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Happy Labour Day, Thunder Bay! A mix of sun and cloud, 20°C and a 40 per cent chance of showers — Hymers gets one more day out of the long weekend. In today's issue: Northwestern Ontario's mayors want highway dollars instead of another promise, a Thunder Bay surgeon about to run 330 kilometres across the Italian Alps, the OPP's precision motorcycle team on tour up here, and yoga among the tropical plants at a local greenhouse. Plus eight things to do over the next five days.
In this Harbour Beat Issue…
Trivia: How many countries share a land border with Brazil? (Answer at the bottom!)
It's Here: Pique's New Caffeine-Free Afternoon Energy
I quit my afternoon coffee. Not because I wanted to — because I found something better.
You know that wall you hit every day around 2–3 PM? I used to just accept it as the cost of doing anything. Another coffee, a quick spike, then the crash — and somehow I'd still feel dehydrated by dinner.
Then I tried X·E Fountain, Pique's brand-new electrolyte energy drink, and I genuinely wasn't ready for how good "no crash" could feel.
No caffeine jitters. No 4 PM slump. Just clean, steady energy that actually hydrates me instead of draining me. It's built with a premium Vitamin B Complex for natural cellular energy, Magnesium Malate + Taurate for real focus, and a full electrolyte blend that makes it feel like a treat, not a chore.
The cucumber-celery-lime flavor is so crisp and refreshing — it's basically stolen my afternoon coffee slot completely.
Thunder Bay Events
One more holiday Monday to spend, then the week gets back to work — the Resource Expo takes over the Gardens midweek and the Forty Miner rolls into Trowbridge on Friday. ⛅ Showers are possible most days this week, so check with the organizer before anything outdoors.
Monday, September 7 — Labour Day
SEP 7 · Hymers Fall Fair — final day — 9 a.m.–5 p.m. · 📍 Hymers Fair Grounds, Hwy 595 · Day two of the 114th fair: horse and cattle shows, the exhibit hall and market building, barn quilts, and the turkey dinner that came back last year. Kids get in for $1 with a sunflower or a zucchini · 📅 Add to Calendar
SEP 7 · Dawson Diner Monday Night Cruise-In — 6:30–8 p.m., weather permitting · 📍 Dawson Diner, 1889 Dawson Rd. · Lakehead Antique Car Club night with a barbecue and ice cream — open to anyone who just wants to walk the rows · 📅 Add to Calendar
Tuesday, September 8
SEP 8 · Quality of Life Standing Committee — 4:30–6:30 p.m., open to the public · 📍 City Hall, 3rd floor, 500 Donald St. E. · Council's first standing-committee sitting of the week, seven weeks out from the election · 📅 Add to Calendar
SEP 8 · Tuesday Group Run — 6:30–7:30 p.m., free · 📍 Rita Street parking lot, Boulevard Lake · A friendly 5k run or run/walk around the lake; any speed, any fitness level · 📅 Add to Calendar
Wednesday, September 9
SEP 9 · Central Canada Resource Expo — 10 a.m.–5 p.m., runs again Thursday 9 a.m.–3 p.m. · 📍 Fort William Gardens and the Curling Club, 901 Miles St. · The region's industrial equipment and services trade show, back on the Gardens floor · 📅 Add to Calendar
Thursday, September 10
SEP 10 · Plant BINGO at Creekside — 6–9 p.m., ticketed, every Thursday in September · 📍 Creekside Nursery, 683 Woodcrest Rd. · Bingo where the prizes are tropical plants; the ticket includes a welcome drink and 20 per cent off the nursery afterwards · 📅 Add to Calendar
SEP 10 · Steve Aoki — doors 9 p.m. VIP, 10 p.m. general, 19+ · 📍 NV Music Hall, 228 Red River Rd. · The touring EDM producer brings the cake-throwing show to Red River Road · 📅 Add to Calendar
Friday, September 11
SEP 11 · Shuniah Forty Miner — from 5 p.m., runs through Saturday · 📍 Kinsmen Park, Trowbridge Forest · A weekend of mountain biking, music and food in the Trowbridge trails, presented by Tbaytel · 📅 Add to Calendar
🍕 Best of Thunder Bay Food & Drink 2026 — results tomorrow
The ballot closed Saturday night and the counting is done across all 15 categories. Thank you to everyone who took the two minutes — this was your list, not ours.
Winners run right here tomorrow, Tuesday September 8, with a write-up on every one of them.
Know a place that deserved a nod? Hit reply and tell us — we read every one.
✅ NO WEATHER ALERTS IN EFFECT
Environment Canada had no watches or warnings posted for Thunder Bay as of Sunday evening — but there is a risk of a thunderstorm this morning and again overnight. Latest alerts at Environment Canada.
