Marching onwards through the fog – more than just a simple, quirky motivational message to Patrick Monaghan; they are words he fully embraced, embodied, and lived his life by.

The charismatic, long-time host of CanoeFM’s weekly Buckslide Blues Cruise show, which aired on Tuesday nights, passed away peacefully at his home July 25. He was 64.

Monaghan had known for some time that the end was coming. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2019, he eventually learned the disease he was fighting, which later spread to his lungs, was terminal. Rather than allowing that news to consume him, and wallow in self-pity, Patrick used it to keep pushing himself forward. He was never afraid to talk about his journey, or his eventual destination. But he also wasn’t going to let that ruin the ride, so to speak.

I first met Monaghan in the spring of 2021. He was one of the first people I interviewed in-person in Haliburton, coming out of the second wave of COVID-19 shutdowns. Going in, I was aware of his illness, but wasn’t sure how I was going to bring it up.

We were due to chat about his lengthy tenure on Canoe’s airwaves, and what he considered to be the culmination of five years of work after receiving the award for best Jazz and Blues Programming from the National Campus and Community Radio Association a couple of months earlier.

He took the pressure off right away by saying, with his trademark smile, that his cancer diagnosis had helped him appreciate his successes. He told how, when sitting through gruelling chemo treatments, he’d pass the time by thinking intently about his next interview – the questions he’d ask, how he’d ask them, what he thought his subject might say.

As someone who has conducted well over 1,000 interviews in my time, the one with Patrick still stands out. He had a way of making you feel comfortable, even in potentially uncomfortable situations.

I remember asking him to recall his favourite interview. Expecting to hear a story about an encounter with a Blues megastar, Patrick surprised me when he said, “this one. Right now.” I chuckled, but he was adamant. “I make an effort not to live in the past – every new experience is a gift,” he said.

That was a big teaching moment for me. I left with a bit of a different perspective than when I’d sat down.

Patrick loved his ‘job’ on the radio. He was a true pro and just had a way with people. That’s been the one constant I’ve heard over the past week while talking to those who knew him best. I didn’t have the chance to reconnect before he passed or tell him how much our interview had helped me. I wish I’d taken the time to do so while I could.

Monaghan’s legacy will live on in Haliburton – through the Buckslide Blues Cruise, which station manager, Roxanne Casey, has confirmed will live on, and through his efforts with organizations like the Highlands Buckslide Blues Society.

Dr. Seuss wrote the famous quote, “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” I’ll always think of Pat, now, when I hear that.

Every year, when it’s announced there will be a drag queen reading to children at a Haliburton County Public Library there is some form of backlash. Often it is an anonymous comment left on the library’s phone message system.

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has garnered criticism for giving parents the option of opting their kids – aged six to 13 – out of a similar event there. While the TDSB decision has been decried by some, one could argue that tolerance is a two-way street. I would counter there is nothing hateful in choosing not to have your child attend drag storytime.

In June, the York Catholic District School Board voted 6-4 against flying the Progress Pride flag outside its headquarters in Aurora. The decision was because the rainbow banner does not align with the Catholic faith.

Unlike the choice to skip drag storytime, this school board decision is a bit whiffier. But is it hate? No, since the school board claimed it would focus its attention on systemic changes to support marginalized students.

Closer to home, there is nothing debateable about a decision by two people who live on Maple Lake to call their neighbour a “fing faggot” on video. It is hateful. We acknowledge the victim of the act is no saint. He has admitted to being at loggerheads with neighbours over property issues since moving to the Highlands in 2020. The disputes have become downright ugly on both sides. The victim has shouted at his neighbours. So, it is not a black and white story of a sainted gay man being attacked by his neighbours. However, those neighbours have crossed a line. Choosing to use the word ‘faggot’ elevates this to something more. Had they chosen to call the man a ‘fing idiot’, it would have passed with a lot less fanfare.

Tolerance. It appears to be something we see less and less of in the Highlands these days. Neighbourhood disputes seem to be much more prevalent; verbal and other threats more common. People want to protect their patch at all cost, regardless of what effect it is having on their neighbours. That is what started something that led to a homophobic slur being hurled.

I acknowledge the Highlands is not alone.

