, with the free skate taking place the next day.

OPP Investigate Break and Enters

The Kenora OPP are investigating 2 break and enters in the city.

Police say both incidents occurred yesterday morning.

The first incident occurred Sunday morning around 9:00 in a garage in the Lakeside area.

Some small items were taken from the garage and the vehicle located inside.

About 2 hours alter police responded to an office building on Main Street.

The suspects in that incident made off with a digital camera.

Anyone with information is asked to call the OPP 807-548-4004 or Crimestoppers 888-222-8477.

KPDSB Fined $12,000

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board has been hit with a hefty fine for violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The public school board has been fined $12,000 for drinking water issues at the schools in Upsala and Savant Lake.

The Ministry of the Environment says the school board failed to ensure water treatment equipment was used when water was being supplied to the school in Upsala.

The board also was cited for failing to ensure the drinking water system was operated by trained, certified personnel.

In Savant Lake the MOE says the school board failed to immediately report an adverse water test.

The Keewatin-Patricia District School Board has been given 30 days to pay the fines, which includes a three thousand dollar victim surcharge fee.

MNR Issue Large Fine at Local Lodge

11-people have pleaded guilty to a total of 68-charges and fined $72,500 for offences that took place at Andy Myers Lodge, on Eagle Lake, west of Dryden.

The charges stem from a two-year convert investigation in cooperation with the Ministry of Natural Resources, United States Fish and Wildlife Services, the departments of Natural Resources for Wisconsin, Michigan, New York and Minnesota as well as the New Zealand Commission of Wildlife.

Conservation officers discovered that Steve Herbeck, a former owner and operator of Andy Myers, and his staff encouraged clients to hunt wolves without a licence.

Court heard that staff then used their own resident licences to validate the wolf or arranged for guests to buy licences afterward.

He also allowed guests to fish without a licence and use more than the allowable amount of fishing rods.

Herbeck was fined $7,500 and his business was fined $27,000 for 22-offences.
He's not allowed to hunt in Ontario for ten years.

Six lodge employees have also been fined.

Danny Herbeck and Chris Federman were fined $7,000 each and can't hunt for the next four and eight years respectively.

The other employees charged were Andy Bouchard of Waldhof, Calum Rutchie of Waldhof, Tammy Pelletier of Waldhof and Scott Munford of Vermilion Bay.

Three lodge guests from Wisconsin, New York and New Zealand were also charged for various offences. (George Lindsay, Travis Runde and Don Rabideau Jr.)

Kenora Rinks Heading Provincial Bantam Championships

A Kenora boys curling team has earned a berth to the Tim Horton's Ontario Bantam championships in Sault Ste. Marie.

The Jarron Hoppe foursome was one of two teams added to the provincials championships taking place at the end of this month.

Hoppe beat Jory King from Sioux Lookout 10-3 in the final of three games played in Stratton over the weekend.

The teams split their first two games against each
other, with Hoppe taking the third and deciding  game.

Downtown Businesses Complain About Snow Removal

Some business owners in Kenora are complaining about the size of snow banks in the downtown area.

The issue of snow removal came up at the Kenora Business Improvement Zone meeting this week.

Some businesses on Second Street South say it takes far too long for the snow banks to be removed.

While snow removal has been fairly timely on Main Street, other areas tend to lag behind.

A city spokesperson says with all the snow this year, it's been difficult to do very much snow removal.

Most of the city resources these days have been put towards plowing city streets, and road crews can
only get to the snow banks, once all the roads are cleared.

Health Unit Launches Choose Wise

A new way to pick where to eat in Northwestern Ontario.

Public Health Inspector with the Northwestern Health Unit Stephanie Snow says they have launched the ChooseWise website.

Snow says it allows people to easily find food inspection reports.

She notes the reports include a list of all infractions and corrections.

Cisit the site at http://choosewise.nwhu.on.ca/

Goldcorp to Acquire Osisko

Mining company Goldcorp is making an offer to purchase Osisko Mining.

The deal is reported to be worth two-point-6 million dollars in cash and stock.

Osisko is currently working on a mining project in the Atikokan area.

Hospital Monitoring Flu Season

There is still time to get your flu shot.

That's the message from Lake of the Woods District Hospital CEO Mark Balcaen.

Balcaen says so far it's has been a normal flu season in Kenora.

However he does note the outbreak in Thunder Bay which could have an impact here at home.

So far at least five people have died as a result complications of H1N1.

Event Center Committee Draft Report To Be Unveiled This Month

Plans for the future development of the Kenora Rec. Center will be unveiled later this month.

The Event Center Committee is expected to make it's final report to city council at it's open meeting on January 21st.

The Committee has been given the task of coming up with a concept for the expansion of the Rec. Center.

That's expected to include plans to twin the rink as well as some sort of a performing arts
center.

Councillor Ron Lunny says once the report is tabled to council, there will be a public meeting to get input on the proposal.

He says the expansion of the Rec. Center could cost about 20 million dollars.

Winter Tourism Marketing Campaign Being Launched

Now that the weather is starting to warm up a little, there's a new tourism marketing campaign trying to entice visitors to northwestern Ontario.

Heather Gropp is Kenora's Tourism Development Officer and says they will be featuring a number of communities in the Escape to Ontario ad campaign.

Gropp says each community will get to feature three winter events in the campaign.

She says they will be mainly targeting the southern Manitoba and Winnipeg markets.

Northwest Student Services Consortium Gathering Winter Road Feedback

The Northwest Student Services Consortium wants to hear from you.

Recently the consortium has been receiving lots of feedback about area highways.

General Manager Judi Green says they hope more people will send feedback, both good and bad.

Green notes they will bring the feedback to the Ministry of Transportation to help track local conditions.

Blood Donor Clinic Starts Today

The Canadian Blood Services is back in Kenora today.

Spokesperson Colleen Hrabi says they are looking for a lot of donations.

She says there is the need for more blood, because they had to cancel a number of clinics earlier this month due to frigid weather conditions.

The clinic in Kenora is in the Thomas Aquinas gym starting at 4:00 this afternoon and
will run until 9:00

The clinic will go again tomorrow morning from 9:30 to 12:30

Atom Canucks Win C-Side in Minnesota Tourney

Some hardware for the Lake of the Woods Atom Canucks girls hockey team.

The Canucks were in Bemidji for a 10 and Under tournament.

The local atom squad took the c-side championship by beating Bemidji
4-1 on Sunday.