Kenora

Physician and Healthcare worker shortages are a hot topic for most of Canada, especially here in northwestern Ontario where most hospitals are facing Emergency Department closures.  

Eric Melillo, MP for the Kenora riding, believes the federal government should be doing more to help with the healthcare crisis.  

Canada's industry minister will meet with the head of Rogers Communications today in the wake of last week's massive outage that paralyzed the company's network.

The office of François-Philippe Champagne says he plans to meet with Tony Staffieri and other telecom leaders to discuss the importance of improving Canada's networks. 

The widespread Rogers service outage began on Friday morning and lasted at least 15 hours, knocking out access to many health-care, law enforcement and banking services.

Canada's premiers are starting their summer gathering at a Victoria-area First Nation where they'll meet with leaders of the National Indigenous Organizations, a collection of five national Indigenous groups. 

The Council of the Federation, representing premiers from Canada's 13 provinces and territories, are meeting in Victoria today and Tuesday.

The Songhees Nation says in a statement that Monday's gathering of premiers and Indigenous leaders at the Songhees Wellness Centre creates a precedent by holding such an event on its reserve lands.

The Coney Island 14th “Maybe Annual” Music Festival is on the move.

The festival, typically held on Coney Island, will be held this year under the Whitecap Pavillion on Kenora's Harbourfront due to the historically high Lake of the Woods level.

“With current conditions resulting from high waters on Lake of the Woods, lack of any substantial beach on Coney Island, a field that is saturated in water and thus a concern for public safety and general enjoyment, we have decided to move to the mainland this year,” said co-founder of the festival, Ferg Devins.

While Environment Canada’s Severe Thunderstorm Watches have ended for the Kenora and Dryden areas, a Severe Thunderstorm Warning remains in effect in the Sioux Lookout, Pickle Lake, Lac Seul, Ear Falls, Wabaseemoong and Red Lake areas.

Isolated thunderstorms northwest of the Kenora area moved eastward through the region today. A tornado was reported near the Wabasemoong Independent Nation area, but no reports of injuries or damage have been reported as of yet.

Residents are reminded to take cover immediately if threatening weather approaches.

-- UPDATE --

The severe thunderstorm watch for Kenora, Grassy Narrows, Whitedog, and the surrounding communities has been upgraded to a warning.

A few isolated thunderstorms northwest of Kenora will track eastward through the region late this afternoon and approach severe thunderstorm limits due to damaging hail and gusty winds up to 90 km/h.

Take cover immediately, if threatening weather approaches. Large hail can damage property and cause injury.

The building, now known for The Hungry Pug, has a long history of being home to some of Kenora’s favourite restaurants throughout time.  

According to history provided by the Patsiatzis family (current building owners), the building has been home to W.L. Birden Meat Market, King Cash Grocery, Williams Tobacco Shop, Bryce’s Bakery, W.S. Irish Confectionary, McInnes Confectionary, The Salisbury House, Bizzi Bee, Borelli’s, The Pier, and of course, The Hungry Pug.  

As it stands, the City of Kenora’s plans to redevelop half of Central Park into housing have been stopped in their tracks after a decision from Ontario’s Land Tribunal.

The tribunal makes decisions on matters related to land use planning as well as environment and heritage protection. They’ve recently ruled in favour of Kenora resident Dawn Mitchell, who says the City of Kenora violated proper procedures when they rezoned Central Park last year.

-- UPDATE --

The storm system has passed.

-- ORIGINAL STORY --

As per Environment Canada:

Conditions are favourable for the development of dangerous thunderstorms that may be capable of producing strong wind gusts, large hail and torrential rain.

These thunderstorms moving eastward from Manitoba will be possible through early tonight.

-- UPDATE --

Power has been restored.

-- ORIGINAL STORY --

Roughly 280 households are without power this evening in the Vermilion Bay area following a severe thunderstorm that rolled through around 9:00 p.m.

Hydro One says the cause of the outage is 'pending classification,' while area residents say lightning hit a transformer.

The utility says a crew has been dispatched to the area and power should be restored by 12:25 a.m. on July 10.