The impending forest fire season dominated the May 22nd, 1998 front page of the Cochrane Times. It’s part of our weekly look back at Cochrane history
A photo and feature story deals with the local base for firefighters. Public library archivist Ardis Proulx-Chedore reads from the article:
“Bob Apsey, the senior fire officer for our district explained how the fire crews operate. He explained that Cochrane’s facility is the headquarters for our zone, which extends from the Quebec border to west of Hearst, south to Monteith and north to Fort Severn on the Hudson Bay coast.”
DOCTOR SHORTAGE CONCERNS NORTHERN MAYORS
Attracting and retaining doctors in Northern Ontario communities has been a perennial problem through the years.
That same edition of the Times featured a story about Cochrane mayor Donald Genier writing to provincial health minister Elizabeth Witmer.
Proulx-Chedore reads a quote from the mayor.
“I am concerned that in the past fiscal year, your government has failed to implement its pledge of fast tracing 36.4-million dollars in new funding contracts for recruiting and retaining physicians in Northern Ontario and in remote areas.”
Witmer was only one of several cabinet ministers being lobbied by Genier and other politicians in the region.
To research Cochrane history, a good first stop is the archives department at the Cochrane Public Library.
