Hospitals Receiving Financial Gift

Area hospitals will benefit from a substantial gift from a long-time resident of the Rainy River district.

Director with Riverside Foundation for Health Care Nicke Baird says the resident, who is choosing to remain anonymous, is providing the Foundation with $100,000.

Baird says the fund will be turned into an Endowment Fund that allows the Foundation to benefit from the interest earned.

Liberal's Absence Defended

Ontario's Northern Development Minister Michael Gravelle is coming to the defence of his Leader.

Premier Dalton McGuinty won't be attending a northern issues debate in Thunder Bay, because of what the Liberals now say is a conflict with a prior commitment.

Gravelle disputes claims his party doesn't care about the region and favours having a northern issues segment as part of a province-wide televised debate on September 27 in Toronto.

McGuinty is in Thunder Bay today.

Local Candidates Debate in Dryden

Provincial candidates in the Kenora-Rainy River Riding will debate the issues tonight in Dryden.

Dryden media are hosting the all-Candidates forum.

There's no word yet if any debates are planned in the Rainy River district.

Thunder Bay-Atikokan Debate

Residents of Atikokan get to hear tonight from the candidates seeking their vote.

Liberal incumbent Bill Mauro, NDP's Mary Kozorys and PC's Fred Gilbert will participate in a Thunder Bay-Atikokan riding debate at the Atikokan town hall.

It's hosted by the Atikokan Chamber of Commerce and begins at 7 p.m.

EQAO Board Results Released

The Rainy River District School Board says more of its students are doing better writing the standardize provincial tests.

Education Director Heather Campbell says they're close to matching the provincial averages in many areas.

Campbell says while reading scores improved over previous years, it will still be an area of focus for the board.

The Northwest Catholic District School Board is happy with its standardized test results.

Education Director Mary-Catherine Kelly says their students excelled in several areas.

Kelly says St. Michael's and St. Francis School in Fort Frances had high number of students exceeding provincial standards in all tests.

More Fires in Rainy River District

Two more forest fires in the Rainy River district.

Both were lightning caused.

One, northwest of Atikokan near Miranda Lake is listed as still being active.

The other was near Marmion Lake and is out.

Six others are still burn within Quetico Provincial Park.

Dummies Cancel

One of the main shows in this year's Tour de Fort's line-up is in jeopardy.

Brad Roberts, of the Winnipeg-band Crash Test Dummies, says they've cancelled a fall tour of Canada and the U.S. because of his back trouble.

Doctors have advised the lead singer not go out on the road for the remainder of this year.

The band was set to play at the Townsend Theatre in Fort Frances November 15.

No word if the concert will be rescheduled.

Coaltion Seek Healt Care Platforms

Ontario's politicians are being urged to make health care a top election campaign priority.

Natalie Mehra with the Ontario Health Coalition says access to care is a serious issue in Ontario and all the political parties need to detail where they stand.

The coalition will soon distribute two newsletters to 400-thousand households.

One is a voter's guide to how the parties stand on key health-care issues.

The other will focus on how tax cuts are affecting health care.

Ontario Election Day 8

A change in the polls has been followed by a change in Tory tactics.

Recent polls suggest PC Leader Tim Hudak has lost his lead over the Liberals.

Yesterday, Hudak broke from several days of blasting the Liberals over its proposed tax break for companies that hire new Canadians to focus on government waste.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says her office has not approved using Jack Layton's memory to raise money.

One Toronto candidate was calling voters to say the party is going through a rough patch since the federal NDP leader died last month and could use financial support.

Horwath says it's not an approach she agrees with and nor should NDP candidates.

Premier Daltom McGuinty says is promising to continue taking over some costs from municipal governments.

But, he says, it's not something the PC's would do.

Library Board Seeks Meeting with Town Council

The Fort Frances Library Board wants to meet with Fort Frances town council.

Councillor Rick Wiedenhoeft, who sits on the board, says there's some conflicts between the provincial library act and the municipal act they need to resolve.