⛅ Monday, September 7 — Thunder Bay
20°C
Overnight low 15°C
A mix of sun and cloud · 40% chance of showers · risk of a morning thunderstorm · UV index 6 (high) · showers near midnight
Environment Canada has a mix of sun and cloud and a high of 20°C for Labour Day, with a 40 per cent chance of showers and a risk of a thunderstorm in the morning. The UV index is 6 — high, so sunscreen still applies if you are spending the day at Hymers. It turns overnight: showers beginning near midnight, a local 10 to 20 mm, another thunderstorm risk, southwest wind picking up to 20 km/h before morning, low 15°C. The rest of the week stays unsettled — Tuesday 22°C with a 60 per cent chance of showers, Wednesday 21°C and Thursday 20°C, both a mix of sun and cloud, before Friday warms to 23°C.
“Enough's enough”: the North wants highway dollars, not another promise
Asked at the Alstom plant on Thursday whether Ottawa would move on twinning Highway 11/17 with the province or without it, Prime Minister Mark Carney said expanding the Trans-Canada has to be a priority for both governments, and that he would raise it with the premier. “It needs to be a priority for the province of Ontario. It'll be a priority for the federal government, and we'll work to rectify it,” he said, after acknowledging the families who have lost people on that road.
The Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association has heard versions of that sentence for years. Vice-president Kristen Oliver told Newswatch on Friday that NOMA and the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities have been pushing for investment in the 11/17 corridor for a long time, and that the collision record between the Manitoba border and Orillia points at three things at once: heavy traffic, drivers who are not equipped for the road, and not enough passing lanes. “We've been talking about this for a number of years,” she said. “We need to start seeing an investment in dollars pouring into this region… Enough's enough. This needs to stop.” Her other point is the one that rarely makes the headline: there is no GO train up here, no alternative. If you need to get to a medical appointment, or to family, you drive it. Oliver also welcomed the coming federal supports for forestry workers caught in the softwood dispute, and said the region needs new trade corridors rather than a bet on the U.S. market.
🗳️ Your call: everyone says the highway matters. The argument is about what you spend the first dollar on.
Both Ottawa and Queen's Park now call twinning Highway 11/17 a priority. NOMA says it has heard that before. What would you do first?
A Thunder Bay surgeon is about to run 330 km across the Alps
Andrew Smith, a general surgeon at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, flies to Italy on Wednesday to start the TOR330 – Tor des Géants: a 330-kilometre loop of the Aosta Valley with 24,000 metres of climbing, beginning September 13 in Courmayeur. Competitors have up to 150 hours, and decide for themselves when to stop and sleep. Smith is hoping for 90 to 110.
He is refreshingly matter-of-fact about what several days without proper sleep does to a person. “I kind of let the hallucinations tell me when it's time to take a rest,” he told CBC. “I've hallucinated pinatas in a previous race. I've also hallucinated that aspen leaves had smiling faces on them.” This is not his first — he finished the 386-kilometre Moab 240 in Utah last year — but this time he runs without pacers, with two friends crewing him at the aid stations. Thunder Bay has hills; it does not have 1,500-metre climbs, so much of his training has been simulated on a treadmill, plus a camp in Switzerland in July. His plan for the mountain is a short one: “Be present, be patient and be positive.”
Fifteen bikes, one formation: the Golden Helmets came to town
The OPP Golden Helmets precision motorcycle team put on a 30-minute set in Thunder Bay on Thursday, the first stop of a North West Region tour that also takes in Sioux Lookout, Dryden, Kenora and Fort Frances. Fifteen riders, drawn from detachments across Ontario, ran the manoeuvres to music.
Const. Elizabeth Newton, the team's ride master, wanted one myth cleared up: the bikes are the same machines the riders use on the job, and they rode them here — “they're not trailered, contrary to some of the beliefs.” The group drove up on Wednesday. Sgt. Theresa Wabason, regional media sergeant for the North West Region, said the point is as much about visibility as spectacle. “We have a big portion of the TransCanada Highway, and we have motorcycles travelling through our area all the time,” she said. “Motorcycles aren't just for Southern Ontario.”
Yoga among the tropical plants, Sundays until the end of September
About 30 people rolled out mats among the greenery at Creekside Nursery on Sunday morning, led by a Modo Yoga instructor. It is a new partnership between the two, and it runs every Sunday at 9 a.m. through the end of September. Tickets are $25 through Creekside's website and include the class, a coffee and tea social, and 20 per cent off anything you buy at the nursery afterwards.
“We're hoping to bring a unique experience to Thunder Bay, where people can connect and ground with the Earth and the plants,” said organizer Amanda Trevisanutto. “I love being able to look up and just see the sunshine and the greenhouse and the plants just surrounding us.” The room holds 60, so there is space. The nursery has been in the community more than 50 years, and Trevisanutto — who had been to Modo classes herself — says the pairing felt obvious. Early feedback has been good enough that they are already talking about what comes after September.
Meme of the Day
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Trivia answer: Ten. Brazil borders Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay — every country in South America except Chile and Ecuador.
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