BRACEBRIDGE — With COVID continuing to climb, Ontario Health has recently expanded eligibility for COVID-19 PCR testing for symptomatic and asymptomatic people with defined criteria that has been updated on the Bracebridge Assessment Centre webpage at www.mahc.ca/COVID-19testing/. Generally, the guidance is prioritizing for molecular testing those at the highest risk of COVID-19, by including, for example, […]
HUNTSVILLE — A Parry Sound driver faces impaired by alcohol driving charges after a head-on collision late yesterday afternoon. Police and emergency crews were called to Aspdin Road just before 6 p.m. Wednesday to for a report of serious collision in Huntsville. Two vehicles were involved in a head-on collision. A woman, 24, was transported […]
TARA COLLUM | Contributing columnist In a shopping mall in Sydney, Nova Scotia, I saw something I’ve never seen before. Kids lining up for pictures with the Easter Bunny. At least I don’t think I’ve seen that before? In a dollar store I found some buttermilk biscuit mix. Would a dollar store in Ontario sell […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — A rush to get second booster shots isn’t holding back COVID-19. A week of vaccinations for the 60+ still sees corona winning the virus war. Total numbers are up locally and provincially today. Simcoe-Muskoka almost doubled to 234 from 122 yesterday, according to Public Health Ontario. Across the province […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Hundreds lined up for second booster shots today at the Sportsplex in Bracebridge as the sixth wave of COVID grows. As yellow school buses left the high school next door — at mid-afternoon — they circled the Green GO Vax bus in the sunny parking lot, which still had […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — When Neil Hutchinson retired at Christmas from his environmental sciences business in Bracebridge, he joined the ranks of other local retirees who volunteer their time. He plays flute in the Muskoka Concert Band and strums his guitar in local folk club settings — recently performing a gig at Bracebridge […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — Bob Barnes is no April’s fool. A retired petroleum engineer, he admits to being “one of the problems” of climate change — and now he wants to be part of the solution toward ending it. He says the Ukrainian war is “bringing us face-to-face with the problem of energy […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com TIMMINS — Don’t line up for tickets just yet, but eight weeks out from the provincial election Tories are touting the return of the Northlander “mid 2020s” if re-elected. And it could see old double-decker GO train cars rolling up and down through Muskoka. A release Sunday afternoon says the Ontario […]
HUNTSVILLE — Another smash and grab here, this one at a pharmacy early yesterday, has police looking for whoever got away with more cash again. They say that on Thursday April7, at 1:52 a.m., officers got to the pharmacy on Main St East, in response to a break and enter. At 1:40 a.m. unknown suspect(s) […]
PARRY SOUND-MUSKOKA — The snow may be all but gone in most of the region — with no real flooding damage this year — but with up to 18 mm of rain and 1 cm of snow forecasted the next week lake and water level conditions still make them dangerous to be around. Across the […]
NANCY THOMPSON | How Does Your Garden Grow Square foot gardening makes the best use of small spaces by densely planting in one-foot squares. A garden of 4×4 is a great size to start with, but really any size can be fine. Do locate it in a sunny and well drained spot. In square foot […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE MUSKOKA — As word spread yesterday about fourth booster shots being available today, local pharmacies and primary care physicians’ offices were swamped with calls about booking an appointment. One anxious 60+, with mild immunity symptoms, said he’d been to four pharmacies Wednesday to find out how to at least get on […]
TARA COLLUM | Contributing columnist Cancel culture. What will the “right” or “left” cancel next? It can be reductive and harmful to reduce shifting societal norms to a catch phrase. No one is ever “cancelled,” but careers can end when past deeds are no longer condoned by a new generation, or by sea changes in […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — Among the many historical accounts of Gravenhurst, the loss of the Rubberset toy and paint brush factory was the one of the most telling tales of the modern decline of the town. It was not only a valuable employer of thousands of men and women for much of the […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com BRACEBRIDGE — A student in Matt Richter’s class said she wouldn’t vote for him. And wouldn’t encourage others to do so either. “I don’t want to lose you as a teacher,” the little girl at Riverside Public School told the Green candidate. Fortunately for Richter, a lot of other parents, grandparents, […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — Yesterday, as Ottawa unveiled ambitious national climate change goals, a group of local scientists and supporters took a micro approach to environmental concerns deeply affecting the district. Friends of Muskoka Watershed (FMW), a highly-regarded — if lesser known — group of lake experts tackled as important issues affecting waters […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — Drivers along two stretches of highways that run through Muskoka will be able to pick up speed on a trial basis as of April 22. A 45-kilometre stretch of Hwy. 11 north — from Emsdale to South River; and a 55-kilometre part of Hwy. 400 in west Muskoka — […]
HUNTSVILLE — An outbreak declared today in the east wing of the Huntsville District Memorial Hospital (HDMH) means no visitors are allowed in that wing after the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit placed it under unit-specific COVID-19 outbreak status. As of March 29 testing of patients and staff there is occurring as part Muskoka Algonquin […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com PARRY SOUND-MUSKOKA — Graydon Smith is a lot like Norm Miller, the affable MPP he’s running to replace. Both are popular politicians in a small-town way. Like the Parry Sound farmer, they represent small-c conservative values. So if Smith is successful in replacing Miller June 2, constituents should see little change […]
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — Local hospitals, which have struggled for decades to make year-ends meet, will get a special one-time COVID cash injection to help the Bracebridge and Huntsville sites recoup lost pandemic revenue, the province said today. The Ontario government announced Friday that is it giving Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) $2,001,899.68 extra […]