County Proceeds With Merger Plans

The first steps have been taken in a planned merger of Koochiching County's Health and Community Services departments.

Nancy Lee has been hired as the public health supervisor while new job descriptions for the department's top positions have been written up.

Director Terry Murray says they'll begin next week looking at the overall structure.

The County had been considering such a merger as far back as 2008.

New Entrepreneurial Fund Launched

A new fund to help small businesses set up or expand in the Rainy River district is being created in honour of a long-time businessman who died recently.

The Emes Entrepreneurial Fund is named after George Emes.

He was the long-time chair of the Rainy River Future Development Corporation and a member of the Fort Frances Downtown Business Improvement Association.

The fund will be managed by the Development Corporation and will seek support from senior levels of government as well.

Two Arrested In Child Porn Case

Provincial Police in Dryden are charging two men following a child pornography investigation.

It came after two homes were searched last Thursday with officers seizing computers, cell phones and other items.

Charged are 31-year-old Corey Pyyka and 50-year old Garth Rice.

Both men are due in court next month.

More Festival Acts Named

More names have been announced for the upcoming Harmony of Nations Music festival in Fort Frances this July.

They include award-winning Shy-Anne Hovorka from Thunder Bay and rising young country music star and Metis Fiddler Sierra Noble out of Winnipeg.

The folk-rock band Cornshed from Vancouver featuring three home-grown musicians, Andrew Mueller, Marc Lovisa and Andrew Marusyk, will also play.

Fort Frances' Larissa Desrosiers, song-writer Nick Sherman from Sioux Lookout and Thunder Bay's Jean-Paul De Roover are also on the bill.

They'll join previously announced Buffy Ste. Marie and the Woodpicks out of Thief River, Minnesota.

A number of other local performers will also be on stage with an announcement coming in the near future.

The headline for the first night of the event is also to be announced.

Tourist Centre To Reopen

Ontario's former tourist information centre in Fort Frances will be reopening.

Mayor Roy Avis says they've reached an agreement with the province for the town to take over the shuttered building on a one-year lease.

Since the province's closure of the facility two years ago, the town has had students under a tent at the border hand out information.

Avis says this year they will work from inside the centre.

Other organizations had expressed interest in setting up their operations inside, but Avis says the  lease does not permit that for now.

Fort Frances Supports Postal Workers

Postal Workers in Fort Frances are fighting to keep door-to-door mail delivery in the community.

Canada Post plans to replace it with community mailboxes.

Canadian Union of Postal Workers local president Sandra Lange says they'd rather get rid of the ones already in place.

Lange says four positions will be cut once the mailboxes are implemented.

Fort Frances town council is adding its voice in support of the postal workers by passing a resolution in support of door-to-door mail delivery.

It's now one of more than 50 communities across the country who've come out in support of the service staying put.

Winter Problems Linger In Fort Frances

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Fort Frances is not out of the woods just yet with frozen water pipes and water main breaks.

 

Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown says there's still more than a dozen homeowners whose lines are still frozen and requests to trickle the water will continue with deep frost still in the ground.

 

Brown says a dig to fix a broken water pipe near LaVerendrye Hospital yesterday revealed three feet of frost.

 

Leaders Tuesday

On the campaign front today, Premier Kathleen Wynne is in Toronto to speak at the Bloomberg Economic Summit before visiting Mississauga.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak is the guest of the Canada 2020 Speaker Series in Ottawa

NDP leader Andrea Horwath campaigns in Toronto.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner is revealing his party's platform.

Leaders Focus On Hydro Rates

Hydro rates the focus of attention for the leaders yesterday.

 

NDP leader Andrea Horwath in Thunder Bay to announce that an NDP government would eliminate the HST from hydro bills.

 

The PC's Tim Hudak is promising to scrap the subsidizes on wind and solar projects and restructure Ontario hydro organizations to help stabilize energy rates.

 

Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne pledging reduced rates for lower income earners and industrial hydro users.

 

 

Event Helps Clean Medicine Cabinets

Many medicine cabinets across the Rainy River district are a little cleaner today.

A district wide collection by the OPP and the Rainy River District Substance Abuse Prevention Team on the weekend brought in almost 5-and-a-half kilograms of old and unused medication.

They're now being packaged and sent to Orillia for safe disposal.

Fool's Gold Premieres On TV Tonight

A television program about a mining crew's search for gold in the Fort Frances area makes its debut tonight.

Fool's Gold features workers with Shotgun Exploration at the former Straw Lake Gold Mine.

Jason Whitehead, AKA Roj, says how they deal with their inexperience and the site's remoteness shines through.

The show airs on Discovery Canada beginning at 7 PM Central time.

