Friday, April 3, 2009

Cournoyer Honoured

2009-04-03

07:11:53

Some honours for a former member of the Fort Frances Muskies girls volleyball team.

Michelle Cournoyer was recognized the most improved player with the Lakehead University women's volleyball team. The second year Kiniesology student finished in the top five in several team categories this year.

Arpin Back on Track

2009-04-03

06:57:16

Steve Arpin is back in his ARCA-Remax race car this weekend.

He's competing in the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 at the half-mile Salem Speedway in Salem, Indiana. Qualifying goes Saturday with racing Sunday.

There is no television coverage for this race.

Crash Victims Identified

2009-04-03

06:54:47

Two Brampton, Ontario, men died Wednesday night in a crash near Kenora that brought cross-Canada traffic to a standstill for more than 15 hours.

Manjit Chandi, 50, and Mohammad Zulkernein, 37, died when a westbound tractor-trailer unit crashed into another rig that had jackknifed across Highway 17 near the Highway 71 junction. Chandi was driving the westbound unit and Zulkernein was a passenger.

The crash happened around 9 p.m. and the highway was closed until Thursday afternoon when one lane was reopened. Police said regular traffic flow was expected to resume Thursday
night. Witnesses said that the backlog of vehicles stretched for 100 kilometres.

 

Domtar Shutdowns

2009-04-03

06:52:38

Domtar has announced downtime at its mills in Dryden and Ear Falls.

The Dryden pulp mill will be idled for roughly 10 weeks, starting April 25th. Domtar will idle its Ear Falls sawmill for about seven weeks, effective April 10th.

The move will effect 500 employees at the pulp mill, sawmill and related forestland operations.

Lawsuit Dismissed

2009-04-03

06:50:28

An Ontario Superior Court judge has dismissed a wrongful dismissal suit that was filed against several members of the Rainy River Cattlemen's Association.

Former sales Barn Manager Russell Richards launched court action in 2007 against the Association and seven board members after being let go from his position.

But in his ruling in February, Justice G-P Smith said Richards should not have sued the board members in the first place and should have responded to an earlier proposal from them.

Smith also order Richards to cover the Association's legal costs.

Spring Bear Hunt Proposal

2009-04-03

06:49:00

The president of the Northern Ontario Tourist Outfitters is applauding Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Randy Hillier for his stance on the spring bear hunt.

Doug Reynolds says the cancellation of the hunt in 1999 was a mistake that wasn't based on good science or good economics.

Hillier says reinstating the hunt would mean millions of dollars for the economies of northern and rural Ontario.

Education Funding being Reviewed

2009-04-03

06:41:57

The Rainy River District School Board is crunching the numbers from the recent provincial budget.

The Ontario's government is adding an extra $600 million for education.

Education Director Jack McMaster says they're still not sure how that impact's the local board.

"The government hasn't released their templates yet," says McMaster, "so Laura Mills our Superintendent of Business is doing an in depth look, line-by-line if you wish, to try to come up a bottom line for our board. It's much easier if we had the templates, but we have to wait another week for them."

McMaster says the funding increase, though, does look encouraging, but the board is still moving forward with multi-year plan that proposes a draw from its reserve fund for education purposes.

"When you look to the future, a provincial budget generating a $14 billion deficit and $56 billion over five years, we have to take this one year at a time and I thing we have to project cautiously.