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Happy Wednesday, Thunder Bay! Mainly cloudy, 25°C, and a 40 per cent chance of showers with a risk of a thunderstorm in the afternoon. In today's issue: a golf marathon that turned into $100,100 for two local charities, a cemetery dog bite that ends in relief, a border program that just bought itself a few more months, and a Lakehead expert on who wins the lithium race. ⛅
In this Harbour Beat Issue…
Trivia: In what year did NASA launch Voyager 1, now the most distant human-made object from Earth? (Answer at the bottom!)
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Thunder Bay Events
The second-last Wednesday of Live on the Waterfront, a cult sci-fi screening on Cumberland, a movie under the trees at Vickers Park, and then a weekend that is genuinely stacked — the Murillo Fair, a street fair in Westfort, taiko drumming in West Thunder and a colour throw at the Marina. ✅ Outdoor events can still shift on short notice — confirm with the organizer before you head out, and check current fire restrictions before lighting anything at a campsite.
Wednesday, August 12
AUG 12 · Live on the Waterfront — 6–9 p.m. · 📍 Festival Area, Marina Park, Water St. · Free · The second-last Wednesday of the summer series, and one of the easiest free nights out in the city · 📅 Add to Calendar
AUG 12 · Vox Popular presents: They Live — doors 6:30 p.m., screening 7 p.m. · 📍 Definitely Superior Art Gallery, 115 Cumberland St. N. · Admission by donation, $10 suggested · John Carpenter's 1988 sci-fi thriller about a pair of sunglasses that show you who's really running things · 📅 Add to Calendar
Thursday, August 13
AUG 13 · Summer Fun Night at Vickers Park — 6–10 p.m., film at 8 · 📍 Vickers Park, Arthur St. E. · Free · Bike programming, crafts and outdoor games, then Mamma Mia! on the big screen — bring a chair or a blanket · 📅 Add to Calendar
AUG 13 · Summer in the Parking Lot — 6 p.m. · 📍 Superior Inn & Conference Centre, 555 Arthur St. W. · $7 · Fae Alexander, The CCR Band, and Chris Krienke and Strawdawg — second-last night of the series · 📅 Add to Calendar
Friday, August 14
AUG 14 · Murillo Fair — 5–10 p.m. Friday, then 10 a.m.–10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Sunday · 📍 Murillo Fairgrounds, 600 Pole Line Rd., Oliver Paipoonge · The Oliver Agricultural Society's annual weekend: livestock, homecraft, midway rides and lawn mower races · 📅 Add to Calendar
Saturday, August 15
AUG 15 · Westfort Street Fair — 9 a.m.–5 p.m. · 📍 Frederica St. · Free to wander · Vendors, businesses, artists and musicians take over the street for the day · 📅 Add to Calendar
AUG 15 · LJCA Summer Matsuri — 4:30–9:30 p.m. · 📍 West Thunder Community Centre, 915 Edward St. S. · Free · Taiko drumming, kimono dressing, martial arts demos and a market full of food · 📅 Add to Calendar
Sunday, August 16
AUG 16 · Festival of Colours — 3 p.m. · 📍 Marina Park, Water St. · Ticketed, $17.55–$38.95 · Colour throws, live music, dance and food — wear white, and don't plan anything formal afterwards · 📅 Add to Calendar
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✅ NO WEATHER ALERTS IN EFFECT
Environment Canada had no watches or warnings posted for Thunder Bay as of Tuesday evening. There is a risk of a thunderstorm Wednesday afternoon, so keep an eye on the sky if you're out at the waterfront. Fire restrictions across the Northwest still change day to day — check the province's Restricted Fire Zone rules and your municipality's own ban before you light anything outdoors. Latest alerts at Environment Canada.
🌦️ Wednesday, August 12 — Thunder Bay
25°C
Feels like 27 · Overnight low 11°C
Mainly cloudy · 40% chance of showers · risk of an afternoon thunderstorm · UV 6 (high)
A grey one with a rumble in it. Mainly cloudy and a high of 25°C, humidex 27, with a 40 per cent chance of showers from late morning through the afternoon and a risk of a thunderstorm later in the day — worth a hood if you're heading down to Live on the Waterfront. UV index 6 (high) through the middle of the day. Overnight turns partly cloudy with a low of 11°C and another 40 per cent chance of showers early. Then the week straightens right out: sunny and 24°C Thursday, sunny and 23°C Friday, before cloud and a 30 per cent chance of showers bring Saturday down to 20°C. Full forecast and any new alerts at Environment Canada.
A day of golf turns into over $100,100 for two local charities
The number landed Tuesday: $100,100, raised at the second annual All Day, All Fore Good Jones Insurance Golf Marathon on the Whitewater links in Oliver Paipoonge back on June 22. Twenty-six players each brought in at least $3,000 to take part, some of them golfing dawn to dusk, and because Jones Insurance covered every expense, all of it went to the two charities — PRO Kids Thunder Bay and the Wilderness Discovery Centre. PRO Kids helps families facing a financial barrier get their kids into sport, art and recreation, and coordinator Grace Power notes the money “stays 100 per cent local.” Wilderness Discovery gives people with disabilities a fully accessible version of the Northwestern Ontario camp experience. Organizers already have next year in their sights: 36 golfers in 2027, and 72 the year after.
Rabies ruled out after a cemetery dog bite
A small story with a genuinely good ending. Scott Siwicki, 61, was bitten by a dog at Mountain View Cemetery on July 29 and treated at the Regional. The hospital reported it to the Thunder Bay District Health Unit as the law requires — but nobody had the dog owner's name, which meant no way to rule out rabies. That changed after Newswatch published the story: the owner came forward, and health unit inspector Matt Bradica went out Monday afternoon and confirmed the dog was alive and well. “I basically ruled out any risk of rabies to the victim from the bite. The file is closed now.” Worth knowing either way: under a city bylaw, animals other than service animals aren't allowed on cemetery property at all.
The remote border-crossing permits get a reprieve
If you know somebody with an RABC permit, they just got a few more months. The Remote Area Border Crossing Program lets permit holders enter Canada through the bush country between Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods — along the Pigeon River, the Minnesota Northwest Angle, the Superior shoreline — without physically presenting at a port of entry. The Canada Border Services Agency had set Sept. 14 as the program's end date; on Monday it pushed existing permits out to Dec. 1, 2026. About 11,000 people hold permits at any given time, and roughly 90 per cent are American. After that, everyone entering in those remote stretches reports to CBSA in person or by designated telephone site. Boaters who stay in Canadian waters without landing are covered by a separate exemption.
Four lithium hopefuls, and the race to build first
Four companies — Frontier Lithium, Green Technology Metals, Avalon Advanced Materials and Rock Tech Lithium — want to mine lithium in the Northwest and refine it here too, in Thunder Bay or, in Rock Tech's case, Red Rock. They'd be Ontario's first lithium mines. Peter Hollings, who heads Lakehead University's centre of excellence for sustainable mining, says there's room for all four to mine — but he doubts we end up with four refineries. “The company who can get their lithium plant built first is probably in an advantageous position,” he said. The chemistry is the hard part: each deposit needs a slightly different process to pull the lithium out of the rock. What he's watching for now is a shovel in the ground on one of them. “The technology's there, it's just no one's actually built the plant yet and got it working.”
Meme of the Day
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Trivia answer: 1977. Voyager 1 lifted off on Sept. 5, 1977, swung past Jupiter and Saturn, and crossed into interstellar space in 2012 — it is now more than 20 billion kilometres from Earth, further than anything else we've ever built.
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