Municipality of Sioux Lookout

TRANSPORTATION

The four major transportation systems: road, rail, water and air, each play a vital role in the economy of the area. Air transport is, however, of greater significance to this area than it is to the rest of the Province, due to the scattered and isolated locations of many of the area residents.

Air Transportation

The primary mode of transportation in the Far North is by air and this service has improved over time with new airports, modern aircraft and navigational aids.

There are two air carriers providing scheduled air service as well as a number of charter services located at the Sioux Lookout Airport. Year-round passenger, freight and mail service is provided by a variety of aircraft equipped with wheels, floats, and skis.

Sioux Lookout Municipal Airport

The Corporation of the Municipality of Sioux Lookout owns and operates the airport under the Sioux Lookout Airport Commission. The airport serves as the Hub for many Far North communities and handles approximately 165,000 passengers travelling through the airport per year. The newly extended runway is now 5,300 feet by 100 feet, with paved surface and lighting. The Sioux Lookout Airport accommodates a 24-hour NavCanada Flight Services Station.

Bearskin Airlines, Wasaya Airlines and other commercial air carriers offer passenger and freight service from the Sioux Lookout Airport with 200 scheduled flights per week. Daily scheduled flights are provided throughout the Far North, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, North Bay and Ottawa, making it one of the busiest small airports in Canada and second busiest, next to Thunder Bay, in Northwestern Ontario.

As well as providing charter and scheduled service from the terminal building, Bearskin Airlines also operates a maintenance hangar located on the airport property.

Other hangers belonging to the Ontario Ministry of Health, Air Ambulance Division; Allen Airways; Wasaya Airways; Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service and Northern Airborne Maintenance are also situated at the airport. The Ministry of Health Air Ambulance provides emergency services to Thunder Bay and Winnipeg from Sioux Lookout and the Far North communities.

Allen Airways, an aircraft overhaul and rebuilding company does routine maintenance work, and Lockhart Air provides charter services as well as flight school instruction.

The Sioux Lookout Airport is open to traffic 24-hours a day, 365 days a year, and is known for its excellence in service and operational efficiency.

Water Bases

Pelican Lake Bay, within the urban core, is an active water base for three-charter services - Bamaji Air, Slate Falls Airways, and Knobby's Fly-In Services. Tudhope Airways operates out of Hudson and several tourist operators located on the water in both areas own private aircraft.

Rail

The C.N.R. mainline connects Sioux Lookout with Winnipeg and Toronto. This line passes through a number of very small settlements, some of which have no other means of overland transportation.

Primarily used to haul freight over the CN Rail lines, VIA Rail also passes through Sioux Lookout with a 30 minute scheduled stop to refuel.

Roads

Sioux Lookout is connected to the Trans-Canada by Highway 72, a 65 km paved two-lane highway.

The Ministry of Northern Development & Mines and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada contribute funds to work in partnership with the area First Nations to establish a Winter Road Network located north of Sioux Lookout. For a short time frame between January and March, fuel, housing materials and freight are shipped by winter road to these remote communities in the Far North.

COMMUNICATIONS

The Sioux Lookout communication network consists of a cell phone provider through TBayTel, telephone system provided through the Bell Network, High Speed Internet Access, newspaper, post office, courier, radio, and television stations. Sioux Lookout is also connect to the 911 emergency telephone service.

Newspapers

The Sioux Lookout Bulletin is published every week and has a circulation of 4,717 copies in Sioux Lookout, Hudson, Kejick Bay, Pickle Lake, Savant Lake and 17 northern communities.

Wawatay News is an award-winning bilingual, semi-monthly newspaper that carries all types of news for, and about, Nishnawbe-Aski Nation in both English and Oji-Cree. The newspaper has a readership of more than 10,000 and is self-supporting through advertising revenue and subscriptions. Wawatay News is distributed in all Nishnawbe-Aski communities and is often the only newspaper sold. Subscriptions are also sent across Canada, the U.S. and overseas.

The Winnipeg and Thunder Bay newspapers have daily home delivery service in Sioux Lookout and are also available at a number of establishments throughout the community. Residents also have an option to pick up the National Post and Globe and Mail at Rexall Pharmacy, by order.

Post Office

Canada Post provides Sioux Lookout with Community Mailbox postal service. Mail leaves the Municipality daily, Monday to Friday en route to Dryden. Canada Post has an office in urban Sioux Lookout and one in Hudson.

Couriers

Courier service is available by Purolator.

Radio

CBC Radio service is available via low-power repeaters. These stations provide a mix of regional and local coverage produced by the CBC station located in Thunder Bay.

Repeaters for CKDR, a privately owned radio station in Dryden, provide regional news, information and advertising. Additionally, Q-104 fm broadcasting from Vermilion Bay provides news, weather, sports and advertising.

CBLS-1240 is the local AM station, broadcasting both local stories from Sioux Lookout and national coverage from CBC out of Thunder Bay.

Television

Shaw Cable, from Kenora, provides cable service to the community. The services include regular and digital TV channels as well as high speed Internet.

Wawatay Native Communication Society

Since 1973, Wawatay Native Communications Society has helped to bring the people of Nishnawbe-Aski Nation closer together by providing a variety of communication systems and media. The programs offered by Wawatay are: a native language newspaper, a native language radio network, native language television programs, rental of high frequency trail radios, maintenance of 33 community radio stations, installation and maintenance of high frequency base radios, Bell Canada translataphone service, native broadcaster/journalism training, research and development of new technologies and systems in communications, community liaison, government liaison, market research and analysis, Wahsa distance education distribution, and Wawatay's recording studio.

Wawatay Radio Network was established in 1984, to provide information in the Native language to the people of Nishnawbe-Aski. The network produces hours of Oji-Cree and Coastal Cree programs each week. Programming consists of legends, news, dedications and religious shows.

Wawatay Television aired the first Native language television program in January 1987. The main objectives of the television department are to help maintain the Native languages; educate both Native and non-native people about Native culture; and provide news and information to the people of Nishnawbe-Aski Nation. Wawatay TV currently produces two hours of programming each week. This includes youth, current affairs and magazine format shows.