OFAH reacts to MNR plan

The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters is meeting with the Minister of Natural Resources to discuss the proposed 3 year plan for the MNR.  Spokesperson Greg Farrant  says they need to find out what the proposed cuts will mean to them.  Farrant says he wasn't surprised they've been waiting for cuts to be announced for some time. 

Don't lie at the border

People continue to lie to border guards at the Pigeon River crossing.  Border agents have been busy last month writing 10 warnings for undeclared or undervalued goods and conducting four seizures.  In one situation, a man bringing in a snowmobile trailer told the guard he paid 400 dollars for it.  After doing some digging the guard found that the trailer actually cost 800 dollars and the man had faked his invoice.  He was forced to pay over 220 dollars; had he just told the truth the tax on his trailer would have come out to 20 dollars Canadian.

Gravelle talks MNR plan

The Ministry of Natural Resources is embarking on a 3 year transformation plan that could include cuts to offices and staff.  It's part of the Provincial Government's budget and Minister Michael Gravelle says the plan is in it's early stages.  If the budget is passed the plan will be implemented.

Suspicious death in Pikangikum

OPP are investigating a suspcious death in Pikangikum First Nation.  A 17 year old boy was reported missing two days ago and his body was found later behind someone's home.  A post mortem exam will take place in Toronto.

Accessible Sports Council new site

Thunder Bay's Accessible Sports Council is celebrating it's one year anniversary.  They're launching a website today showing the community what sports they offer to disabled athletes.  Spokesperson Tessa Soderberg says they just want to get people more active and involved in Thunder Bay's sports community.Click here.

Safeway stores raising money

Thunder Bay's Safeway Stores continue to raise awareness and money for a number of local causes.  This year they'll be collecting funds for Special Olympics Ontario and Easter Seals.  Money being raised will take place in the month of April.

Spithoff falls in spelling bee

Thunder Bay's Jacklyn Spithoff didn't make it to the next round of spelling bee competitions.  She finished in the top 10 last night in the National Competition being held in Toronto.  Spithoff attends Crestview School.

12 year old boy safe after wandering out on ice

A 12 year old boy is safe after he was rescued off of Chubb Lake yesterday in Neebing.  A 7 person rescue team and air boat was deployed to grab the boy who was stranded on the far side of the lake.  Fire and Rescue are reminding the public that area water ways are not considered safe and we should not venture out on local ice.

Field Naturalists buy land

The Thunder Bay Field Naturalists are purchasing two more pieces of property on Bowman Island.  The Field Naturalists bought the land and now owns and protects more than a thousand hectares of land.  Bowman Island is set to become a National Marine Conservation Area.

Hobbs likes provincial budget

The Mayor is content with the provincial budget.  Keith Hobbs says he's happy to see the government working towards balancing the budget, but is disappointed about a lack of details for the Ring of Fire.  Hobbs says he'd like to see some infrastructure plans or some sort of documentation but so far he hasn't seen anything.  Hobbs says he thinks with the Conservatives already coming out against the budget he can't see the NDP supporting it either, Hobbs says he won't be surprised if we head back to the polls.

Safety zone proposed as traffic solution

Transport traffic on Dawson Road is once again coming up for discussion.  At Monday night's City Council meeting councillors will be asked to approve a community safety zone on the road and to have a more gradual increase in the speed limit.  Chair of the Inter-Governmental Committee Joe Virdiramo says other ideas like length restrictions or different signage wasn't approved by the Ministry of Transportation so a different approach was needed.

Hospital CEO supports wage freeze

The CEO of the Health Sciences Centre is supporting the wage freeze in the Provincial Hospital.  Andree Robichaud says no body likes to see their wage frozen but at the same time is a move the government had to make to reign in rising health care costs.  According to the Sunshine List, Robichaud made 390 thousand dollars last year, but still is eligible for a performance bonus despite the wage freeze. 

LHIN boss not bothered by pay freeze

No complaints from the CEO of the Local Health Integration Network about the government freezing her salary. The directive was part of the province's budget this week. Laura Kokocinski says she is willing to do what's necessary to help with deficit reduction. According to the latest Sunshine List, Kokocinski was paid just under 250 thousand dollars last year.

Health care bureaucracy changing

Changes are taking place in the health care system in Northwestern Ontario. The North West Local Health Integration is out with a new 10-year plan that will put more of an emphasis on local care. CEO Laura Kokocinski says they are introducing a three tiered system that will include so called local health hubs. Five new Integrated District Networks are being created to handle health care in Northwestern Ontario; the District of Thunder Bay, the City of Thunder Bay, the North, Kenora and Rainy River.

Lakehead School Board translates website

The Lakehead Public School Board's website is going multilingual.  Aboriginal Liason Officer Amy Farrell says parts of the site are written in Ojibwe.  The project was funded by the School Board's Parent Involvement group.

LUSU fails McGuinty budget

The Lakehead University Student Union says the McGuinty Government's budget failed to help students.  President Mike Snodden says the budget is bad news for students and is including cuts to Ontario Works Study Program and scholarships.  Snodden says Dalton McGuinty likes to call himself the Education Premier but that's not the case.

Pot bust on Highway 17

Marathon OPP have snagged quite a hefty amount of pot. They pulled over a vehicle travelling westbound on the Trans Canada and seized over 150-thousand dollars worth of marijuana. A 31 and 23 year old Edmonton man and woman are charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Hyer on cyber crime

Thunder Bay MP Bruce Hyer wants to see the RCMP investigate a case of cyber crime linked to the NDP Leadership election.  Officials say more than 10-thousand ``fake'' Internet addresses were used to jam the N-D-P leadership convention's online voting system.  The tech company that ran the vote says the attack delayed voting for several hours, and pushed Thomas Mulcair victory as party leader late into Saturday night.

Grassy says no to logging

The Grassy Narrows First Nation says the Province has promised not to allow logging in its Traditional Land Use Area in the Whisky Jack forest while an appeal of a court ruling in going on.  Last summer, the Ontario Superior Court ruled the government couldn't take away Grassy's treaty rights by allowing clear cut logging near the community. Since then the Provice has decided to appeal the decision.  Grassy says that a no-logging agreement now prohibits any forestry activity in about 50-percent of its traditional land use area.

NAN reacts to budget

The Nishnawbe Aski Nation is panning the Provincial Government's budget.  Grand Chief Stan Beardy says it does nothing significant for the First Nations people.