The forest industry may be the prime victim of the economic woes hurting Northwestern Ontario these days, but the tourism industry certainly is a close second.
Back in 2001, the peak year of the past decade, the tourism industry brought in more than $300 million to the area while employing almost 10,000 people, according to figures from the North Western Ontario Tourism Association (NWOTA).

First the good news.
The 2006 census data Statistics Canada released last Thursday showed the median income for families in Fort Frances jumped 15.3 percent to $75,934 since 2001 (when adjusted for inflation)—a whopping hike compared to a national increase of 3.7 percent and a provincial increase of just 1.4 percent over that same time frame.
There were other promising numbers, too. While women, on average, made just 71 percent of what men earned here, that figure was a mere 53 percent five years ago.

The perception that you “can’t fight city hall” is nothing new, but it certainly has become an even more prevailing attitude among local citizens of late. We hear it in the coffee shops—and see it in the poor turnout for municipal elections and at many public meetings.
But a group of local residents proved Monday night that you can, indeed, fight city hall—and hopefully their success in preserving the Nelson Street park as “green space” will spur others to take more interest in issues and decisions affecting their lives or neighbourhoods.

Who wouldn’t prefer to eat fresh meat and produce that came from a nearby farm rather than being trucked in from destinations hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away?
It certainly makes sense from a taste point of view, not to mention the benefit of keeping dollars in the local economy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by having fewer trucks on the highways, and insulating the cost of food from soaring fuel prices.
Given these obvious merits, why is it that government rules and regulations are hindering access to local foods, rather than encouraging it?

One can’t help but be inspired by the story of Melissa McCormick, the Windsor, Ont. woman who was kidnapped and brutally gang-raped in Detroit when she was just 19 years old.
Her ordeal caused her to plunge into depression, which eventually led to an addiction to valium and pain-killers, and then dabbling in other kinds of drugs.

District residents certainly were caught off-guard last week with word that Greyhound had applied to discontinue its bus service between Fort Frances and Thunder Bay effective May 4.
We’ve since learned that Greyhound did not comply with provisions under the Public Vehicles Act regarding its notification to discontinue the service, meaning the earliest the route could be cut is now sometime this summer.

Kudos to Canadians from coast to coast who led the world for an hour Saturday night in delivering the message it’s time for concrete action on climate change.
Dubbed “Earth Hour,” which was begun last year in Sydney, Australia as the brainchild of the World Wildlife Fund, people across the globe dimmed the lights from 8-9 p.m. in their respective time zones. And it was us Canucks who led the way on a per-capita basis.

The most valuable piece of undeveloped real estate space on the planet has to be Central Park. Located smack dab in the middle of Manhattan, can you just imagine the dollar signs ringing up in the eyes of the likes of Donald Trump if it ever was opened up to developers?
That will never happen, of course, because Central Park has proven much more valuable as an oasis in the concrete jungle that is New York City.

The drive to build a new library here hit a major pothole late last month with news the province had denied a $500,000 grant application to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp.
The decision means the town will have to foot more of the bill for the $3.9-million project—and left councillors scrambling at a budget meeting this past Monday afternoon over how to proceed.

Play with fire enough times and you’re bound to get burned.
The federal Liberals have spent the past several months doing anything and everything to avoid an election they know they can’t win. They’ve abstained from crucial votes, or had just enough members in the House so as to ensure a motion wasn’t defeated.
They’ve worded their own motions in such a way that the NDP and Bloc Quebecois couldn’t support them.