Thursday, December 3, 2009

Local Sports for Thursday December 3

The Fort Frances Lakers return to action tonight with a game in Sioux Lookout against the Flyers.

The Lakers are 5 points back of the K-and-A Wolverines for fourth spot in the SIJHL.


The Fort Frances Muskies boys hockey team open a tournament in Brandon tonight with a game against Sanford, Manitoba.

Twenty-four teams have entered with the finals set for Sunday.

Keith to Get Long-term Contract

Duncan Keith is to be a Chicago Black Hawks for a long time.

The NHL club has announced a news conference for this afternoon where its expected they'll announce new long term deals for the former Fort Frances resident, as well as Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

Keith deal is reportedly 72-million dollars over 13 years.

Keith has five goals and 18 assists in 26 games this season, and is likely to part of Canada's Olympic team in Vancouver.

Church Attendance Declining

Northwestern Ontario churches are feeling the pinch with smaller congregations and an aging population.

Elaine Sauer is the Bishop for Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario's Evangelical Lutheran Church, and says many youth are moving away from their small communities.

"In the isolated and rural communities, young people are moving away anyway," says Sauer. "We're becoming much more urbanized people and that's being reflected in the churches as well."

Sauer notes the Fort Frances Lutheran Zion church is actually one of few churches doing well with a strong congregation of both young and old members.

No Names Yet For New School

The Rainy River District School Board says it has not received a single suggestion from the public on a name for the new elementary school in Fort Frances.

The board had put out a call for suggestions in September.

Superintendent of Education Heather Campbell says people can still submit names through the board's website.

A committee will review the submissions before selecting three preferred names for trustees to choice.

The new school is open in the fall of 2010 and will bring together students now attending classes at Robert Moore and F.H. Huffman Schools.

Shoal Lake Man Sentenced

A Shoal Lake First Nation man will spend at least the next 20 years in jail for the murder two years ago of an 18-year-old teenager northwest of Fort Frances.

Bronson Harvey Green was sentenced to life in prison, with no eligibility for parole for 20 years, for second-degree murder of Ashley Janelle Smith of Naitcatchewenin.

Initially charged with first-degree murder, Green pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder.

A police investigation and forensic testing concluded that Smith had been sexually assaulted and "brutally'' kicked in the head and face.

HST Hearings

New Democrat MP's were on the attack yesterday over the Harper's government's plans to allow Ontario and B-C to move towards a harmonized sales tax.

Thunder Bay-Rainy River's John Rafferty told the house one of the biggest impacts will be on gasoline purchases.

"For most people in northern Ontario, HST is simply a new gas tax," said Rafferty. "In Parry Sound today, gas without HST is 98.9¢ a litre, with HST, $1.07 a litre; in Sioux Lookout it is $1.05 without HST and $1.14 with HST; in New Liskeard it is $1.04 without HST and $1.13 with HST."

Rafferty was also critical of the Liberals for supporting the Conservative in what he calls a new gas tax for northerner.

Meantime, public hearings began today at the Ontario legislature into the Liberal government's plan to merge the eight per cent sales tax with the five per cent goods and services tax.

The Opposition lined up a wide range of groups to testify at the start of the committee hearings, while the government says proponents of the harmonized sales tax will appear later in the day.

Groups as diverse as condo owners, police pensioners, home care operators and the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation say the HST will drive up costs on items exempt from the provincial sales tax.

The government says it is also cutting personal and corporate taxes, and offering rebate cheques in the first year to offset the impact of the HST, which comes into effect next July.

CN Engineers End Walk-out

CN Rail, the country's biggest railway, is getting back to normal, five days after its 17-hundred locomotive engineers went on strike.

Teamsters Canada says the engineers will be back at work as fast as they can after both sides reached a tentative agreement.

About a dozen members are from the Fort Frances area.

Under the deal, C-N says it will drop some of its proposed changes, including increasing the distance engineers have to drive each month.