Tim Davidson

Sioux Lookout is losing it’s Santa Claus Parade.

The Sioux Lookout Chamber of Commerce informed the municipality on October 16th that it would no longer organize the parade.

The town had to do a quick pivot and instead has organized Santa’s Village.

It will take place on December 6th between Front Street and Centennial Park.

The town says there will still be room for floats and it will set up light displays throughout the Park.

Santa’s Village will take place from 3 until 6.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization says it has received some promising water testing results from the area proposed for the Deep Geological Repository.

A hydrogeologist has been testing the water in the bore holes that have been drilled.

Only seven samples could be gathered and most were above the 150 meter mark, and only two samples were from below that depth.

Testing also showed the water below the 150 meter mark was millions of years old.

The NWMO says the results are promising because it shows how little water there is in the rock.

The DGR would be located more 500 meters below the surface.

(Photo from the Nuclear Waste Management Organization)

Northwestern Ontario has a new regional commander for the OPP.

Sean Crabbe has been named the Chief Superintendent for the region.

Crabbe has held a number of detachment commander positions, including in Red Lake, the Rainy River District and acting inspector in Kenora.

He has also served in supervisory roles in Pickle Lake, West Parry Sound and James Bay.

The OPP says as regional commander he will lead all operations across the region.

Crabbe has been on the job since October 12th.

The City of Kenora has been fined a $1,000 by Elections Canada.

It’s as a result of removing campaign signs in the 2025 election race.

The Commission of Elections Canada confirms that 102 election signs were removed by city by-law officers without providing prior notice to the campaigns.

A complaint was filed with Elections Canada in April of 2025, four days before the federal election.

The removal of the signs violates a sub-section of the Elections Canada Act that prohibits interfering with election advertising.

The city says it has taken steps to avoid future violations.

Kenora’s most decorated hockey player will add another honour to his list.

Mike Richards will be inducted into the Kitchener Rangers Ring of Legacy Tuesday night.

Richards helped power the Rangers to the Memorial Cup in 2003.

Among his other accomplishments are two Stanley Cup victories with the LA Kings, the 2005 World Junior Hockey Championship and a gold medal for Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Richards joins just two others on the Ring of Legacy with Brian Bellow and coach Peter DeBoer.

The Beaver Brae Broncos will face their NORWOSSA counterparts the Fort Frances Muskies in the semifinals of the Currie Division of the Winnipeg High School Football League.

The Broncos claimed their place with a 19-0 win over the Portage Trojans, the only team that beat them in the regular season.

Colton Oldford had three rushing touchdowns for Beaver Brae and several key tackles on defense.

The Fort Frances Muskies meanwhile earned their berth in the semis with a 22-3 win over the John Taylor Pipers.

The Broncos and Muskies will do battle Friday evening at Fort Garry Stadium in Winnipeg.

Game time is scheduled for 7:30.

The Dryden Eagles weren’t as fortunate.

The Eagles dropped a 27-22 decision to the Churchill Bulldogs on Friday.

The Bulldogs will now meet the St. Norbert Celtics in the other semi.

The Celtics trounced the St. John Tigers 40-8 their semifinal game.

Construction work on Lakeview Drive has pretty much wrapped up.

One of the final pieces of the puzzle was the intersection at Lakeview Drive and Parson Street.

There is now a left turn lane in both directions, which has a pressure activated signal.

The work also includes a new intersection at the hospital.

The City says some work still has to be done on the all-purpose trail beside Lakeview Drive, but that should be complete in the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, bridge maintenance will continue on the Hospital Bridge and the Winnipeg River West Branch Bridge until November 11th.

The Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce has handed out it’s annual business award.

RPM Power Sports won four awards, including Customer Service, the Customer Service Award for an Individual for Matt Armstrong, Business Owner/Manager of the Year for Ryan Mosbeck and Business of the Year with 1-17 employees.

Large Business of the Year, with over 16 employees went to Riverside Health Care Facilities.

Turtle Island Cafe and Barbershop also won two awards, picking up New Business under 3 years old and Indigenous Business of the Year.

Lindsay Dixon won for Business Woman of the Year at Calder Law.

Other award winners were Brianna Eldridge at Busy Bree Nails for Home-Based Business, Brady Heyens for Youth Entrepreneur of the Year and Alicia Anderson from Stylush as Small Business Trainer of the Year.

The awards were handed out on Wednesday evening at Lowey’s Greenhouse.

The mayor of Machin says there is no shortage of projects that he would like to see completed in the next four years.

Gord Griffiths was re-elected on Monday.

He says the first big project that should come to fruition is in Eagle River.

“The big one that should happen next year…I think we’re still on schedule to replace that big bridge…the Cascade Bridge in Eagle River,” said Griffiths following his election win Monday night.

“So, I wanted to see that through. And we still got this dump issue. I think that maybe the political people in Toronto, unfortunately for them, I’m still here, so I’m still going to be bugging them.”

He adds that one of his top priorities is to create more new housing for the community.

“We need housing like everyone else. It’s tough on us in the small community with a small population. Governments tend to look at the bigger population areas, but we need housing too, just like everyone else. We need housing for people to move here, for work, retirement, that kind of stuff.”

Griffiths says a new land ambulance base and a new medical center in Vermilion Bay are also some of the things he would like to see approved and built in this term of office.

Two days after Ontario’s residents went to the polls for its municipal elections, Manitoba’s towns and cities did the same thing yesterday.

Scott Gillingham was returned as Winnipeg’s mayor.

He picked up almost 40 percent of the vote and finished nearly 20 points ahead of Winnipeg Sun publisher Kevin Klein, who was second.

There were 15 people on the ballot.

Just across the border in the Rural Municipality of Reynolds, David Turchyn was elected mayor over David Hood.

Turchyn picked over 62 percent of the vote.

For more information on the various election races in each Manitoba municipality, you can go to: https://mbvotes.ca