The Nurse Practioner-Led Clinic located at Sault College Campus will be taking on more patients beginning next week. It will be the 3rd wave of patient registration since the clinic opened its doors last fall and the process will begin as of 9 o’clock Monday morning. You can register either online at the clinic’s website (www.algomanplc.ca ) or by filling out a paper application. They will be looking to register around 300 additional patients. They have already registered 650 thus far as they have two nurse practioners on staff and will be looking to hire another two.

Executive members of the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities described as positive a meeting they had today with Energy Minister Chris Bentley. The discussions focused on the issues of competitive industrial energy pricing and transmission capacity. FONOM VP Tom Laughren says the minister seems to understand that we need to get electrical transmission capacity up and running sooner than later in the north to generate prospertiy for the whole province. FONOM is also pleased that the province is examining ways to make complex industrial energy rates simpler for industrial users to apply in their operations.

There have been white out conditions and snow drifts in the Strait’s area and northern Michigan and it has led the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians to close early its governmental offices and Health Centers and programs in all areas with the exception of the Sault. Offices in Kinross were closed as of 3:30 this afternoon. The weather and road conditions will continue to be monitored for the Sault.

The Sault Ste. Marie Police Service received information yesterday afternoon about another computer scam occurring in the Toronto area. No local complaints have been received, but police would like to advise the public so that they do not fall victim to this scam.

The alert is for anyone with a Rogers Account and involves an e-mail being sent by Rogers Customer Care. The e-mail message advises the customer that their e-mail needs to be updated with our released F-Secure Internet Security 2012 new version of a better resource webmail spam and viruses. If you have not upgraded your account, click reply and fill in the columns below to send it back so we can update our database account immediately. Failure to update will process your webmail.rci.rogers.com account being temporarily blocked or suspended from our network and may not be able to receive or send e-mail due to the update.
Fill the column below:
USERNAME:
PASSWORD:
Phone:
We apologize for the inconvenience; we are here to make it look better webmail 2012.
This is a fraud! If you receive one of these e-mails, do not respond and report it to police.

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City Police were called regarding more breakins and thefts yesterday. Several offices and storage areas were broken into at a business on Huron Street and the place vandalized. A business on Korah Road was broken into overnight. Gas was stolen from a delivery vehicle on Industrial Court. And a locker was entered at a local health club and a wallet containing I-D and credit cards and a cell phone were stolen.

A 15 year old boy was arrested at a local high school yesterday – for threatening another student.

And police advise of a computer scam that’s been reported in the Toronto area – where people with a Rogers account are receiving emails – looking to update customer information so that they can receive a new version of their F-Secure Internet Security program. It is a scam and should you receive such an email you’re advised not to respond to it … and report it to Police.

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Once it’s out there, you can’t get it back. That’s the message the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is putting out to teens across the province. A mistaken belief that their texted messages and images shared among peers will remain private and secure puts them in real danger of becoming victims of their own words and actions.

Teens frequently engage in relationships with peers through the use of their mobile devices and computers that lead to “self-peer exploitation” (also known as sexting). As a result of misbelieving that they can remain anonymous, they often also engage in this type of behaviour with individuals whom they don’t know but have only ever met online.

Teens need to become aware that this kind of risky activity has very real dangers associated with it that includes many unintended consequences and permanent long term threats to their identity and their reputations.

Every day, thousands of teens are photographing and videotaping themselves in suggestive and compromising photos and sending the images through electronic devices to their peers. Quite often, this type of conduct can quickly become a dangerous game as those images never stay with the one intended to receive it. Instead they are frequently mindlessly passed along by the recipient to friends, who pass it on to other friends who continue this cycle of distribution while some post them to social networking sites, and download them onto the internet.

The resulting shame and embarrassment that is experienced by the teen that is now a victim of their own actions as a result of their realization of what has occurred can have very tragic results.

Officers are increasingly seeing more teens that are unable to cope with the self-inflicted personal shame and embarrassment that they have unknowingly created from what they had previously believed to be “harmless fun”.

There is also a real criminal risk for those individuals who receive these images and re-distributes them. Often unknowingly, by sending the images to others and posting them, these individuals are engaging in the distribution of child pornography and could face the Criminal charges.

Parents, guardians and educators need to learn more about this serious social issue. They should recognize the significance of this problem, discuss it with their teens and monitor their social media activities. Reminding teens about the short and long term consequences of their social media behaviours will have a positive impact on this public safety risk.

