Friday, March 19, 2010

Investment update and arena consultation highlight meeting

City councillors get the low down Monday on how your tax dollars are being invested. Accounting manager Lynne Martin says investment advisors and managers will be there to make a presentation. Martin says councillors will hear results of how those investments performed last year. Also Monday, City Manager Tim Commisso will brief councillors on public consultations for a proposed new arena

Monday council agenda shortened

Monday nights meeting at City Hall won't be as long as some councillors may have feared. Because of the overwhelming agenda, the city clerks office has moved some items to next week. They include reports from the citys' Aboriginal liaison and on the low voter turnout for the last municipal election with suggestions on how it could be improved for this falls vote. That would include the possibility of online voting. Normally councillors would have had next Monday off.

Copper wire theft solved

Five men are charged after the theft of some copper wire recently. OPP say the theft took place from a business site in the city. Police made the arrest after they were tipped off that some copper wire was being burned by a group at the Squaw Bay Road dump on the Fort William First Nation. About 300 pounds of the wire was recovered. The five will be appearing in court next month to answer to charges of possession of stolen property.

Truck goes through the ice on Lac Des Milles Lac

There's a 2008 GMC truck sitting at the bottom of Lac Des Milles Lac .   OPP say that the vehicle went through the ice there.  They say the driver was trying to help another person whose truck was going through the ice.   As the good Samaritan tried to get closer to the stranded truck, his own went through.  There were no injuries.   The Ministry of Natural Resources and Fisheries and Oceans Canada have been alerted.

Drug raid nets $190,000 of pot

Police now have close to 200 thousand dollars worth of marijuana out of circulation. They raided two homes this week, located on Robertson and Heron streets. The search resulted in the seizure of about 21 pounds of pot. No one is in custody in connection with the bust, however police say that warrants are being sought for a 39 year old man and 37 year old woman. Both of them are from Thunder Bay.

Gravelle helps kick off Summer Jobs for Youth

The provincial government is telling employers now's the time to apply for subsidies to hire summer students. The provinces Summer Jobs for Youth program is back. Northern Development minister Michael Gravelle says the goal this year is to have more students hired.  He says last year there were 59 hundred young people employed under the program and this year the objective is 62 hundred. Employers have until April the 30 to apply for subsidies.

City being eyed as home for a new call centre

A new call centre may be about to open up in the city. On-Line Support is a Canadian based firm and it's vice-president is John Hooper. He says a career fair at the end of the month will assess potential employees.  He says they're looking to confirm that there is an available labour force here and to look for potential bilingual workers who'll be required to fill some spots.  The job fair will take place at the former StarTek site in VictoriaVille Mall. There's the potential for 200 to 300 jobs.