Officer Charged With Impaired

A member of the OPP has been charged with driving while impaired.

Caitlyn Van Straalan was charged Sunday after failing a breath test during a RIDE check in the Red Lake area.

She was not on duty at the time.

The six-year veteran of the force has been assigned to desk duties pending a court appearance in June.

Marathon Town Councillor Killed

The town of Marathon is mourning the death a town councillor.

Dustin Pascoe was killed Saturday night on Highway 527 after his pick-up truck struck a rock-up and flipped over.

OPP says he pronounced dead at the scene.

The 24-year old, was also a volunteer firefighter in Marathon, was travelling to work at the Lac Des Iles Mine.

Horwath Visits Northwestern Ontario

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A visit from one of the party leaders to northwestern Ontario in the provincial election campaign.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath was in Thunder Bay where she helped open a campaign office for Thunder Bay-Superior North candidate Andrew Foulds.

Horwath says northerners are prepared for change.

A Message Of Hope

A message about bullying and mental illness from a victim.

Molly Burke was a guest speaker at Fort Frances High School's mini-We Day as part of its Grade 8 day Friday.

Burke, who is blind and was bullied at her school, says it's important she tell her story to other young people.

Burke is encouraged that people are now speaking out against bullying, but as much focus must be made to mental illness among youth.

Teens Plan Trip To Central America

Two Grade 11 students at Fort Frances High School are preparing for a humanitarian trip to Nicaragua.

Julia Quast and Kate Parsons will, among other things, help build a school.

Quast says it was their visit to We-Day that encouraged them to get involved.

The teens are in the process of raising the money needed for the 10-day trip in August.

You can help them by making to donate through the website GoFundMe.com.

Jail or Bail Raises $4,500

A number of residents, including the mayor of Fort Frances, are free on bail today after helping the Voyageur Lion's Club with its Jail or Bail event.

 

Around $4,500 was raised.

 

Mayor Roy Avis, among those put behind bars, brought in $1,200 for the cause.

 

93.1 The Border's own Johnathan Pryce was also successful in collecting the bail he required to get out of jail.

 

The money will be shared between Special Olympian David Ducasse who's heading to a national event and a program that trains dogs for those with autism.

Expect A Cool Summer

A bad news-good news weather forecast for our summer.

Accuweather predicts cooler than normal conditions across northwestern Ontario.

Meteorologist Brett Anderson says the good news is less severe weather.

Anderson suggests the latter part of August is when we may get to see real hot temperatures.

Green Party Candidate Ready

The Green party candidate in Kenora-Rainy River is ready to launch an aggressive campaign.

 

Tim McKillop of Pickle Lake says he wants to bring some stability back to the Ontario Legislature.

 

McKillop is a school teacher who's been involved with the Green Party for many years.

Falls City Police Busy

International Falls Police are busy.

Chief Mike Musich says officers responded to more than 500 calls for service in April with 93 of the cases of a more serious nature.

Musich says if the trend continues he will be asking for more officers.

Musich some of the more serious incidents included assaults, domestics and a kidnapping/confinement incident

International Falls Seeks Volunteers

International Falls is seeking someone to help oversee it's City Beach.

Committee member Linda Torseth says they have people for June, but are still looking for volunteers for the rest of the summer.

Individuals would do light duties such as open and close the gate to the beach, collect funds from campers and do minor clean-up.

Interested people are asked to contact the city.

Feds Criticized For Lack Of Notice With Nat'l Day Of Honour

The Royal Canadian Legion is perplexed about why the federal government gave it little time to prepare commemoration ceremonies for last Friday's National Day of Honour.

The day was held to mark the end of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.

Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP John Rafferty says several branches didn't have time to put something together.

No ceremonies were announced by another of four legions in the Rainy River district.

Sex Offenders Living In District

Some stark reality about where registered sex offenders live in Ontario.

The Ministry of Corrections has handed Global News that information after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court.

Global has since created maps on its website showing the areas, by postal code only, where sex offenders registered in 2008.

In the Rainy River district, the data indicates there were 14 living within the area code POW, 20 in P9A, and 95 within POT, which also includes areas around the Thunder Bay and Upsala areas.

Unlike Minnesota, Ontario law enforcement is not required to inform the public when a sex offender moves into their community.

Contract Deal Reached

A tentative deal has been reached between Unifor and Resolute Forest Products.

If ratified, the four-agreement will become the pattern agreement for the pulp and paper industry in Eastern Canada.

The announcement comes just days after Resolute announced it would not re-open its pulp and paper mill in Fort Frances.

PC's Propose To Reduce Size Of Government

Progressive Conservatives wants to reduce the size of government and the number of workers in the public sector.