"We're going through a policy review at the library board," says Wiedenhoeft, "and the chair wants to resolve these subtle difference between the Municipal Act and the Library Act."

Mayor Roy Avis and town clerk Glenn Treftlin will attend to board's meeting later this month.

Rafferty Sails with Canadian Navy

(John Rafferty photo)


John Rafferty is back from being at-sea.

The Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP spent the weekend aboard HMCS Ville de Quebec as part of a program offered to federally elected representatives.

"It certainly opened my eyes what the Canadian navy does," says Rafferty. "It certainly opened my eyes to life on a frigate. And it opened my eyes to the sorts of Canadians who are involved with the Navy and what they have to do."

Rafferty says much of time was spent on manoeuvres in the Atlantic off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Lemonade Stand Helps Health Care

(Tatum Kielczewski and Kiera Sherlock with Lori Maki of Riverside Health Care Facilities)


Local health care services have benefited from the entrepreneurial spirit of two six year old girls in Fort Frances.

Tatum Kielczewski and Kiera Sherlock set up a lemonade stand on Scott Street Saturday.

They raised 45-dollars and turned all of their profits over to Riverside Foundation for Health Care.

Government Meetings Disappointing

Not all went well for the town of Fort Frances in its meetings last month with members of the McGuinty government.

Mayor Roy Avis revealed at last night's council meeting talks with Community and Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur led to more conflicting information about where savings from the uploading of social services are supposed to go to.

Avis says the Minister claims a letter sent to municipalities indicated the savings were to be directed towards programs.

Municipal Affairs had suggested savings be used toward local infrastructure.

Strategic Plan in Place

Fort Frances town council will be taking more advice from local groups over the next four years.

C-A-O Mark McCaig says it part of a new strategic plan that was formally approved by councillors at their meeting last night.

McCaig says the document looks to obtain opportunities out of the challenges facing the community.

Official Plan Review

The town of Atikokan has started the process of updating its official plan.

A public meeting was held last night with two workshops scheduled for tomorrow.

Greens Seeking New Candidate

Ontario's Green Party hopes to have a candidate in place for the Thunder Bay-Atikokan riding by Thursday.

Spokesperson Rebecca Harrison says they're scrambling to replace Russ Aegard who stepped down.

Aegard dropped out of the race for personal reasons.

Heritage Party Candidate in Place

The Northern Ontario Heritage Party will run a candidate in Kenora-Rainy River.

The party says Charmaine Romaniuk has filed her papers.

Party leader Ed Deibel says issues important to northerners can now be raised in the election campaign.

The 26-year-old Romaniuk is a Kenora resident who's also a student at Lakehead University.

Atikokan Sawmill Future

The planned sell off of the Atikokan Forest Products sawmill is becoming a election issue for candidates in Thunder Bay-Atikokan.

An auction of equipment is set to go at the end of this month.

Liberal MPP Bill Mauro says there's still some hope for that mill.

But NDP's Mary Kozorys and PC's Fred Gilbert say the current wood allocation process is prohibiting the mill from reopening.

Liberals Release Northern Platform

The Liberals have released their platform specific to northern Ontario.

Anthony Leek, their candidate for Kenora-Rainy River, says it means real and measurable progress for the area.

"I think its another step towards positive growth," says Leek. "Really expanding a foundation for the north and look at what's worked really well through the Heritage Fund as well as through energy grants and credits."

The Grits are promising, among other things, to increase the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund to $110-million.

NDP Northern Ontario Platform

The NDP is also out with its northern Ontario platform.

Kenora-Rainy River candidate Sarah Campbell says it includes improvements to the Northern Health Travel Grant.

"That would ensure that cheques are processed within 30 days," says Campbell. "If they are not received by people within the 30 days, people will receive interests from the Ontario government."
Campbell says the NDP would also implement an industrial hydro rate to help local mills.