Dryden

Ontario’s NDP party is warning that hospitals in northwestern Ontario may be forced to close the doors to their emergency rooms due to a growing shortage of doctors and physicians.

“Northerners deserve to have quality, reliable access to healthcare,” said Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath. “They shouldn’t have to travel hundreds of kilometres to get to an emergency room. No one should ever pull up to the hospital to find the ER doors locked.”

The Pellatt United Firefighters along with the Pellatt Community Centre can now upgrade both facilities following a $216,113 investment from the province on Friday (April 1, 2022).

These upgrades will ensure the non-profit organization can continue to offer emergency services and provide a functional space for community activities, sports, and recreation.

Northwestern Ontario will experience another burst of winter as we can expect up to 10cm of snowfall.

A special weather statement is in effect for Kenora, Grassy Narrows, Whitedog, Sioux Narrows, Nestor Falls, Morson, Dryden, Vermilion Bay, Ignace and English River. 

The snow will begin Tuesday night and will continue into Thursday morning with total snowfall amounts of 5 to 10 cm, with locally higher amounts possible.

A couple of players of the Dryden GM Ice Dogs are taking home some hardware for the 2021-22 Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL) season.

Forward Maxime Collette has earned himself this year's SIJHL Most Valuable Player.

He finished the season atop the league leaders in points with 81 and goals with 45. His 36 assists were tied for second in league scoring. Collette also had four hat-tricks which led the league.

The SIJHL says the smooth-skating forward established himself early as a top offensive threat.

A social media post has led to charges for two northwestern Ontario youth.

On March 17, the Dryden OPP say they were notified of a social media post showing a single motor vehicle collision in the Zealand Township, east of Dryden.

Officers later located the video where they observed a driver steering a motor vehicle erratically, swerving between both lanes of the highway. The vehicle later rolled onto its side and slid into a snowbank. No injuries were reported.

Dryden’s Tyler Earl was honoured by the SIJHL being named the Most Improved Player for the 2021-22 season. The league says that after only recording two points in his first 11 games, he quickly found his stride and finished the season with 12 goals and 17 assists in 45 games. He is one of nine Ice Dogs players to record over 20 points in the season, and the only rookie first-year player to accomplish this. 

One of Canada's foremost experts on child protection online said she is "very optimistic" that a panel advising cabinet ministers about combating online harm can map out a way to protect minors from sexual exploitation on the internet.

Lianna McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, was among a dozen people appointed last week to the expert panel asked to help the government craft a new online safety bill.

The Sioux Lookout Fire Department is this year’s Battle of the Badges champions, taking down members of the Sioux Lookout OPP and Lac Seul Police Service 6-4.

“Thank you to everyone who came out to show their support,” wrote the Sioux Lookout OPP. “Firefighters won this time, but [we’ll] be back next year to reclaim [our trophy]”

The annual charity hockey tournament raised $2,000 for a bursary, which will be donated in Sierra Hoppe’s name. Hoppe was active in Sioux Lookout’s hockey community before passing away at the age of 14 in late February.

Northwestern Ontario’s already high gas prices are only getting worse.

Ontario residents could see the price at the pump decreased slightly by this summer.

On Monday (April 4, 2022) the province introduced legislation that would if passed cut the gas tax by 5.7 cents per litre and the fuel tax by 5.3 cents per litre for six months starting July 1, 2022.

Kenora-Rainy River MPP, Greg Rickford said that the province is taking another look as to how they can cut costs at the pumps for consumers.