Here at the Fort Frances Times, Tanya Cumming attends to everyone’s safety. She constantly is reminding everyone about health and safety rules, which often includes information about nutrition, diet, exercise, and working with computers to reduce the risk of injury. I like to think that our workplace is a very […]
Jim Cumming – From the Publisher Emeritus’ Pen
Jim is the former publisher of the Fort Frances Times Ltd. He writes a weekly column and can be contacted at jcumming@fortfrances.com
Municipalities across Ontario complained that former premier Mike Harris downloaded many provincial costs to them. But in doing that, the Conservative government transferred additional funding to offset some of those. In a more subtle method, Premier Dalton McGuinty—in a bid to eliminate the provincial deficit—has handed over to Rainy River […]
For almost two decades, I have spent the Memorial Day weekend at the Canada Games Complex in Thunder Bay officiating at the Thunderbolts’ swim meet, which attracts swimmers from Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba as well as across Northwestern Ontario. For local swimmers, it is their one meet a season […]
Rainy Lake came alive this Victoria Day weekend. Since our first weekend at the cabin almost five weeks ago, hardly a light has been seen at night on the lake. But this past weekend, several lights lit the windows of cabins that we can see. Over the previous two weekends, […]
When I was growing up in Fort Frances, the police department only had two cars and the station was a small brick building attached to the old town hall. The town hall, the fire department, and the police station all existed in the space in front of the current Civic […]
While many cross-border shoppers may cheer the increases in merchandise allowance that Canadians will be allowed to return with from the U.S., many towns and cities along the border are petitioning the Ministry of Finance to rescind his June 1 changes. Currently, Canadian residents returning to Canada after 24 hours […]
Don Cumming received a very special award from the Canadian Community Newspapers Association last Thursday evening at the Royal York Hotel. He was the recipient of the “Gold Quill” Award, which is bestowed upon individuals who have worked within the newspaper years for 50 years and have been involved in […]
Sunday was Earth Day. I hadn’t paid much attention to the day until I watched the news on CBC that evening and saw the parades and people working to cleaning up waterways and parks across Canada. People also planted trees along roadways and replaced fallen trees in parks. In my […]
Sometimes it is necessary to question the thinking of senior government. As the federal government seeks to eliminate thousands of jobs from departments across Canada, you must question how decisions were arrived at. It is especially true of border services. Similarly, in Ontario, we already have seen the announcement of […]
Forsberg and Lindberg, MacIntoshes, Taylor Electric, Andy’s Candy Land, Bernardi’s, Veteran Electric, the bowling alley, Shop Easy, Niznicks, Tiny Tot Shop, The Fridge, Gilmore, and Noden are names of businesses that all have disappeared from the 300 block of Scott Street in my lifetime. Before most people had chest freezers […]
This past week, the staff at the Fort Frances Times went through intensive training on new software.You will not see a great deal of difference in the paper, but the changes were required because the software we were using was becoming very dated. By dated, I’m admitting the software was […]
In the home I grew up in, the use of vulgar language was never tolerated. Even the use of descriptive terms to identify bodily functions would result in a strong verbal reprimand. We used numbers instead to describe those functions. As I grew up, other words came to our attention […]
