AbitibiBowater Restructuring Plan

AbitibiBowater could end nearly eighteen months of creditor and bankruptcy protection on October 1 if its restructuring plan wins creditor support next month.

A meeting on the plan takes place August 26.

The plan would see unsecured creditors receiving between nothing and 48 per cent when their debt is converted to equity, depending on their class.

Current shareholders will walk away empty-handed.

Others fall somewhere in between, including workers who received no severance when their mills were shut over the past year.

Lions Give the Gift of Sound

(Carter Kinnear (seated) and his mother Tammy joins with members of the Fort Frances Lions Club and Jackie McCormick of the Enhanced Learning Centre to show of his near hearing aids)


The Fort Frances Lions Club is helping an 11-year-old area boy hear many sounds for the first time.

Carter Kinnear is sporting new hearing aids, paid for in part by a two-thousand dollar donation from the club.

His mother Tammy is appreciative of the gift for her son who has a hearing defect since birth.

"It's made Carter's life completely different," says Kinnear. "His learning ability and basic skills that we take for grant, such as hearing birds chirp he's never been able to hear before; that's a new experience for him."

"It's amazing," says Carter. "I feel like I can hear everything now."

Lion's past-president Jacques Fiset says club members felt obligated to help out.

"Being that the hearing aids are needed and the Lions motto and ethics is hearing and eyesight, we decided to fill our commitment and help purchase the hearing aids for him," says Fiset.

Carter received his new hearing aids three months ago.

Extended Learning Programs Eliminated

The Rainy River District School Board won't be offering any before or after school care for students attending full-day junior kindergarten at Atikokan's North Star School this fall.

Education Director Heather Campbell says only a handful of parents expressed interest in having their children taking part which wouldn't have been financially viable for the board.

Campbell says the decision does not prevent the board from offering the extended learning programs in future years.

MP's Earning Extra?

Two northwestern Ontario M-P's are in the spotlight.

New Democrats John Rafferty and Bruce Hyer are among 150 MPs who have outside business interests that could supplement their regular salary of $151-thousand a year.

Rafferty sees nothing wrong in that.

"I don't think its unreasonable to ask a member of Parliament or someone who's doing a public service for a short period time to wind up a viable business they'll likely be going back to after the election," says Rafferty.

Rafferty adds he has not seen any income from his communications and media monitoring business since he was elected.

Tour Du Fort Back Online

A new website for Tour Du Fort is finally on line.

President Kerry Zucchiatti says among the new features of Tourdufort.com is the ability to acquire passports or tickets online, including a new pick-three option giving concert goers the ability to select shows they want to see.

"By offering a few different purchase options we're hoping music lovers will pick something convenient for them and we'll see an increase in our attendance numbers," says Zucchiatti.

Zucchiatti says the new website is part of a new marketing strategy aimed better catering to the needs of its patrons and sponsors while pursuing new ones.

Wet July

It's turning out to be a wet July in the Borderland.

The U.S. National Weather Service says more than 6.18 or 15.6 centimetres of rain has fallen at International Falls since July 1st.

That breaks the old five-day record of 6.02 inches set back in August 1942.

Environment Canada says Fort Frances has already received a third of the rain it normally gets for July.

Annexation Hearings Start Today

A hearing into two competing annexation proposals involving the cities of International Falls and Rainer and Koochiching County gets underway today.

Ranier City Council approved a plan last June which proposed to annex lands around the city.

But Falls city officials expressed concerns because it included a foreign trade zone and put forward annexation plans of their own that the area.

Today's hearing at the Koochiching Court House includes two sessions for public comment this afternoon and tonight.

Missing Man Found

OPP divers have recovered the body of a man who had been missing since Canada Day after falling out of a boat on Rainy Lake.

The body of 43-year-old Robert Mainville of Couchiching First Nation was found in an area of Duck Bay yesterday morning.

The search by provincial police had been ongoing since last Thursday night when Mainville and another man fell into the lake.

The other man, whom police have not identified, was found alive that night and taken to LaVerendrye Hospital in Fort Frances for treatment.

Highway Closed

(Submitted photo)


A large sinkhole has closed Highway 11 west of Kashabowie.

Provincial Police says the sinkhole impacts both lanes of the highway and is located about 10 kilometres west of Burchell Lake Road.

Heavy rain is to blame.

The highway is not expected to reopen until crews complete repairs sometime today.

For motorists travelling to Thunder Bay from the Fort Frances area, it means having to detour through Highway 502 and Dryden.

Rainy Weekend

Isolated thunder storms and scattered showers blanketed northwestern Ontario over the weekend

Huge rainfall amounts were recorded across region.

The highest, 13 centimetres, was recorded at a weather station in Quetico Provincial Park at the Ontario-Minnesota border.

Another weather station at Quetico's northern boundary measured rainfall at 117 millimetres.

