Wake the Giant takes over Marina Park today and the rain should be gone before the music really gets going — though the wind behind it won't be. Mountain bikers are already out in Trowbridge Forest, there's a Baroque season opener in the evening, and Sunday brings a run around Boulevard Lake and a market that closes Red River Road. Council's last meeting before the election lands Tuesday.

Saturday, September 12

Sunday, September 13

Monday, September 14

Tuesday, September 15

Wednesday, September 16

✅ NO WEATHER ALERTS IN EFFECT

Environment Canada had no watches or warnings posted for Thunder Bay as of Friday evening. Overnight showers and the thunderstorm risk taper off through the morning, but the wind picks up behind them — west 30 km/h gusting to 50 — so tie down anything light before you head for the waterfront.

🌦️ Saturday, September 12 — Thunder Bay

Overnight low 7°C

Showers ending in the morning, then mainly cloudy with a 40 per cent chance of more. Risk of a thunderstorm early. Wind becoming west 30 km/h and gusting to 50 through the morning. UV index 4 — moderate.

City staff take a draft plan for the Central Avenue Development Lands to council on Tuesday — the last meeting of this term. It would open 60 acres of city-owned land for at least 1,260 housing units, plus commercial space, parks, trails and new sewer and water. Senior project manager Aaron Ward calls it a chance to plan a neighbourhood almost from scratch, and says the wider project area runs past 100 acres: “We want the entire neighbourhood to be looked at from one lens.”

Senior planner Jillian Fazao says consultation changed the shape of it — more transition from lower-density to mid-rise, less neighbourhood commercial overall, and what remains focused near Amber Drive. The city has about $28 million in provincial and federal funding lined up, and the funding terms require all the associated infrastructure work finished by March 31, 2029. Sewer goes down Central Avenue in the next few weeks. After that the land comes on in phases over five to ten years, with two to three years of active construction first.

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🗳️ Your call: a new neighbourhood from scratch, approved by a council that leaves office in November. Where do you land?

The same council meeting takes up a rezoning for the former Adanac Hotel on Simpson Street, bought earlier this year by Urban Abbey. The plan is four apartments and 40 rooming units run as care housing or shared housing, with an emergency shelter and a communal kitchen on the main floor. City planner Arden Irish says the rooming units would come with staff on site and programming; shared housing is the step people move to when they can manage more on their own.

Getting there means shifting the zoning from service commercial to urban low-rise and cutting the required parking, since the plan reuses the existing building and the lot has two accessible spaces off a city laneway. Eleven agencies commented. The health unit supported it and the city's parks, realty and community strategies divisions had no objection. CPKC Rail was the only objector, on the grounds that homes near rail operations raise safety concerns — Irish says that is a standard filing for anything within 300 metres of their land, and a noise study found vibration was not an issue. No members of the public commented at all.

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Fifteen First Nations-led energy projects across the Kenora–Rainy River district are sharing $3.2 million from the Independent Electricity System Operator, announced Wednesday at Niisaachewan Anishinaabe Nation. Most of it is solar — feasibility studies, rooftop and ground-mount installs, updated community energy plans — and several communities are using it to train their own people to maintain the systems rather than fly someone in.

Grand Council Treaty #3 takes the largest share at $655,000, partly to assess a 100-megawatt energy and data centre initiative. Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation gets $400,000 for solar at its gas station and language centre, maintenance training and a ground-mount study. “Wabigoon Lake has been working toward energy independence for years, and this helps us take the next step,” said Chief Clayton Wetelainen. Couchiching First Nation gets $430,000, AgriTech North $330,000 for a year-round farm and distribution hub, and Eagle Lake and Northwest Angle #33 $250,000 each. The 2026 round of the Indigenous Energy Support Program is open until October 2.

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Four members of the Thunder Bay Professional Firefighters Association, IAFF Local 193, were in New York on Friday for the 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero — vice-president Kyle Solomon, president Robert Sheppard, Blair McGuire and Dale Watson. They joined hundreds of firefighters from across North America marking the day that killed 343 firefighters and 2,977 people in total.

None of the four were firefighters in 2001. Solomon was a teenager. “When we eventually entered the fire service, the legacy of the 343 firefighters who were lost was already a part of its culture,” he said. “We weren't firefighters when September 11 happened, but today we wear the same uniform and serve in the same profession. There is a responsibility that comes with that.”

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On Thursday we asked whether snow gates — roughly $6.6 million up front and $1.5 million a year — are worth it to stop plows burying the end of your driveway. 21 of you answered.

Takeaway. One vote separated the two firm positions, which is about as split as this segment gets. But the middle is bigger than it looks: both readers who chose “other” described a pilot rather than a rejection, so roughly a quarter of the room wants the city to try it on a small scale before committing. That is close to what council's Quality of Life committee actually asked staff to price out — which suggests the argument in Thunder Bay is less about whether snow gates are a good idea and more about how much to spend finding out.

💬 What readers are saying. One reader made the case on behalf of older neighbours, pointing out that the packed ridge a plow leaves is exactly the kind of snow a senior cannot shift. Another suggested buying about ten units, trying them rurally first and then moving them around the city season to season so the benefit gets shared — noting we only really get a handful of big dumps a winter anyway.

Final thoughts. Twenty-one answers is a temperature check, not a verdict — but a near-even split on a winter complaint this old is worth the incoming council knowing about.

Brought to you by [your brokerage here — this slot is open]

August was a quieter month than last August, and the two price numbers point in opposite directions — which is worth a minute, because it is the sort of thing that makes people think the market did something it didn't.

By the numbers — single-detached homes, City of Thunder Bay (August 2026):

What it means. A median is just the middle number of whatever happened to sell, so a month weighted toward smaller or older houses drags it down without any individual home losing value. The benchmark price controls for that, and it went up. Board president Karen Hill notes new listings stayed elevated and outpaced sales again, pushing active inventory higher for a seventh straight month, and says conditions still favour sellers for now — while adding the board is watching closely for signs of a real shift in balance. Houses are taking a day and a half longer to sell than they did last August.

Source: Thunder Bay Real Estate Board via CREA, August 2026 MLS® data. Informational market snapshot only — not financial advice.

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