Tim Davidson has more than 30 years of experience in radio news. He is based in Kenora and covers stories in northwestern Ontario. Contact Tim at davidson.tim@radioabl.ca.
The Webequie First Nation is getting funding from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund for a new building.
Two million dollars will go towards construction of a recreation and cultural center.
The facility will not only house sporting events, but will act as a space for traditional gatherings, entertainment and other community events.
Greg Rickford, Minister of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation and Minister Responsible for Ring of Fire Economic and Community Partnerships. “The cultural recreation center will be a gathering space for community well-being and connection.”
“A milestone infrastructure project for future generations.”
The building will be 31,000 square feet and be centrally located in the community.
The City of Kenora has a housing shortage of about 1,620 hundred units.
That about twice the number used by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Tim Welch Consulting worked on a Housing Needs Assessment for the city and consultant Frazier Fathers says it contains a number of actions to improve the housing supply.
“I think the 13 actions that were identified by city staff are really going to help fill some of those gaps you have identified, using the Official Plan and Zoning By-Law,” Father told city council at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Thursday.
“Really, there’s a question there about what levers does the city want to pull around innovation and trying new things.”
Fathers suggests the city can look at other options to increase the housing stock.
“The idea around modular homes is certainly interesting, you know given you are a northern community and building costs are high in some cases. So, there’s opportunity there.”
The report shows there could be a short of over 2,500 housing units in Kenora by 2031.
The Housing Needs Assessment was started in the spring and 700 people filled out an online survey and 77 businesses were also surveyed.
The city’s co-CAO Stace Gander says the Housing Needs Assessment is important because it’s needed if a developer wants to construct new homes in the city and wants to use the CMHC.
Work on the Keewatin Channel Bridge is to begin a new phase on Friday.
To accommodate the equipment used to recoat and repair the bridge, the westbound lane will have to be closed.
The city says the heating and blasting equipment cannot be placed on the scaffolding below the bridge and will be placed on the westbound lane instead.
There will be traffic signal lights, signage, and occasional flaggers on site.
The work will continue all winter long, but the westbound lane will be open in December for holiday travel, then close again in January.
At a town hall meeting Monday night at Seven Generations, the price tag was put at about $800 million.
Planning for the new hospital began back in 2017 with a signing ceremony, and a year later a business case was presented to the provincial government.
Vice-president of Operations and Capital Planning at Lake of the Woods District Hospital Alison Wesley-James says right now, they have a number of approvals from the Ministry of Health.
“The functional program has been approved, which defines the programs and services that will be in the hospital,” explained Wesley-James following the town hall meeting.
“It defines the size of the hospital and the size of each department. So, we will move ahead with design.”
Wesley-James adds there’s a lot of work to do before they can actually start designing the building.
“Depending on the approach that Infrastructure Ontario wants us to take, we’ll either sit down first and do some output specifications that inform the design, or we’ll have the architects right at the table and we’ll be mapping out the floor plans and getting right into that.”
Ideally, she says they would like to have shovels in the ground for the new hospital in three years.
The town hall was also told construction work on the new Wiigwas long term care home would begin first and include 160 beds.
Mayor Andrew Poirier represented the City of Kenora and says they will be a major partner is the development of the property, including services.
He says a new underwater line will have to be built from Kenora to Keewatin, and then from Keewatin over to the hospital site.
The cost of that project will be between 18 and 19 million dollars.
In all, there are 118 acres of land to build on and that includes the hospital, long term care home, a hostel, an emergency call center, housing and potentially a hotel.
A new website has been developed for the project, and more information can be found here
The Canadian Armed Forces is working with local high schools to offer a co-op program.
An information session will take place Tuesday afternoon at the Kenora Armories.
Captain Craig Loverin says under the program, the students are paid to take part in military training.
“So, this is one of the, I won’t say only, but it’s one of the few co-op programs that they do get paid, and get paid substantially well,” explain Loverin.
“They get paid full days throughout the program and their contract would run from February to June.”
They also have the option of a summer job for five years, which is also paid.
Loverin adds this is the first time this co-op program is being offered in Kenora.
“It started off in cooperation with high schools in Thunder Bay 20 years ago, and essentially we’re doing the same thing in Kenora where we have St. Thomas Aquinas, Beaver Brae and the Bimose community school. We’re looking for students that are interested in joining the Canadian armed forces.”
The information session starts at 2:00 and is open to students who are 16 and older.
