Fort Frances Mayor Dan Onichuk and International Falls Mayor Shawn Mason are heading to Washington, D.C. to attend the launch of the “Friends of Canada Caucus” next Wednesday—a prelude to the “Meet Me at the Border” festivities planned for here on June 30.
Mayor Onichuk said at Monday night’s council meeting that mayors from 13 border communities, as participants in “Meet Me At The Border” celebrations, have been invited by the Consulate General of Canada to meet in Washington on June 21.
As previously reported, Fort Frances and International Falls, along with some other border communities across North America, have received funding from the Consulate General of Canada to stage special events this month.
The purpose of these activities is to celebrate cross-border communities and get residents from both sides of the border to get together.
“At this kick-off, we’ll have our opportunity to share what we’re going to do for the celebration here, and what it is like growing up in a border community,” said Mayor Onichuk.
“There’s also going to be some discussion in and around the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative passport issue,” he added. “And there will be submissions made on that.
“Mayor Mason and I are working together on both things right now and gearing up for it.”
Mayor Onichuk said he and Mayor Mason have been in contact with service clubs, the “Fun in the Sun” committee, and similar groups on their respective sides of the border to co-ordinate activities for June 30.
“We’ve got a draft of some events,” the mayor noted. “There’s going to be some press releases in the next week or 10 days, and right shortly after that an agenda of all the events.
“We picked June 30 because it can be sort of the kick-off to our Canada Day celebrations and their July 4 celebrations,” he added. “There’s going to be some fun stuff.”
While the agenda is tentative right now, some of the possible activities include dragon boat races, a tug-of-war across the river, scavenger hunt, a cross-border pool tourney with games alternating between the local Legion and VFW, and a cross-border volleyball tournament.
As well, the mayors recently visited elementary schools on both sides of the border to promote a “Meet Me at The Border” poster contest among students.
In other news, Mayor Onichuk will be travelling to Windsor for the U.S.-Canada Mayors’ Summit on July 20 to work a strategy with other border mayors to stop the WHTI passport regulations from coming into effect.
“Some are looking at this as the Canadians don’t want this because they won’t get the tourists,” said the mayor. “But I tell you, it affects every border community.
“If those tourists aren’t coming into Northwestern Ontario, they’re not going into International Falls, Mn.,” he argued.
“We, as mayors of all these border communities, know that. So the whole idea to get together and co-ordinate a voice; what we need to do,” Mayor Onichuk stressed.
This meeting, hosted by the City of Windsor in co-operation with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, originally was supposed to take place May 26 but was postponed due to scheduling conflicts.
Council approved the mayor attending both of these meetings.
Mayor Onichuk noted the trip to Washington is being covered by the Canadian Embassy there, with the town only having to pay for the mayor’s meal expenses.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