Inspector Scott Naylor, Manager of the OPP Child Sexual Exploitation Unit says, “Self-peer exploitation has become a big social issue that no one has been adequately prepared to manage. Those with a vested interest in the protection of children need to get involved and learn how to protect them from permanently damaging their lives. Understand what self-peer exploitation is, and find out what to do about it. There are ways to intervene.”

LEARN MORE

“Canadians Sources to Prevent Child Victimization: Canadian Centre for Child Protection

“Intervention and Prevention Programs: Cybertip.ca

“OPP Internet Safety Resources: Internet Safety for Teens & Parents

“Video (English) “Think before You Send”: Think Before You Send – Cybertips.ca

“Vidéo (French) “Pense-y avant”: Pense-y avant

Contact: Det. Sgt. Terry Paddon
Phone: (705) 330-3248

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Details about the 2011 Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority budget were announced at Tuesday night’s meeting. It was learned that the budget includes expenses of 81 thousand dollars for the Point Estates Development appeal. Authority General Manager Linda Whelan says about 40 thousand dollars in savings from routine maintenance and human resources were instrumental in covering those costs. Another 20 thousand dollars came from the group’s reserve account and another 18 thousand dollars from the Ministry of Natural Resources. Whelan says the authority is prepared to continue paying, but that will depend on how things progress. Another highlight of the budget included an overexpediture of about 10 thousand dollars in the trails budget to cover the cost of building the Hub Trail Pavilion at Fort Creek. A presentation of the final 2011 authority budget will be made at their meeting in April.

Members of the Sault Region Conservation Authority board gave their approval on Tuesday for a small subdivision in the city. The seven lot subdivision would be built by SalDan developments at the north end of North Street, with a number of conditions. The list includes that no residential development is allowed within five and a half metres from the top of the crest and that no dumping or removal of vegetation be allowed over the edge of the ravine and the installation of siltation control measures to prevent siltation in Fort Creek during construction. Other rules are that sediment control measures from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, with used materials and equipmentto be stored in a manner that prevents substances like oil from entering the water. Those same measures must also be implemented prior to any work beginning and left in place until all disturbed areas affected by the construction are stabilized. The project has been a long time in the making — it was first suggested back in 2005.

The public will be able to see the final draft of the source protection plan for the city next month. It was announced at Tuesday’s meeting that the draft will be presented to the authority committee and the conservation authority over the next week. The 50 page document will include 15 pages of policy — March 16th is the day that the Sault Ste. Marie Source Protection Authority will release the draft plan prior to a pair of public consultations in the Sault and in Prince Township. Those meetings are tentatively scheduled for April 10th and April 12th.

Federation of Canadian Municipalities news release…

February 27, 2012, Sault Ste. Marie, ON – Berry Vrbanovic, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and councillor for the City of Kitchener, Ontario, and Bryan Hayes, Member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie, today announced a Green Municipal FundTM (GMF) grant for the City of Sault Ste. Marie. The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the City will put the $101,470 in funding toward testing the impact of smart meters on residential water consumption patterns and conservation attitudes.
“FCM’s Green Municipal Fund offers a range of resources and services that specifically address the sustainable community development needs of municipal governments,” said Vrbanovic. “The financing and knowledge provided by the Fund supports the development of communities that are more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.”
“The Government of Canada is assisting municipalities across the country in achieving their goal of a cleaner and healthier environment for Canadians through the Green Municipal Fund,” said Mr. Hayes. “Today’s announcement is another example of how our government – in partnership with FCM – is helping Sault Ste. Marie build a greener future for our citizens.”
Unless usage can be reduced, water consumption in Sault Ste. Marie is expected to increase by 20% within the next 20 to 30 years. A field test involving 500 smart meters in randomly selected residences, will provide data on water use patterns and help the City to design, deliver and measure the effectiveness of water conservation programs.
The initiative will determine whether smart water meters can effectively promote water conservation. Surveys of the participants at the beginning and end of the project will identify changes in water use patterns and attitudes towards water conservation.
Smart water meters are not yet widely used in municipal water systems, but they can reduce water use, energy consumption, chemical use and waste production. With reduced water consumption, Sault Ste. Marie’s PUC hopes to delay building additional water treatment capacity for at least 20 years.
“The City of Sault Ste. Marie values the wise use of our resources to support an environmentally sustainable community,” said Mayor Debbie Amaroso. “Funds provided through the FCM Green Municipal Fund further the City’s commitment to developing innovative solutions for water conservation.”
The Government of Canada endowed the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) with $550 million to establish the Green Municipal Fund . The Fund supports partnerships and leveraging of both public and private-sector funding to reach higher standards of air, water and soil quality, and climate protection.