Police Search Underway

Provincial police are searching for a Fort Frances man, presumed drowned, at a lake north of Fort Frances.

Police says the man was operating a trail groomer late Wednesday night when it broke through the ice on Manitou Lake.

Manitou Gold, a mining exploration company doing work in the area, says the man was working as a service provider to the company and the incident took place near its exploration project.

His name has not been officially released.

An OPP dive team is expected to arrive on scene today.

Ontario's Ministry of Labour has also been called to investigate.

Fort Frances Man Tells Story of Egypt Visit.

A Fort Frances man is back home after experiencing first hand the situation in Cairo.

Tristin Hutton was visiting his sister who works at the Canadian Embassy there when anti-government protests began outside his hotel last week.

Hutton says they didn't appear to be very concerning early on.

"They were just gathering and police were kind of holding their distance," says Hutton. "The odd tear gas was sent, but nothing too rough for the next two days. I didn't really feel scared or worried that things were going to escalate. It looked like things were going to taper down."

Hutton says a flight home he booked when the situation escalated got cancelled and eventually took advantage of a flight set up for the Canadian government Monday.

He was initially told by Canadian authorities he'd have to find his own way of the country before the government set up evacuation flights.

He says given the ever-evolving situation, the Canadian Embassy was doing the best it could.

Hutton does have to pay 400-dollars back to the Canadian government for the flight that took him to Germany before he was able to continue home.

OPP Wage Increase Concerning

A five-per-cent pay increase for the OPP has local politicians across the province upset with the McGuinty government.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the OPP contract shows that the Liberal talk about wage restraint is "nothing but a joke.''

But the Premier insists his plan to curb salaries is still on track.

Fort Frances councillors voiced concerns about the OPP contract and the impact it will have on the town's policing costs back in December.

Wage Freeze Proposed

The head of the Ontario Hospital Association is advocating a need for a freeze on hospital union salaries.

Tom Closson was in Thunder Bay yesterday to speak with Hospital Board Chairs and C.E.O.'s from the northwest.

Closson says a wage freeze bring fairness between union and non-union workers.

"We have 20 per cent of front line staff that are not unionized," says Closson. "You can have a nurse that's non-unionized in an organization and another nurse that is unionized. So in the same organization, you can have some of them that are frozen and some of them that are not."

Closson will be bringing the region's concerns back to the provincial government.

Health Care Becomes Election Issue

It looks like health care is going to be a key battleground until the Ontario election this fall.

Health Minister Deb Matthews has come out fighting, saying voters have a real choice between Progressive Conservatives who closed hospitals and fired nurses and Liberals who built hospitals and hired nurses.