A storefront country market and live music on Friday, Johnny Cash at the clubroom on Saturday — and then a Sunday that belongs to Hymers, Fort William and the Art Gallery, with the Labour Day cruise-in to finish. ✅ Showers are a 30 per cent shot Friday and again Sunday, so check with the organizer before anything outdoors.

Friday, September 4

Saturday, September 5

Sunday, September 6

Monday, September 7 — Labour Day

Tuesday, September 8

Where's the best slice in town? Which counter pours the coffee worth getting out of bed for? We stopped guessing and handed the question to you. 15 categories, about two minutes, one ballot per person.

Voting closes tomorrow — Saturday, September 5. Winners run right here on Tuesday, September 8, with a write-up on every one. If you've been meaning to get to it, today is the day.

Back the places you actually love — then go tell them you did.

✅ 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, September 4 — Thunder Bay

Overnight low 14°C

Cloudy · 30% chance of showers · humidex 26 · UV index 4 (moderate) · east wind 20 km/h

Prime Minister Mark Carney stood on the floor of the Alstom plant on Thursday morning and announced more than $4.7 billion to build and maintain 313 VIA Rail passenger cars — sleepers, dining cars and panorama cars with oversized windows, for the long-distance, regional and remote fleet. Assembly is split between Thunder Bay and La Pocatière, Que., with design work in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville and some work in Kingston. Ottawa calls it the largest investment in VIA's history, and the first time in four decades that VIA cars will be built in Canada rather than the United States. “Cars that used to be built in the United States will be built right here in Thunder Bay at Alstom,” Carney said. Unifor Local 1075 president Justin Roberts, who represents hundreds of workers at the plant, said the contract means “a guaranteed 10 years of solid security” and expects it to bring on a couple of hundred more workers in the near term, running in parallel with the TTC subway-car work the plant already has. “The families can start spending money again,” he said. “They can put those down payments on a house without feeling the risk of losing it when they get laid off.” The first car is scheduled to enter service in 2031, the last in 2035.

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One thing the announcement did not come with: a train. VIA's interim CEO Mathieu Paquette said Thunder Bay is “on the radar” but that it is “probably a bit too soon to tell” whether passenger service returns — new track would have to be built, or an arrangement struck with CN and CPKC, who own the lines here. VIA last served the Lakehead in 1990. Carney's answer was shorter: “For this government, it's a priority.”

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About 40 people turned out to the 55 Plus Centre on Thursday for Chat with the Chief, and the questions were pointed — response times, public drug use, violence in residential streets. One woman said plainly that she no longer feels safe in her own neighbourhood and asked what she was supposed to do about it. Chief Darcy Fleury's answer was that detail is what builds a case: if you think a house is being used for trafficking, “to get a search warrant is very difficult,” so report the comings and goings, every time. He also said the non-emergency line, 807-684-1200, is more useful to officers than Crime Stoppers for reporting an incident, and that telling your councillor works too. On loitering in alleys and backyards, Fleury was blunt: that is a bylaw matter, not a police one, though officers will come if a situation escalates. Insp. Jason Rybak pointed to Project Support, which grew out of these very meetings — more visible presence downtown, and connecting people in crisis to agencies instead of the courts. Fleury also acknowledged the part nobody likes hearing: every call gets a response, but sometimes that response is a couple of days away.

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🗳️ Your call: the room wanted something done, but not everyone in it wanted the same thing done. Where do you land?

The idea was small: add a $2 option to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation's August 50/50 draw and let ticket buyers send it to the Ontario SPCA's Northwest Animal Centre. The Dog Days of Summer campaign closed at just under $53,000. Foundation CEO Glenn Craig said they had privately hoped for $20,000. “As soon as we launched, we just saw that number going up and up, and we were absolutely blown away by it,” he said — people bought a ticket, donated, then phoned to ask where they could give again. Animal centre executive director Shawna Beaulieu said it was hard to put into words: “It speaks to the community here in Thunder Bay.” The money stays local, going to supplies and housing for animals in care, with the centre eyeing an expansion of its clinic services in 2027.

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Doors opened across both boards on Thursday morning. At Claude E. Garton Public School, it was vice-principal Alexander Lod's first day too — he comes over from Algonquin and McKenzie. “It's another 435 kids' names I have to learn, but they're going to be some special kids in my life,” he said, and called the first day one of the best of the year. At St. Thomas Aquinas, principal Antonella Lysak said the best part is the kids arriving wanting to tell someone about their summer, and noted how much of that summer her staff spent in the building getting classrooms ready. The students had their own priorities. Grade 8 student Erik Ulvang, who has been at Claude E. Garton since kindergarten, plans to relax this year while he still can before high school. Khai Pace at St. Thomas is going with science, on the grounds that it is “mostly cool,” and intends to be a veterinarian.

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