Leader Tim Hudak says it's key to balancing the budget within two years in an effort to help achieve his million jobs plan.

Part of the plan includes shrinking the size of cabinet from 27 to 16 ministries and reducing the number of government workers by 100-thousand.

NDP Offering Tax Credits

New Democrats are offering up a couple of tax credits they say will create more jobs.

 

One would reward manufacturers that expand facilities or purchase new machinery or equipment.

 

Leader Andrea Horwath says it will help kick-start investments in the manufacturing sector.

 

The NDP is also promising a tax credit to businesses to offset 10 per cent of the salaries of new hires.

Nurses Get Contract

Members of the Ontario Nurses' Association have received an arbitration decision resolving a contract dispute with several Ontario hospitals.

 

The two-year award provides a 1.4-percent wage increase in each year.

 

The Association is disappointed with the ruling saying it barely keeps up with inflation and the impact of a wage freeze nurses accepted over the past two years.

FAlls Hospital Earns Award

Rainy Lake Medical Centre is being recognized for meeting guidelines for reporting its birth rate data to the State.

 

Hospitals are required to register 98 per cent of births to the Minnesota Department of Health within five days.

 

Rainy Lake Medical Center was almost 99 per cent compliant with its 75 births last year.

Red Cross Helping New Osnaburgh

New Osnaburgh First Nation remains in a state of emergency as the community continues to deal with a February fire that killed a woman and three children.

A team from the Canadian Red Cross is in the community near Pickle Lake.

Spokesperson Tracey Browne says the goal is to develop a plan to improve the quality of life in New Osnaburgh and determine what services various agencies should be offering.

Man Pays For Hole Through His Truck

A Timmins man is facing a repair bill and a $3,000 fine after accidentally discharging his rifle inside his truck.

The man told conservation officers it happened while he was loading his gun inside the vehicle so he won't startle a deer he spotted while travelling in the Sioux Narrows area last November.

The gun went off as he stepped out of the truck with the bullet going through the passenger door,
breaking a window and deploying the airbags.

Court heard the case last month.

McHappy Day

A significant contribution to Ronald McDonald Houses from the Fort Frances area.

Last Wednesday's McHappy Day at the Fort Frances restaurant helped raise more than $2,000.

The annual fundraiser gives one-dollar from every Big Mac, Happy Meal and hot McCafe beverage sold.

Fort Frances Ready To Move On

The town of Fort Frances says it's ready to move ahead without the existence of its major employer for the past 100 years.

Resolute Forest Products announced this week it will permanently shutdown its pulp and paper mill.

Mayor Roy Avis says it has lift a cloud of uncertainty that existed for month with temporary layoffs and shutdowns along the way.

Avis says the focus now will be on initiatives that help offset the economic loss.

Students Empowered To Make Change

Students in northwestern Ontario who identify as being gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or trans-genders are being encouraged to promote dignity and human rights in their schools.

 

About 80 gathered for a conference in Fort Frances yesterday.

 

Human rights-consultant Chris D'Sousa hopes the message can spread outside schools as well.

 

D'Sousa was encouraged that school administrators and teachers attended to support the students efforts.

Tory Candidate Visits Atikokan

The Progressive Conservative candidate for Thunder Bay-Atikokan is kicking his election campaign with a visit to Atikokan today.

 

Harold Wilson says he's been chomping at the bit for several months to get his message out about the importance this election is to Ontarians.

 

Wilson also feels he can do a better job representing the riding that the Liberals have done.

Elections Ontario Sets Up In Former Library

The former library in Fort Frances will serve as the main returning office for the provincial election in the Kenora-Rainy River riding.

 

Ian Simpson returns as the returning officer.

 

There will also be satellite offices in Dryden, Kenora, Red Lake and Sioux Lookout.

 

There is also a satellite office in Atikokan at the Voyageur Mall for voters in the Thunder Bay-Atikokan riding.

Hudak Focused On Jobs

Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak is remaining focused on his jobs plan.

He says yesterday's campaign start is the first day of his million jobs mission.

Hudak says jobs creation is the only issue that should matter in this election.

Premier Warns Against Voting PC or NDP

Premier Kathleen Wynn is warning Ontarians about voting for the PCs or NDP in the June election.

The Premier says the province has made several gains under Liberal leadership, but a change at the top could reverse that.

Wynne also makes no apologizes for the investments her government has made and is planning more of the same if re-elected.

Oberstar Funeral

Funeral services for former Minnesota congressman James Oberstar will be held today in Maryland.

International Falls Economic Development Officer Shawn Mason says he was a great advocate for the city.

International Falls Mayor Bob Anderson says Oberstar was instrumental in many city and area projects.

