Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands

Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands is a municipality with town status in Manitoulin District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, approximately south of Espanola. Its main town is Little Current, located on the northeast side of Manitoulin Island. However, its territory also includes most of the small islands surrounding Manitoulin, even those at the far western end of Manitoulin.

The town was created on January 1, 1998, by amalgamating the Town of Little Current with the Township of Howland and the unorganized small islands in Lake Huron.

It is the administrative headquarters of the Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nations band government.

Geography

Communities

thumb|left|Little Current as seen across the North Channel

Little Current is the largest community within the town, as well as its administrative centre. Formerly an independent town, Little Current was named variously by different groups for the swift strong currents of water running between the narrow passageway which connects the North Channel and Georgian Bay. Past names for the community included Wewebijiwang/Wyabegwong, Le Petit Courant, and Shaftesbury.

The town also includes the smaller communities of Cold Springs, Dinner Point Depot, Eads Bush, Green Bay, Honora, Rockville, and Sheguiandah.

Climate

The climate is characterized by warm, humid summers (sometimes rainy/cooler) and snowy, rigorous winters. The cold season does not have many differences with other North American places of the same parallel. However, the obvious differing factor is that all weather is dictated by Lake Huron. As such, the lake generates microclimates similar to coastal cities, thousands of miles away; one example is Asahikawa, on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

In April 2018, Ontario Northland announced that it would begin bus service on Manitoulin Island, with buses stopping at Little Current upon arrival from Sudbury before travelling around the island using a circular route. The new route also includes Sheguiandah. This new route marked the first time the island had seen bus service in decades. Manitoulin Island service ended in 2019.

Media

Radio

The town has two radio stations, CFRM and CHAW. Some radio stations from Sudbury can also be heard in the area, as can Elliot Lake's CKNR.

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!Frequency

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|FM 94.1

|CKNR-FM

|Moose FM

|Adult contemporary

|Vista Broadcast Group

|FM 97.5

|CBCE-FM

|CBC Radio One

|Talk radio, public radio

|Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

|Rebroadcaster of CBCS-FM Sudbury

|FM 100.7

|CFRM-FM

|Hits 100

|Community radio/adult hits

|Manitoulin Radio Communication

|FM 102.1

|CJTK-FM-2

|KFM

|Christian music

|Harvest Ministries Sudbury

|Rebroadcaster of CJTK-FM Sudbury

|FM 103.1

|CHAW-FM

|Country 103

|Country music

|Manitoulin Radio Communication

Newspaper

The town's primary community newspaper is the weekly Manitoulin Expositor, which is the oldest still-extant newspaper in Northern Ontario.