HUNTSVILLVE — A stubborn fire last night is under investigation after it destroyed a home here. The Huntsville/Lake of Bays Fire Department had to call in several stations, including support from Bracebridge, after a 911 call sent them Domtar Road just before 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16. Crews from Huntsville Station 1, with assistance from […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSOKA — You may be out of the house — but not out of danger. One case of the COVID variant “is in Muskoka” and the health unit is awaiting final confirmation after it passed the first detection stage, Dr. Charles Gardner said this afternoon in his weekly briefing. And he […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOA — Red is the new local reality today as Ontario lifts stay-at-home orders for 27 regions outside the GTA and North Bay Parry Sound. Including Simcoe-Muskoka, which is doing it against the advice of its chief medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner. Students are also back in school today […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com BRACEBRIDGE — A cold, sunny afternoon on the picket line is no place to be on Valentines Day. But more than a dozen of the 60 employees of Fenner Dunlop, who were out again Sunday protesting a “lockout” by their employer, said they would sooner have been home with their families […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — Consultants have their heads in the clouds if they think closing the only prevailing-winds runway at Muskoka Airport will bolster local economic prospects, says Earle Robinson, a local aviation expert. Flights of fancy, say he and other Muskoka small plane pilots and owners who are at cross-purposes with consultants […]

LETTER TO EDITOR: Ed. note: A report going to district council Tuesday calls for the east-west grass runway at the Muskoka Airport in Gravenhurst to be closed and replaced a little north as part of a plan for more buildings. Local pilots like Garth Elliot — who has flown for 60 years — think there […]

ORILLIA — A Gravenhurst man and a friend from Orillia face numerous drug-related charges after being stopped here Tuesday night. Police say that on Feb. 9, just before 10 p.m., officers observed a vehicle being driven on Wyandotte Street by an person suspected of having a suspended driver’s licence. The vehicle was stopped and the […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — Despite four new Muskoka COVID cases and dozens more variants Friday, it will be back to the lesser-restricted red zone here Tuesday when the province lifts its stay-at-home order and regulations for Simcoe-Muskoka. On the same day local public health reported 32 cases, (Public Health Ontario posted only 24), […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — Long-term living is a huge challenge with COVID. John Orchard knows that all too well. But he’s doing fine at Gravenhurst Manor. A little mobility problem and “I feel tired,” but otherwise he’s  “doing OK.” Not bad for an 83-year-old who cheated death before Christmas by moving out of […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com MUSKOKA — With LTC deaths dominating COVID coverage, Ontario is investing $3.25 million to expand the Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care program in Muskoka. Even as the province’s Health Minister Christine Elliott admitted today that not all long-term care residents have received the vaccine as they recently claimed. It hopes this […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSOKA — March Break is now April Break as Ontario has postponed the annual school holiday by a month. Students here — who just returned to classes this week — will be off again in just more than eight more weeks for their mid-winter respite April 12-16. The government says it’s […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com GRAVENHURST — An ice rescue yesterday morning was “not a hiker” lost in the woods. But a prison drug mule, claims the owner of the property where a Keswick woman became entangled in a backwoods “bog” (not Paul’s Lake) — full of Tag Alders — and had to be airlifted to […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — A new outbreak in Gravenhurst has a middle-aged woman among just more than two dozen COVID cases the health unit is reporting today. The female, aged 45-64, had her first episode yesterday, Feb. 9, when it was reported by the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDH). The health unit reports […]

GRAVENHURST — Mike Schreiner, Leader of the Green Party of Ontario and Matt Richter, Green Party candidate for Parry Sound Muskoka, released the following statement regarding the planned permanent closure of the Ontario Fire College in Gravenhurst: “Eliminating the Ontario Fire College is a blow to Gravenhurst and small municipalities across the province who will […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — With the health unit reporting 36 COVID cases this afternoon (one in Muskoka Lakes), Dr. Charles Gardner says the variant spread in March looms large in the region. That’s why he’s doesn’t support looser provincial restrictions. But he’s still on board with schools opening this week as children are […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com BRACEBRIDGE — Some changes are coming to The Pines today in the wake of the surprise “resignation” of its administrator Kim Landry last week. See her story here. Norm Barrette, District of Muskoka Health Services commissioner, tells MuskokaTODAY.com that they include rapid testing that began Monday, Feb. 8, and security staff […]

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com SIMCOE-MUSKOKA — You’re under stay-at-home orders for at least another week — unless you went back to school today. So says the province, as only parts of eastern Ontario will ease up restrictions on Wednesday, and Toronto, Peel and York will have to wait until to Feb. 22. Simcoe and Muskoka […]