Tourism Minister calls child's death devastating

This weeks tragedy at Fort William Historical Park has the attention of Ontario's Tourism Minister. In an exclusive interview with The Giant News, Michael Chan calls the death of 4 year old Willow Scott-Hannam devastating. She was struck by a horse drawn wagon Monday on a school field trip and later died of her injuries. Chan is calling on the city to pull together and grieve together and come out of the situation stronger. He says he's being kept up to date on the investigations and his staff are in touch with Fort officials almost on an hourly basis. Chan expects lessons will be learned from the tragedy.

Irwin kicks off the Border Cats season

Olympic women's hockey gold medalist Haley Irwin threw out the first pitch to start the Northwoods League season for the Thunder Bay Border Cats. The Cats went on to win the game 1-0 on the shoulders of starting pitcher Garret Yount who went 6 and a third innings giving up just a pair of hits. Drew Irwin got the save for the Cats.

Northern Ontario Heritage Party soon a reality

The Northern Ontario Heritage Party is one step closer to gaining official party status.  Party spokesperson Ed Deibel says they're waiting for a letter from the Ontario Elections Commission.  More than 1 thousand one hundred and fifty signatures in favour of the party were sent to the commission.  The NOHP is hoping to put 11 candidates in place for the next provincial election.

Innova developer backs out

A southern Ontario company isn't building a new shopping centre at Innova Business Park after all. The city's Mark Smith says the developer is claiming global market conditons are making it impossible to find anchor tenants. Smith says the company wasn't under any legal obligation to develop the property.  He says First Gulf Developments had the ability to back out of the agreement in a certain period of time and exercised that right before that time expired.   First Gulf planned to develop a 600 thousand square foot plaza.   Smith says all is not lost for Innova though.  He says interest in the area has prompted the city to build two entrance roads into the property over the summer

Facebook page set up for Willow

The death of 4 year old Willow Scott-Hannam is being felt by everyone in the city. There is a Facebook site that is dedicated to the kindergarten student who died following an incident at Fort William Historical Park on Monday. Mayor Lynn Peterson is also expressing condolences. She says the entire community is saddened by the tragedy and our hearts and prayers are with the family. Funeral arrangements are still being worked out.

Coroner's probe begins into 4 year old's death

The Regional Coroner's office is investigating the death of a four year old Hyde Park kindergarten student.  Willow Scott-Hannam was on a field trip to Fort William Historical Park on Monday when the accident involving horses and a wagon occurred.  Dr. Michael Wilson says the investigation has begun and could take several months to complete. Wilson says after the investigation concludes they will decide whether or not to launch an inquiry into the death.

Local Tim Horton's outlets present Camp Day

Tim Horton's coffee shops in Canada are collecting money for underprivleged kids today. It's Camp Day, where money from coffee sold at each outlet goes towards sending children to camp. All the company outlets in Thunder Bay participated with local celebrities helping to promote the cause. Pictured: Tim Horton's employee Darcia Harasym serves up doughnuts at the Memorial and John location.

City gets a C minus for transparency

The Canadian Newspaper Association has given the City of Thunder Bay a C minus when it comes to being transparent.  President John Hinds says they asked several simple questions to City representatives ranging from the Mayor's travel expenses to pieces of property the City purchased.  He says as an example they asked for the amount of money that the municipality spends on cell phones for city employees.  For information he says should be readily available Hinds says they requested over 2 thousand 500 dollars for that information.   For the Mayor's travel expenses the cost would have been 62 dollars.    Hinds says out of 35 municipalities Thunder Bay comes in at 31.

Another person pulled out of the Kam River

Another intoxicated person had to be rescued from the Kam River. A 20 year old woman was pulled from the River at Kam View Park yesterday morning just before 5 AM. When officers arrived they found a 60 year old man assisting the woman up the ladder. They were both taken to the Health Sciences Centre as a precaution.

Border Cats open Northwoods League season tonight

Its time to play ball at Port Arthur Stadium. The Border Cats open the Northwoods League season against the Duluth Huskies. Currently there's construction work taking place around the stadium to prepare for the Junior championships. Owner Brad Jordgenson admits it will be be an inconvenience to fans. The first pitch will be thrown at 6:35 by Thunder Bay's Golden Girl Haley Irwin.

