Here are our top 10 stories for the month of June 2016. We'll be presenting our annual Year in Review feature between now and Jan. 1.
- The inquest into the death of seven First Nations students in Thunder Bay between 2001 and 2016 wrapped up, with 145 recommendations being made by the jury. Among the recommendations is the urging of Ottawa to drastically improve First Nations education, including reducing and eliminating the funding gap between the provincial school system and First Nations schools within 10 years.
- City officials confirmed the inevitable, announcing late in the month that they emerald ash borer had arrived in Thunder Bay. The Asian beetle had been slowly advancing on the city in recent years and it landing in Thunder Bay set off months of planning trying to figure out how to combat the bug, which threatens the city’s ash tree population.
- The Thunder Bay Art Gallery was awarded $2.2 million for a study looking into the feasibility of moving the facility from the Confederation College campus to the waterfront. Gallery officials said the overall cost of a new building would be somewhere in the range of $25 million, which has since been increased to more than $32 million.
- Thunder Bay music legend Bobby Curtola died on June 7 at the age of 73. Curtola became an early teen idol, rocketing up the charts with hits like Don’t You Sweetheat Me, Hitchhiker and Fortune Teller, all of which hit the top 10 on the Canadian charts in the early 1960s. Curtola had 25 Canadian gold singles and 12 gold albums.
- The Lakehead Public School Board made its school closure recommendations, opting to keep Hammarskjold High School open and close Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute, repurposing it as an elementary school. The recommendations, however, were overturned by the trustees in an October vote.
- Staff and residents at the 112-bed Bethammi Nursing home were relieved to learn the long-term care facility would remain open. MPP Bill Mauro, who made the announcement, acknowledged it wouldn’t solve all issues surrounding long-term care in the city, calling it a national problem facing an aging population.
- Thunder Bay Police made a huge drug bust, stopping two major trafficking rings dead in their tracks. Project Recover resulted in charges being laid against 19 people, the seizure of more than 115 pounds of marijuana worth more than $1 million and 1.6 kilograms of cocaine, valued at $165,000. Vehicles, boats and a tractor trailer were also seized, along with five firearms and $140,000 in cash.
- Dozens of cats were removed from a north end home by the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals, who executed a warrant at the Secord Street home. A heavy smell of ammonia could be detected on the scene.
- Both Thunder Bay MPPs survived a cabinet shuffle made by Premier Kathleen Wynne, though Bill Mauro did see his portfolio changed from minister of Natural Resources and Forestry to Minister of Municipal Affairs. MPP Michael Gravelle retained his post as minister of Northern Development and Mines.
- An inquest jury recommended a new jail be built to replace the Thunder Bay District Jail following an in-depth look into the 2008 death of a 29-year-old prisoner, ruled to be the result of alcohol withdrawal.
