Ribfest runs its last three days at the Speedway, Tumblestone takes over a field in Gorham, and Vampiro wrestles his final match at the Gardens. Then model trains on Highway 61, a corn roast on Edward Street, and a golf classic that turns 25. ✅ Saturday and Sunday both carry a chance of showers — check with the organizer before you head out.

Friday, August 28

Saturday, August 29

Sunday, August 30

Monday, August 31

✅ NO WEATHER ALERTS IN EFFECT

Environment Canada had no watches or warnings posted for Thunder Bay as of Thursday evening. Latest alerts at Environment Canada.

☀️ Friday, August 28 — Thunder Bay

Overnight low 8°C

Sunny · humidex 25 · clear overnight · UV index 6 (high)

The Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce put its 2026 election platform in front of every candidate on Wednesday, and the ask is unusually blunt. “Businesses are not asking city hall for more studies or more plans or more vision,” president Charla Robinson said. “They're asking for execution.” The “city of opportunity” platform is built from the Chamber's 2026 member survey, and it deliberately points candidates back at a plan the city already has — the smart growth action plan — rather than proposing new ones. Nine commitments sit under it: stronger accountability, closing the infrastructure gap, responsible financial stewardship, full implementation of the community safety and well-being plan, better livability, faster development processes, stronger Indigenous economic partnerships, a “choose TBay first” approach to municipal purchasing where trade rules allow, and investment readiness. Candidates were sent a survey asking them to commit or decline, and their answers will be published. The Chamber is planning a mayoral candidates forum for the end of September.

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🗳️ Your call: Nine commitments is a long list for one term. If the next council only gets through one of them properly, which should it be?

Ottawa's countermeasures land September 8: up to 50 per cent on the goods Washington targeted, matched dollar for dollar, covering roughly $28 billion in American imports. Steel and aluminum are in — which means everything from screws to screwdrivers — along with dairy, appliances, pulp and paper, farm equipment and electronics. Clothing takes 25 per cent. Home Hardware manager Mike Meady says the hit will not be instant, but it is coming, and the store has spent a while adding Canadian suppliers; its site now lists more than 10,000 Canadian-made items. “Those costs are going to get down in the food chain,” he said. At J.B. Evans in Westfort, owner Andrew Moro says the shop leans on Canadian and European stock but may have to step back from the few American brands it carries. And at the Power Centre, GM Dave Radford says most of what they sell — Samsung, Frigidaire, Bosch — is built outside the United States and will not be touched at all.

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Thunder Bay is writing its first archeological master plan, and it is expected to run past 300 pages. Planning services manager Devon McCloskey says the idea goes back at least six years, when the city started taking inventory of culturally significant areas with Fort William First Nation and Lakehead University. Federal housing accelerator fund money paid to hire Woodland Heritage Northwest, a Métis-owned local firm, to write it. The document maps travel and canoe routes, settlement patterns and old shorelines — Lake Superior once reached up to what is now Hillcrest Park — and infers how deep buried material is likely to sit. The practical point is certainty: developers would know up front where an assessment is required, which McCloskey says “would reduce uncertainty and risk” on everything from houses to major infrastructure. The city plans to work with Fort William First Nation on how to present it publicly, and expects to bring it to council for information in 2027.

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FedNor is putting $456,000 into the Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre's Youth Tech Impact Program, which subsidizes student wages for 15-week placements inside local companies. The first cohort wrapped up Monday: nine students at nine northwestern Ontario businesses, each on a specific project — one worked with an AI platform to streamline a company's inventory reporting. Five of the nine stayed on with the business that hosted them. Executive director Richard Gemmill says the funding covers three more rounds and about 30 businesses across northern Ontario. AI and digital innovation minister Evan Solomon was in the city for the announcement; jobs minister Patty Hajdu said the region is “a little bit behind the rest of Canada” on adoption, but that the gap is closing quickly.

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