Thunder Bay

A spring-water bottling plant in Kenora is expanding production and will hire as many as 14 new employees. Two new bottling lines are being added that will boost production at NatureÕs Bay Bottling Co. to 75,000 500-ml bottles per shift.

Trus Joist Weyerhaeuser's new plant in Kenora is in the final stages of hiring. The final 250 candidates for 180 maintenance and production positions are going through one-day assessments and job offers will be made in May.

Abitibi-Consolidated’s Kenora mill will be shut down during May for inventory adjustment. All but a handful of workers will be laid off for the month.

Minaki Lodge near Kenora has been sold to Calgary-based Land Development Company for an undisclosed price. The lodge has been closed since 1998.

Kenora appears ready to pass a bylaw banning pesticides and herbicides.

Northern Genesis, a project aimed at strengthening northwestern Ontario's communities through information and communication technology, is gaining steam.

Fort Frances is getting ready to host the 11th annual International Conference on Safe Communities. The conference, May 6 to 10, is an initiative of the World Health Organization.

Construction on Emo's new water intake system has received the green light from the Ministry of the Environment. The township plans to advertise for tenders soon and is seeking additional funding from the heritage fund.

A biomass waste disposal project is one step closer to becoming a reality for Emo. A funding application has been sent to FedNor for consideration.

A Seattle-based company, Railex, is expressing interest in Thunder Bay's waterfront. It wants to build a $175-million gas turbine power plant on the city's Portside property.