Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — You’ll know by Thursday where two Muskoka vaccinations clinics will open next week for those aged 85 and older. They are part of a dozen sites local public health is setting up Monday, March 1, to inoculate residents and high-risk workers. Medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner said […]

TORONTO — MPP Norman Miller’s Private Member’s Bill, Bill 228, Keeping Polystyrene Out of Ontario’s Lakes and Rivers Act, 2020 will be debated later this afternoon in the Ontario legislature. It should begin at 5 p.m. or shortly thereafter. To watch it live go to https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/video  

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — With a vaccine message from doctors who say: “Don’t call us we’ll call you,” 29 regional variant reports emerged today. This as Muskoka COVID cases also mounted with 3 more women testing COVID positive — two in Huntsville and one in Muskoka Lakes. Simcoe accounted for 58 of today’s […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — Bob Jocque’s “OK” and doing fine — thank you very much for asking. Not bad for a guy who tested positive for COVID a month ago. And who is just two weeks out of quarantine. The 57-year-old fast-food worker is out and about again after the lockdown and happy […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — A half dozen COVID cases in Muskoka are among 144 reported for the past three days by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU). Four more in Huntsville, where it leads the district with 64 cases, and on each in Gravenhurst and Bracebridge. North Bay-Parry Sound, which is under […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. And if you’re driving north or south on Hwy. 11 around Gravenhurst you’ll see new electronic roadside signs reminding you. Police say traffickers use major highways to transport their victims throughout Ontario. And they want their billboard campaign to spread awareness of […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — It wasn’t the coldest day of the year yesterday. More like the warmest day of the year so far as hundreds of walkers, joggers, kids, parents, grandparents and their pets trekked the streets here from morning to evening. They weren’t just out for a stroll on a gorgeous, sunny […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSOKA — A Huntsville woman is among today’s 32 reported cases of COVID in Simcoe-Muskoka. She is aged 45-64, says the health unit, and had close contact with someone else with the virus. She discovered symptoms Feb. 13 and her case was first reported to the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com PARRY SOUND — News this afternoon that Parry Sound will be locked down a further two weeks isn’t sitting well with many residents and businesses here. Even as the health minister said the local health system may not be able to cope with variants already within the health unit there. They […]

LETTER TO EDITOR: Family Day in Ontario has recently past. According to the Ontario Heritage Trust: “Since 1974, the third Monday every February has been identified as Heritage Day in Canada. In 1985, the Ontario Government designated the third week in February as Ontario Heritage Week with the federal Heritage Day kicking off the week.” […]

GRAVENHURST — A joint drug investigation underway since July, which included a rural search warrant here last week, has led to multiple charges against two people from Midland and one each from Essa and Wasaga Beach. Provincial police say Community Street Crime Unit (CSCU) members from their Southern Georgian Bay, Orillia, Bracebridge and Huntsville detachments […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com PARRY SOUND — Proactive or reactive? Panacea or placebo? What happened to home care you may have wondered. Well, after doctors sheltered in place decades ago and a flawed public health practitioner program was left to pick up the pieces, community support for stay-at-homers fell mostly to private for-profit retirement and […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Two Muskoka cases top the COVID numbers today in Simcoe-Muskoka where 45 people are reported to have tested positive since yesterday. One is a man aged 45-64 who got it through the community with a first episode of Feb. 11 and reported Feb. 16. The other is a woman, […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — Going for a walk is not illegal — if you’re six feet apart. In fact it’s encouraged by the government for your mental and physical health. And if it’s for a good cause all the better. So get out of your house Saturday morning for a stroll around town […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com HUNTSVILLE — A poverty mentoring program has secured major funding to connect those in need with those who can help. Six community partners, led by the YWCA, have received a three-year commitment from United Way Simcoe Muskoka to “provide a sustainable and transformative approach to poverty reduction that ensures everyone has […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Almost three dozen COVID cases in Simcoe today is good news in Muskoka after news yesterday that the UK variant has moved north and could spread. Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) reported 36 cases (the province said 24 and Public Health Ontario 26) and one more death since […]

BRACEBRIDGE — A labour dispute that’s led to a “lockout” at a local manufacturing plant has union groups “shocked” at a demand for fewer sick days. Fenner Dunlop in Bracebridge, which makes conveyor belts for the North American industrial and commercial market, has their 60 workers from United Steelworkers Local 7949 on the picket lines this […]