Here are your latest Brockville and area headlines:
- Brockville has a new fire chief. Melanie Jones comes from Kingston where she started her firefighting career and is most recently the deputy fire chief at the department. She’s also a part-time professor at St. Lawrence College and Laurentian University. Jones’ first day is Monday, July 17. She takes the position held by David Lazenby since September 2000 until he left in February to take a position as deputy fire chief with the Edmonton fire department.
- Smoke from forest fires in Ontario and Quebec is expected to create poor air quality in Brockville and Leeds-Grenville today. An air quality advisory was issued by Environment Canada yesterday and continues today. The health unit advises you to limit outdoor activities and check on those vulnerable to air pollution like the elderly and those with lung or heart disease.
- A military training exercise will take place in Gananoque and Brockville on Wednesday. Students from the Peace Support Training Center in Kingston will be going door to door to gather information and assess the area as part of a pretend post-disaster relief exercise. The Town of Gananoque says the exercise will have “minimal impact on the community” and soldiers won’t be carrying weapons.
- After voting for the housing bill (Bill 97), Municipal Affairs Minister and local MPP Steve Clark blasted the NDP for voting against it. In a prepared statement, Clark says the “NDP complain about the problems, and then vote no to the solutions. By voting against these common-sense measures to protect tenants and build more homes, they fail to understand that Ontario is in a housing supply crisis.” Critics claim the bill threatens the preservation of prime agricultural land.
- Police in Cornwall are seeing a “significant increase” in false 911 calls. They say it’s due to the latest Android emergency automatic dialing feature called Emergency SOS. The police department recommends you shut it off to prevent accidental calls.