A recent Statistics Canada hate crimes report notes that in 2021 there was a 64 per cent rise in crimes against people identifying as LGBTQ2+. In 2020, Canadian police reported 2,669 criminal acts motivated by hate – the largest number recorded since comparable data became available in 2009. CTV news has reported that, in Ontario, hate crimes based on sexual orientation are up 107 per cent.

The Ontario government is investing up to $2.6 million over two years through the Safer and Vital Communities grant to help cities and towns combat hate-motivated crime.

One way to tackle hate crime locally is to attend – and show support for – Minden Pride celebrations the week of Aug. 21-27. As chair Allan Guinan says in today’s paper, Minden Pride isn’t asking for much – just for its members to be respected and a welcome part of the community.

Earth’s destabilizing climate with escalating extreme weather events is attributed to human behaviour. Carbon dioxide level increases in Earth’s atmosphere appears vertical on graphs since 2022 – now at 420 parts per million. The last time the planet saw 400 ppm C02 was three to four million years ago during the Pliocene period when global sea levels were 10-20 metres higher, and temperatures globally were two to three degrees Celsius higher. But those changes occurred over millions of years, not over two centuries. Scientists are now tracking increasingly faster changes with interconnected cumulative effects at only 1.1-1.2 degrees of global warming.

The warming planet exponentially increases melting (permafrost, Greenland ice sheet, Arctic Sea ice, Antarctica’s Thwaite’s glacier and western ice sheet), droughts, wildfires, floods, and extreme heat on land and in oceans. Sea level rise means even more devastating storm surges.

At a time when humans (and all life forms) are being pummelled by the violence of natural phenomena, we must reframe our relationship with nature. We must stop Ecophobia, “an ethical undervaluing of the natural environment that can result in cataclysmic environmental change.” We must love nature, respect and nurture it.

Respecting our place in the natural world means we “love not man the less, but nature more” (George Byron).

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Reframe your actions from the perspective of frogs, insects, birds, fish, trees, water systems, air.
  
• Drive less. Drive slower. Mow less. Eat less meat. Grow more fruits and vegetables. Waste less. Buy less. Consume less. Toss out less. Fix more. Share more. Grow more flowers and trees. Compost. Avoid pesticides and herbicides. Buy local.
  
• Allowing your lawn to grow for at least one full month can provide enough nectar for 10 times the number of bees and pollinators than does a regularly cut lawn, and provides insects, frogs, and snakes their habitats, plus conserves water. Use native drought resistant plants and you will enjoy a colourful landscape. Birds also benefit from less noise and gas pollution.
  
• See the Haliburton County Master Gardeners website for ideas to naturalize your garden. Abbey Gardens offers gardening and ecology-based workshops with a sustainable and reclaimable focus.
  
• Be sure to use rainwater and gray water.
  
• Build bird boxes and bird baths. Protect birds from hitting your windows. Vertical blinds work. Draw vertical lines with a bar of soap or hang ribbons.
  
• Support the Haliburton Apple Tree Identification Project, SIRCH Apple Sauce Project, U-Links and Master Gardeners Heritage Apple Project.
  
• Support local farmers markets (Haliburton, Minden, Stanhope, Abbey Gardens).
  
• Try the Fork Ranger App to learn the environmental impact of your food choices from seed to table.
  
• Try indoor tower gardens (see Minden Mercantile options), smart gardens and garden kits.
  
• Get political. Push for local public transportation. Send messages to our members of parliament urging rapid phase out of oil and gas.
  
• Use the Haliburton County Waste Wizard App and follow reuse, reduce, recycle practices.
  
• Choose sustainable products or eco-friendly products having cradle to a grave approach.
  
  Simple actions to protect mother Earth include buying local and seasonal produce, closing curtains on hot days, surrounding your home with native greenery, turning off all electrical appliances instead of putting them on standby when not in use, using carpools whenever possible and avoiding plastic bags.

Haliburton Highlands Health Services’ (HHHS’) annual general meeting is coming up today (June 22) and it will be interesting to see what happens.

As of press time June 21, The Highlander had not received a media package. That isn’t surprising. Press agendas for board meetings tend to come only shortly before the meetings. And former CAO Carolyn Plummer’s report was sometimes sent immediately prior to the meeting. Not a great practise for the general public when it comes to transparency.

Many members of the public have also questioned the timing around the Minden ER closure announcement of April 20, and the deadline to apply for HHHS membership only a few days later, since HHHS requires a 60-day period for memberships prior to an AGM.

