Fire Department Changes

The town of Fort Frances is downsizing its fire department. The number of full-time firefighters will drop from eight to six Fire Chief Frank Sheppard says the department is also moving to a platoon-style deployment model. "Rather than an overall response, it will be more of a reasoned response," says Sheppard. "For example, if there was a vehicle accident, there would be far fewer people responding to that initially." Sheppard says the change gives firefighters the ability to upgrade manpower and resources as needed.

Council Staying with Option 2 on Policing

It appears Fort Frances town councillors will stay with their decision to accept a policing contract with the OPP that will see the town pay for two fewer officers. Councillors reopened their discussions over the contract last night. Councillor Rick Wiedenhoeft feels satisfied that the level of policing provided won't change. "It still must meet with adequacy and effectiveness of the OPP," says Wiedenhoeft. "I don't think we have to be concerned about when we make that reduction of 1.5 officers that we're still going to be well serviced in this area." It was noted the town would have to raise taxes almost four per cent to maintain the existing contract with 18 officers on patrol.

Call for Locals to Participate

The Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship would like to see more local anglers participate.

Speaking to town councillors last night, chair Gord Watson says the field for this July's event is two-third's full, but most of the 81 teams are from out of the district.

"We still don't have the local support we're looking for," says Watson. "The prize structure was structured to intrigue more local anglers. It hasn't done so yet. We hope it will in the near future."

Tournament officials met with several town committees last week to discuss a host of requests for this year. Watson says they're working hard to ensure the tournament continues.

Drug Busts

Three separate drug investigations in the Rainy River district have resulted in the seizure of thousands of dollars worth of illegal drugs and charges against one man.

A 57-year-old resident of Rainy River faces trafficking charges after OPP seized nearly $4,500 worth of prescription pills and a large quantity of cash.

A search of two other homes in Rainy River and Emo led police to finding 34 marihuana plants and 860-grams of dried marihuana valued at $5,200.

No charges have yet been laid in those cases.

Green Party Candidate in Running

The Green Party has announced its Candidate for Thunder Bay-Rainy River.

Former research scientist Ed Shields says with science based jobs in our future, Parliament is in need of someone with his expertise.

"I just thought we that need scientists in Parliament," says Shields. "I looked and there's no PH.D. scientists in Parliament. We have all of these issues that deal with science that we need to be worked on yet none of the Parliamentarians have any experience in that."

Shields says northwestern Ontario has great potential for jobs in the bio technology industry.

Budget Day in Ontario

It's budget day in Ontario, but the McGuinty Liberals won't be filling today's budget with pre-election goodies designed to entice voters on October 6. But Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is planning to deliver a budget that doesn't contain any new hikes or cuts.