Two free days of Anishinaabe culture at the Fort, the blues close out at the ballpark, and Sunday and Monday come up sunny. ✅ Outdoor events can shift on short notice — confirm with the organizer before you head out, especially with a thunderstorm risk late Saturday afternoon.

Saturday, August 22

Sunday, August 23

Monday, August 24

Tuesday, August 25

Wednesday, August 26

✅ NO WEATHER ALERTS IN EFFECT

Environment Canada had no watches or warnings posted for Thunder Bay as of Friday evening. There is a risk of a thunderstorm late Saturday afternoon and into the early evening, so keep an eye on the sky if you are out at the ballpark or the Fort. Latest alerts at Environment Canada.

⛅ Saturday, August 22 — Thunder Bay

Overnight low 10°C

Mainly sunny early · Showers possible late afternoon · Humidex 26 · UV 5 (moderate)

Nominations closed at 2 p.m. Friday, and the field for the Oct. 26 municipal election is now locked in. Ten people are running for mayor: Donald Baxter, Peter Diedrich, Moe Comuzzi, Trevor Giertuga, Shane Judge, Volker Kromm, Peter Panetta, Aldo Ruberto, Wolfgang Schoor and Doug Vincent. Below that, 46 candidates filed for council — 14 chasing the five at-large seats, and the rest spread across the seven wards. The deepest ward races are Red River and McKellar, with five nominees each; Current River, McIntyre and Neebing each drew just two. School board trustee nominations are in as well, including 12 people for eight seats at Lakehead Public Schools. For most voters that still means a ballot with a lot of unfamiliar names on it, and two months to sort them out.

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The 75-year-old Waverley branch will serve the public for the last time on Sunday, Nov. 22, closing the next morning ahead of construction starting Jan. 2, 2027. Library CEO Richard Togman calls it “a huge transformation” — foundation repair, new windows, and an interior rebuilt around programming rather than shelving. The plan includes five programming spaces, an expanded Indigenous Knowledge Centre, indoor playground space, adult programming areas, a digital access centre and a youth STEM lab. The square footage stays the same; what changes is how much of it the public can actually use, with the full book collection kept intact. In the meantime the library is expanding into more space at County Park to keep north-side service running. Waverley stays open through the fall with a full programming schedule, and the public gets its first detailed look at the drawings Oct. 8.

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The former Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital property has sat unused for eight years — declared surplus by the province in 2018, then pulled back two years ago while Ontario looked at other uses. At this week's AMO conference in Ottawa, Infrastructure Ontario told the city's delegation that no other ministries want it. The city has asked for right of first refusal. “They said we will be the first ones at the table,” said Trevor Giertuga, chair of the intergovernmental committee, while noting nothing is committed until it is in writing. If the city gets the land, the pitch is big: 2,000 homes, walking trails, and collaboration with First Nations partners that could include an education centre — “a full community within the community.” The hospital building itself would have to come down; Giertuga says it is full of asbestos. Committee member Kasey Etreni was blunter about where things stand: the province owns it, the city does not know whether it would be sold whole or severed, and no timeline has been given.

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🗳️ Your call: eight years empty, and now a 2,000-home pitch on the table. If the city lands it, what should go there?

After a seven-year hiatus, outdoor blues came back to the city Friday night. Blues in the Ballpark opened at Port Arthur Stadium and runs a second day today. “It's been a year in the making,” said Thunder Bay Community Auditorium general manager Andrew Edwards, who framed it as part of the Auditorium's 40th anniversary and its first move back into outdoor festivals since the last one in 2019. The lineup was co-curated with Rob Croves and the Blues Society and reaches well past the region — Erja Lyytinen came from Helsinki, with American acts including Nikki Hill and Solomon Hicks and Canadians David Gogo and Spencer MacKenzie. Saturday's gates open at 2 p.m. and the night closes with the Texas Headhunters at 9:15. Passes are $154 for both days through TBCA.com or the Auditorium box office across from the stadium; the venue says single-day tickets are not available, and tickets are not sold at the stadium gates. Kids under 12 get in free with a paying adult.

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New on Saturdays: we close the loop on the polls you answered during the week. Small samples, honestly reported — treat these as a temperature check, not a verdict.

The question (11 responses): Council's spending powers are frozen until the new term. What should the next council take on first?

Takeaway. Nearly half went to pavement and pipes, and nothing else broke away from the pack. That is not apathy about housing or transit — it reads more like a sense that the fundamentals have slipped far enough to come first. Worth noting the timing: this poll ran the same week the nomination race was closing out, and the candidates now on the ballot will spend two months answering more or less this exact question.

💬 What readers are saying. Three people left a note. One who picked taxes wanted the city to stop funding projects that only benefit a small slice of the population. One who picked roads said they have deteriorated year over year and wants less spent on special projects and more on infrastructure. And one transit voter took the generous view — all of it needs addressing, and they hoped the next council would bring the judgment and business sense to point things the right way.

The question (10 responses): Thunder Bay police just opened their own ballistics lab. Where should the service put its next investment?

Takeaway. The interesting number here is the zero. Readers seemed happy enough about the ballistics lab — nobody argued against it — but not one person wanted the next dollar to go to more of the same. Everything else split between bodies on the street and work that happens before a call comes in, with prevention and crisis response together outdrawing more officers. Nobody left a written note on this one.

Final thought. Eleven and ten people is a small room, and we will say so every time. But the pattern across both — basics before showpieces, people before hardware — is a consistent enough instinct to be worth watching as the campaign gets going. There is a fresh poll in today's issue, up under the LPH story. Tap it, and if you pick Other, tell us why — the notes are the best part of this section.

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