Hyde Park kindergarten student dies

The Lakehead Public School Board has confirmed the death of a four year old student who was injured in a horse and carriage accident at Fort William Historical Park.  Dead is Willow Scott-Hannam. Director of Education Cathy Siemieniuk says her heart goes out to the family.  Siemieniuk says they will have grief counsellors on site to talk to family members, staff and classmates of the deceased. The Coroner's Office, Ministry of Labour, Lakehead Public School Board and the Fort are all conducting internal investigations.  It was only last week that four year old Willow took part in a Habitat for Humanity ground breaking ceremony for its new homes on Mary Street. She was photographed placing her foot in the recently poured cement. The organization has posted a photo of Willow.

Ministry of Labour probes child death

The Ministry of Labour is now involved in the tragic death at Fort William Historical Park. Spokesperson Bruce Skeaff says it is considered a workplace probe because they investigate all serious injuries or deaths at a workplace whether its a worker or non worker.  Skeaff says they'll be looking at the death from a health and safety point of view

Fort GM says staff saddened by tragedy

The General Manager of Fort William Historical Park is speaking out about Monday's tragedy. Sergio Buonocore says the entire staff is saddened by the turn of events that led to the death of a 4 year old school student in the farm area. Buonocore says the Fort is conducting it's own investigation into the incident.  He says all public programming on the farm has been suspended until the probe is completed.   Buonocore says the Fort was closed today out of respect but will reopen on Wednesday

May was warm and dry

Environment Canada is saying that summer came early to Thunder Bay and the rest of the province. In it's weather review for May it says that warm temperatures were the norm in the northwest. It was also a dry month. In Thunder Bay we had about 38 millimetres of rain in May which is 28 millimetres less than normal making it the driest May since 1997.

OPP officer faces charges

An OPP officer in Northwestern Ontario is charged with Uttering Threats. A police investigation was started after an incident that occurred in Terrace Bay on Sunday. As a result they say that 40 year old Constable Gregory Stutton was charged. As well they say that 6 long guns and two hand guns were seized from his home resulting in two firearms charges. Police say Sutton is an 8 year veteran of the Schreiber OPP detachment and was off duty at the time of the incident. He has been suspended from active duties. He appears in court in Thunder Bay July 5th.

Tree fire causes power problems

Thunder Bay Hydro customers on the city's south side have their power back. It follows an outage at around 1 o'clock in the afternoon according the Hydro spokesperson Eileen Dias. She says the problem was resolved about 45 minutes later.   She says about 38 hundred customers located in the downtown south core from the Thunder Centre shopping plaza to Arthur Street were affected at  it's peak.  The outage was caused by a tree on a power line that caught fire

Thunder Bay is age friendly

Thunder Bay is now officially "age friendly".  City Council granted the status to the local committee at Monday night's meeting.  Spokesperson Mary Lou Kelley says Thunder Bay's population is aging rapidly.  A report on seniors issues include community safety and affordable housing.  The local committee hopes to get the World Health Organization to deem the City "age friendly".

Girl's hockey team recognized by city

The Thunder Bay Queens Midget AA Team were recognized at Monday night's city council meeting.   The team was honoured for winning gold at the Ontario Women's Hockey Association Provincials in Mississauga and for winning gold at the Esso Cup National Tournament in Regina.  Also recognized at Monday's meeting were plasma donor Bert Harding and keyboard virtuoso Conner Curran

Northwest residents still live risky lifestyles

Residents of Northwestern Ontario still live a lifestyle that poses a cancer risk. The latest report card from Cancer Care Ontario indicates we smoke more than the provincial average and are more overweight as well. Michael Power of the Regional Cancer Centre says even cutting down on smoking would help reduce rates considerably.  He says there is also concern not enough of us are getting cancer screened for colon or prostate cancer. The report card also shows the local Centre is doing a good job in cancer radiation treatment.

10am Drinking in honour of FIFA

Starting June 11th, you'll be able to crack open a cold one an hour earlier at your favourite drinking establishment.  The province is allowing licensed bars and restaurants to serve alcoholic beverages earlier in the day during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.  Minister of Consumer Services Sophia Aggelontitis says the change in drinking hours will help accomodate the delayed game times.  The games are being telecast from South Africa with some games starting as early as 7:30 am ET.