Others have complained there were no online forms.

It would appear that HHHS has attempted to reduce voices of concern about its hasty closure of the Minder ER prior to its 27th annual AGM.
However, the truth is, even with a stacked meeting of new members, they would have no impact on the ER consolidation or overturning the board.

Last year’s AGM, for example, simply included the business of the corporation, including reports of the CEO and board chair, chief of staff, auditor, HHHS Foundation, nominating committee, election of directors, and appointment of auditors.

There is expected to be a short, perhaps 20-minute question and answer period, but it will have to be on the business of the corporation.
However, with a new board of directors, and we hear there will be some new faces, we can hope the board does a better job of providing the much needed transparency that the public is crying out for.

We are hearing from sources the future will include better community outreach and broader representation.

This is something the newly-minted Minden Position Paper Multidisciplinary Team is calling for.

As outlined in a story in today’s Highlander, they say they have conducted rigourous research into the impacts and decision-making process behind the Minden ER closure.

They are now seeking an open and transparent dialogue with HHHS. They had hoped this would occur prior to the AGM but perhaps it will happen after. We would also ask the board to reconsider it past practise of not having a County council representative. It would be an important inclusion moving forward.

While not giving up on an ER returning to Minden Hills one day, we also welcome news from the province this week that it will fund an urgent care clinic for the town, to fill the dearth created by the loss of an ER.

Many lessons have been learned by this painful process of consolidated ERs in our County. Could the province have done – and do – better? Most certainly. Could HHHS management and the board have done a better job. Definitely. Could the County’s politicians and the public have been more involved in decision-making prior to the April 20 announcement. Most assuredly.

Minden has put a health care spotlight on the Doug Ford government. It is a government that throws health care dollars, and other dollars, away, on seemingly wasteful things. It is heading towards health care privatization.

Personally, I’ll pay more than a buck for a beer, and am happy to pay for my vehicle registration, in exchange for better local health care. I think we all would.

The World Bank forecasts earth’s urban population will grow by 150 per cent by 2045. In some cities, buildings are the biggest source of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

In Canada, buildings are the third largest source of GHG emissions, after oil and gas and transportation (Environment and Climate Change Canada). Nearly two-thirds of energy use in buildings is for heating and cooling.

The European Union “green buildings pact” requires public and residential buildings to be more climate friendly by improving insulation and energy efficiency, with plans to double renovation rates by 2030. In November 2022, the UK announced £6 billion of funding to insulate homes and reduce energy used for summer cooling and winter heating. Investment in energy efficiency measures, such as heat pumps and insulation, increased 16 per cent in 2022.

In Sweden, nearly every home is now equipped with a heat pump.

Canada is developing a model retrofit code for 2024. The Pembina Institute will be working on Canada’s Regulatory Solutions project to accelerate the electrification of buildings and achieve a net-zero grid by 2035. The project will provide the Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) to decarbonize and advance electrification in Canada’s highest emitting sectors (buildings, transport and gas production). Canada’s federal government plans to cut building emissions by 37 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Currently, about half of Canadian homes are heated with fossil fuels.

In 2021, British Columbia updated its building code to make all new buildings zero carbon by 2030, and all new heating equipment sold and installed greater than 100 per cent efficient (heat pumps use less energy than they produce).

For builders, new technologies must be included as new building codes are enforced. Solar panels, improved insulation and heat pumps are rapidly gaining ground, while other technologies are still in development.

Ubiquitous Energy makes a transparent film that layers over window glass. Made from organic salts that absorb a non-visible portion of the solar spectrum, they have potential to turn every building into a solar generator.

MEER’s Urban Cooling uses passive reflective cooling by installing solar reflectors on rooftops in countries where people are suffering thermal intolerance and have no means to regulate indoor temperatures.

Researchers at the University of Maryland have turned ordinary sheets of wood into transparent material that is stronger and lighter than glass with better insulating properties.

Passivhaus offers airtight designs that heat with energy produced by the humans and appliances inside.

The World Economic Forum recommends a tiered carbon reduction strategy: 1. build nothing (refurbish and repurpose old buildings); 2. build less (build only to meet community needs and maximize use of buildings); 3. build clever (reuse materials and use low carbon materials); 4. build efficiently (minimize design loads, maximize material use); 5. minimize waste (prefabricate, reuse, recycle).