In Fort Frances, a total of 60 millimetres of rain fell Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Flooding to be Addressed

The mayor of Fort Frances says the town is working towards eliminating flooding of the Portage Avenue underpass in the future.

Responding to questioning over last Thursday's heavy rains that led to water pooling in the underpass, Roy Avis says it's something they hope to avoid in the future.

"There is another tender that's in the process of being let to do the pumping system," says Avis. "All this ties into the work we're doing at the Fifth and Third intersections. We're rerouting the storm sewers. It was just unfortunate we got a heavy rain like we did that day and it filled up. One of the pumps didn't have the capacity to move it."

Avis says the work recently done at the underpass focused only on the roadway itself.

Atikokan Mayor Seeks Another Term

One of the Rainy River district's longest serving municipal politicians is making a bid for re-election this fall.

Atikokan's Mayor Dennis Brown says he's vying for his another term as mayor.

"There are some good times for Atikokan," says Brown. "We're entering into a time we expect much better things to happen for the community and I just simply like to be a part of it to make sure it does go the way we see lining up."


Brown has been in municipal politics for 27 years, and Atikokan's mayor since 1997.

Children's Summer Programs Begin

The Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre kicks off its summer programming for children and teens today.

Different events will be held each day in the children's area which department head Andrea Avis says is benefiting from new technology.

"We have a smart table where kids can play games," says Avis. "There's lot of learning programs that are all loaded and all of the kids are working together and having a great time with that."

There are also a number of computers where children can surf the Internet with their parents permission.

Falls Wins Tug of War

It was the Americans coming out on top in the annual tug-of-war between Fort Frances and International Falls Friday.

It appeared the Canadians would earn a three-peat, but a hard tug near the end forced Fort Frances Mayor Roy Avis and his team to concede defeat.

"It was a good challenge. We fought hard, but we didn't make this time," says Avis. "We have to let them win at least once so the challenge will go out again next year."

Speaking for the Falls side, city administrator Rod Otterness was pleased their effort and looks forward to defending the title next year.

"It is fun to win," says Otterness, "there's no question about it. But the event from our perspective was exciting. There's a real scene of drama when the rope becomes taught and everyone beginnings pulling for their respective countries."

Plane Crash in Rainy River

A number residents lined-up to watch the Canada Day parade in Fort Frances were also witness to a float plane crashing into Rainy River yesterday morning.

The plane, ended up on its side, several feet from the American side of the river, just east of the Sorting Gap Marina with only its tail and left wing showing above water.

Emergency personnel from both sides of the border responded , as well as a private boater from the Fort Frances area.

The cause of the crash or whether anyone inside the plane was injured have not yet been released.

Rain Kicks of Canada Day in Borderland

It was a wet start to Canada Day in the Borderland yesterday morning.

Environment Canada says the area received more than 6-centimetres of rain in less than three hours, turning fields into lakes, leaving some roads washed out and some basements flooded.

In Fort Frances, the torrent of water quickly filled the Portage Avenue underpass, forcing one motorist to abandon their vehicle after it stalled in the high water in an attempt to drive through it.

Crews spent several hours pumping out the water before the roadway could be re-opened.

In Koochiching County, rainfalls were measured at 3-inches shattered a July 1st record set back in 1991.

HST in Effect

Customers in Ontario are now paying the new HST tax.

The levy kicked in yesterday and while some shoppers were annoyed at paying more for services like hair cuts, others in the province welcomed the tax.

Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Bette Jean Crews says many farmers will see savings on big-ticket items like irrigation systems and farm trucks.

HST is also be blamed for sharp increases in gasoline prices.

The harmonized sales tax is also being tacked onto the cost of renting a site at provincial parks.

Ontario Parks spokesperson Bruce Van Stall Dinen don't think the extra tax will impact reservations.

Camps sites, ranging from 25 to 40 dollars previously, increased by as much as $3.00 because of the HST.

Fall vs Fort

The town of Fort Frances and the city of International Falls will be a war today - well a friendly type of war anyway.

Residents on both sides of the border are being encouraged to come out to participate in the annual Tug-of-War between the two sister communities beginning at 12 noon.

Canadians gather at the Sorting Gap Marina while American combatants will assemble at Pat Roche Landing.

Fort Frances has won the last two events.

Body Recovered from Lake

Provincial Police have recovered the body of a missing man from Rainy Lake.

An OPP dive team located the body of 24-year-old Clayton Windigo yesterday morning, not far from where he went missing.

Windigo was last seen Sunday night while diving from a bridge on Highway 11 in the area of Bear's Pass when he entered the water, but failed to resurface.

Road Closure Today

There will be more traffic detours for motorists travelling to the north end of Fort Frances today.

Fifth Street, between Portage Avenue and Cornwall, is being closed beginning at 8 this morning, re-opening around noon.

Town officials say the closure is necessary because CN Rail is removing old railway track from within the roadway.

The work is not connected with the current road improvements being done along Portage Avenue.