Oberstar died on the weekend at the age of 79.

He represented northern Minnesota in Washington for 36 years before being defeated in 2010.

Now Say It!

Graduating high school students in Minnesota are being encouraged to "Now Say It."

It's the name of a campaign by the Minnesota Secretary of State's office to get more young people to register for the November 4th general election.

While Minnesota has the highest voter turnout in the nation, turnout for non-presidential elections is often lower than presidential years — with the lowest rates among young people.

Native Policing Probed

Canada's auditor general has identified a number of problems with the First Nations Policing program.

Michael Ferguson suggests the program is not working as intended and aboriginal police services in Ontario often have different standards that other police departments.

Ferguson adds there are no assurances that policing facilities maintained by First Nation communities are adequate or meet building and fire codes.

Resolute To Close Mill

Resolute Forest Products is making it official.

The company has announced it is permanently closing its idled pulp and paper mill in Fort Frances.

Spokesperson Xavier Van Chau says all efforts to restart the mill in some way were simply exhausted.

The company those is still looking at potential opportunities for its biomass boiler.

The decision comes just three months after the last operation paper machine was halted in January.

The remaining 50 employees working since will be offered job opportunities with Resolute's other operations.

One of the unions representing workers at the Fort Frances mill is expressing disappointment in the company's closure decision.

Unifor's Stephen Boon says workers agreed four years ago to concessions aimed at helping the company restructure and keep the mill profitable.

He says the union will now ensure that Resolute follows through on its commitment to provide new job opportunities for affected employees.

Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP John Rafferty calls the closure news devastating.

Rafferty says he's willing to work to secure the pensions and severance pay for affected workers and community assistance as required by the town.

Campbell Ready For Election

Kenora-Rainy River MPP Sarah Campbell says affordability will be one of the key talking points in her campaign for re-election.

 

She says last week's Liberal budget failed to address issues such as the rising costs of hydro, gasoline, and auto insurance which played into her decision to back her leader's decision not to support the document.

 

Campbell adds there's just no longer any trust in the provincial Liberals.

 

Leaders Campaign Day

For the leaders today in the provincial election, Premier Kathleen Wynne focuses on jobs with stops in Kitchener and Brampton before helping to open a campaign office in Ottawa.

 

PC Leader Tim Hudak travels to Mississauga, Burlington and Brantford.

 

NDP leader Andrea Horwath is in Toronto this morning before heading to Kitchener and Niagara Falls.

Sirens Tested In Fort Frances

It came a day earlier, but yesterday's sirens in Fort Frances were nothing more than a test.

 

Fort Frances Fire and Rescue Service says they were sounded to test the system as they were working on some alarms that were not functioning properly.

 

The monthly test, which is done the first Wednesday of the month, will go ahead as planned today.

 

Officials advise that if the sirens do go off, turn to  93.1 The Border for an update instead of calling the fire department or turning to social media sites for information. 

Fool's Gold Preview

A northwestern Ontario junior mining company is in the spotlight in a television program to air next week on the Discovery Channel.

 

Fool's Gold follows Shotgun Exploration as its explores the former Straw Lake Mine, a once operating gold mine north of Fort Frances.

 

Mark Fairington, AKA Griz, calls it's a learning experience given that none of the crew had any mining experience.

 

A sneak preview of the program was held last night in Fort Frances.

Promise of Trade Jobs From PCs

Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak is promising to create 200-thousand new jobs in the trades.

 

Hudak says cutting red tape and giving Colleges more say in how to attract students to the trades can lead to that number.

 

Even though he visited a company that received funding to create jobs, Hudak says reducing taxes and hydro costs are better measures.

Liberals Seeking Donors

The Ontario Liberal party is making a push to bolster its campaign coffers.

It's looking to add at least 500 new donors to its list by midnight tonight.

Successful Fundraiser

Riverside Foundation for Health Care's spring luncheon is being hailed a huge success.

More than 170 people attended Saturday's event in Fort Frances.

Almost $9,100 was raised.

New Instructor Hired

Rainy River Community College has hired a full time instruction for its Industrial Maintenance program.

Michael Koski has been an instructor at Mesabi Range College in Virginia for the past year and has more than thirty years of industry experience.

The program is aimed at preparing students for work in all types of industry and includes a certificate, diploma, and Associate in Applied Science degree.

Success For Cadets

Some success for members of the 144 Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corp in Fort Frances following their involvement in the recent Northwestern Ontario band and drill competitions in Thunder Bay on the weekend.

 

The cadets placed second overall while their Drill Commander, Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class Chelsea Barron was second as Drill Commander.

 

The team, which also included two cadets from the 908 Rainy Lake Air Cadet Squadron, placed first in the Best Dress category.