The last week of August is the big one: the summer concert series signs off with two nights at Marina Park and a 400-drone finale, Ribfest and Harbourfest both open Thursday, and Tumblestone takes over Gorham for the weekend. ✅ Showers are in the forecast for much of the week — confirm with the organizer before you head out.

Tuesday, August 25

Wednesday, August 26

Thursday, August 27

Friday, August 28

Saturday, August 29

✅ NO WEATHER ALERTS IN EFFECT

Environment Canada had no watches or warnings posted for Thunder Bay as of Monday evening. There is a risk of a thunderstorm Tuesday afternoon and early evening, so keep an eye on the sky if you are heading outdoors. Latest alerts at Environment Canada.

🌧️ Tuesday, August 25 — Thunder Bay

Overnight low 16°C

Mainly cloudy · 60% chance of showers · Risk of a thunderstorm · Humidex 25 · UV 5 (moderate)

Almost 13 weeks after developmental services staff walked off the job in May, Community Living Thunder Bay and OPSEU Local 740 have a deal. The strike officially ended Thursday, Aug. 20, after a private mediator got the two sides to an agreement in three and a half hours, followed by another eight the next day on a back-to-work protocol. Members take three per cent a year over three years, plus small gains on vacation, benefits and pay in lieu for sleep shifts. Local president Cindy Mazan was plain about it: “Did we get the best deal we possibly could? For sure. Is it the best deal we wanted? Absolutely not.” She says the agency remains one of the lowest-paid developmental services employers in the province — some others sit five dollars an hour higher — and that three per cent does not catch inflation. The return will be gradual. “It's not like we're a liquor store, and you can just open your doors,” Mazan said. “People have to be moved back to their homes.” Staff are back on payroll now and back at work next week. In a joint statement, the agency and the union thanked the community for its patience.

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The province announced Monday that upgrades are underway on the Anaconda and Painter Lake forest access roads north of Aroland First Nation — close to 100 kilometres of gravel that would form part of the route to the Ring of Fire mineral zone. Work started at the end of June and is projected to run to the end of 2030, covering bridge and drainage upgrades, realignment and widening to two-lane secondary highway standard. The longer plan is to tie those roads into the Marten Falls Community Access Road, the Northern Road Link and the Webequie Supply Road, connecting two remote First Nations to Highway 643 near Aroland. It is not settled ground. Aroland signed an agreement with the province early last year that includes $20 million for community infrastructure, and Marten Falls Chief Bruce Achneepineskum has described the access road as “new possibilities” for his community. Neskantaga and Attawapiskat have threatened a blockade, and the grassroots group Friends of the Attawapiskat River has gone to court to try to stop construction.

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New 50 per cent U.S. tariffs on a wide range of Canadian goods took effect Saturday, after trade talks broke down late Friday. The read from local leaders is that the weight lands on the region's biggest sectors first, not on the shop down the street. Rick Dumas, president of the Northern Ontario Municipal Association, put mining and critical minerals, forestry and manufacturing — Alstom in Thunder Bay among them — at the front of the line, and expects the effects sooner than people think. “Everything across the board is going to be hugely impacted,” he said, listing product prices, fuel, food and transportation costs, and the uncertainty on top of them. Chamber of Commerce president Charla Robinson gave a narrower read for Main Street: based on what local exporters have told her, she isn't expecting many of them to be hit directly — at least not yet.

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🗳️ Your call: The tariffs are in place and the region's biggest employers are the exposed ones. Where should the effort go first?

Live on the Waterfront wraps its seven-week run this week with two nights at Marina Park, and Thursday's finale ends with a 400-drone light show out over Lake Superior, in partnership with the Thunder Bay International Airport Authority. It is the second summer in a row the series has closed this way; last year's display pulled about 4,000 people down to the waterfront. What the drones will actually draw is being kept quiet, but the city's special events developer, Talia Evans, gave up this much: the images came from public submissions and went through a jury, and you can expect “some nature-related things, and some landmarks or symbols that represent Thunder Bay.” Weather permitting, they go up around 9:45 p.m., roughly 15 minutes after headliner My Son the Hurricane plays its last number. Wednesday's bill starts at 6 p.m. with Luke Warm and the Cold Ones, Cassidy Houston and Goodnight Sunrise. Bring a lawn chair.

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While the province marks the start of road work toward the Ring of Fire, a group of young people from Attawapiskat is out documenting what sits downstream of it. Here We Stand, an Indigenous youth-led movement founded by Jeronimo Kataquapit, left Attawapiskat on Aug. 21 for a two-week journey through the James Bay region, filming the waters, the coastline and the wildlife they say are tied to the proposed mining development. Kataquapit is posting daily livestreams and updates as they travel.

What he wants people to look at are the peatlands. “Where I call home is one of the last remaining pristine, intact, and vast ecosystems left on the planet,” he said. “They are called the peatlands and are known to us as the breathing lands of Mother Earth.” They hold billions of tonnes of carbon and take in millions of tonnes more every year. “I want people to see that what happens here, in the peatlands where the Ring of Fire is proposed, is inherently connected to the life of the Bay, our life, our health.”

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Build & Thrive Thunder Bay

Host: Robert Downing · Guest: Tim Rooney

An AI agent isn't a chatbot you ask questions — it's software you hand a job to, and that difference is the whole episode. Robert Downing walks through what the shift could actually look like for a small business here: what these tools might plausibly take off your plate in the next year, what they won't, and how to think clearly about the ones already being sold to you. Eleven and a half minutes, no hype.

In this episode:

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What's faster than word of mouth? The Harbour Beat Spotlight! Keeps you updated on what's going on locally and connects businesses to our vibrant community.