Local News from Across the Rainy River District
CAT LAKE FIRST NATION – City dwellers may have welcomed the unseasonably warm December weather, but it made Cat Lake’s chief a tad nervous. Chief Russell Wesley estimated in a recent interview that his remote community northeast of Red Lake might see a winter-road season of just four weeks, with […]
Neebing, Ont. — Mild temperatures and low snowfall amounts so far this winter is bad news for sledders and skiers, but small municipalities may receive a break on the amounts they have to put out for plowing and sanding local roads. In Neebing Township, just southwest of Thunder Bay, the […]
First Nations leaders say hunters, fishers and trappers in Manitoba continue to be unfairly targeted and disciplined by conservation officers for exercising their Treaty rights. At the First Nation Hunters and Commercial Fisherman Treaty and Aboriginal Rights Meeting in Winnipeg on Thursday, they asked the province’s new NDP government to […]
Justina Di Stasio, a member of Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba, took another step toward fulfilling her lifelong dream of representing Canada in the women’s wrestling competition at this year’s Paris Olympics. In mid-December she took top honours in her weight class at the Canadian team trials held in […]
The shortage of Firefighters across Canada is a growing crisis, as well as a disaster. In 2016, when I became Fire Chief, there were over 126,000 volunteer firefighters in Canada. In 2023, that number diminished by over 37,000. The unfortunate clarity of the shortage of firefighters makes many communities, including […]
Observed today for the second time, National Ribbon Skirt Day originated in 2020 when 10-year-old Isabella Kulak wore a ribbon skirt on her school’s “formal wear day” and was shamed by a staff member. According to the ribbonskirtproject.ca ribbon skirts are an ancient tradition among the different Indigenous groups across […]
(Fort Frances, ON) – December 21, 2023, at approximately 11:29 a.m. the Fort Frances Fire Rescue Service responded to a structure fire (house fire) in the 400 block of Sixth Street West. Six fulltime firefighters, four part-time firefighters, and the fire chief responded with a pumper truck, an aerial ladder […]
Fort Frances mayor Andrew Hallikas, left, Alzheimer Society of Kenora-Rainy River client services co-ordinator Mary O’Connor, centre, and supporters of the Alzheimer Society joined together on the afternoon of Wednesday, January 3, 2024, for the raising of the Alzheimer Society flag at the Fort Frances Civic Centre to mark the […]
OTTAWA – The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) is marking January as the inaugural Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month in Canada. Nearly all professional Canadian fire fighters have felt the pain of losing colleagues in the line of duty from occupational cancers. In the five-year period 2018-2022, an average of […]
Growth in the Thunder Bay region’s new-business startups and expansions has intensified the search for funding sources. The Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre hosted a Meet the Funders event and added three more funding sources to their previous dozen. Funders have been vital to the survival of the region’s businesses, both […]
It’s been years since anyone in the Tataskweyak Cree Nation (TCN) could drink water unless it was either boiled or sent in on a delivery truck. But thanks to a billion-dollar settlement reached with the feds, the far north community is now anticipating a chance to finally put an end […]
January 18 is the deadline for business owners who received Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans to repay $40,000 of the $60,000 borrowed and access $20,000 in loan forgiveness. According to Angela Halvorsen Smith, Executive Director of the Rainy River Future Development Corporation (RRFDC), many small businesses in the Rainy […]