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Consider the federal government’s home retrofit rebates: Canada’s Greener Homes Grant covers $5,000 on a heat pump, and Canada Greener Homes Loan incentives.
  
• Review the Climate Adaptation Home Rating Program and EnerGuide home energy audits designed to protect homeowners from the effects of climate change.
  
• Check out: reThink Green (Sudbury) Northern Home Energy Rebates; Canada Green Building Council Zero Carbon Building Standards (2022); Endeavour – the Sustainable Building School (Peterborough); local Passivhaus builders (e.gs. Quantum, Above Board).
  Analyzing Canadian household energy use shows most homes will be 12 per cent lower after transitioning from fossil fuels. The Canadian Climate Institute shows that even after investments into heat pumps, household equipment and electricity grid expansion, clean and sustainable electricity is cheaper than oil and gas. Benefits come from efficient passive forms of heating and cooling, insulating, and heat pumps, which, used for both heating and cooling, have a return of energy at least three to one.

Since the 2022 provincial election, we’ve heard a lot about how the Doug Ford government is going to build more housing in Ontario.

One key policy the province has put forward to help boost the housing supply is Bill 23, which sees freezing, reducing and exempting fees developers pay to build affordable housing, non-profit housing and inclusionary zoning units – meaning affordable housing in new developments as well as some rural units.

But if we look at a proposed affordable housing development for Minden Hills, the province has dropped its own ball.

Bill Switzer donated land to the Kawartha Lakes-Haliburton Housing Corporation to build affordable housing units along Hwy. 35 just south of the Minden Legion in a project that has been in the works since 2018.

Six years ago.

One of the biggest hurdles, if not the biggest hurdle, has been Ford’s Ministry of Transportation. Apparently, the MTO didn’t get Ford’s pro-housing memo as it has yet to sign off on this development.

First off, the MTO said the development needed a right turn taper.

Now, about three years later, it has determined that is no longer needed.

However, now that five units have been added to the project size – taking it to 35 from 30 – it is asking that a traffic impact study done in 2020 be updated.

More time. More money. More inefficiency.

At a Minden Hills council meeting last week, mayor Bob Carter voiced his frustration with the process. He said there have been two project redesigns, both instigated by the MTO. And now, the MTO has forced another design change and an updated traffic study, he said.

There may be money for affordable housing projects at both the federal and provincial levels. The 2023 federal budget announced the government’s intention to support the reallocation of funding from the National Housing Co-Investment Fund’s repair stream to its new construction stream, as needed, to boost the construction of new affordable homes for the Canadians who need them most.

Another thing that could help is the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus (EOWC) recent housing initiative, for which they are now negotiating for provincial and federal funding.

The EOWC appeared before County council this spring, about a new intra-regional housing initiative, aiming to bring almost 500 affordable rental units to the Highlands by 2031. The ‘Seven in Seven’ program aims to construct 7,000 new affordable rental units across 13 counties in eastern Ontario over the next seven years, with a tab of at least $3.1 billion.

However, all of these funders will be looking for shovel-ready projects. Without an MTO permit, the Minden project is not shovel-ready.

At a time when Ontario’s cost of living is making the building of affordable housing almost impossible – thanks to rising interest rates, the cost of building materials, and a shortage of labour – the MTO is doing Minden and its own government no favours.

So, instead of patting itself on the back for all of the housing the province purports it will build in Ontario, it’s time to eliminate the bureaucracy in its own ranks to pave the way for projects such as the one in Minden to come to fruition.

There’s been an interesting change of narrative from Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott on the Minden hospital debacle.

After spending weeks standing behind the Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) board and management, endorsing the decision to shutter the Minden emergency department, Scott changed tack in a pair of social media posts June 1 and 2, expressing frustration at the way the closure has been handled. She specifically said communication from HHHS prior to the decision being made public, and in the weeks since, has been lacking.

Huh?

I mean, it has. But it’s curious that Scott is only now figuring that out and expressing it publicly.

She has had ample opportunity to convey her frustration in interviews with The Highlander and other media sources since April 20, but has neglected to do so.

I’m sure on some level, especially as a former nurse, Scott has an issue with the closure. Even if she doesn’t, a significant portion of her community clearly does, as evidenced by the thousands of signatures on a petition calling for the Ontario government to overturn HHHS’ decision. That Scott hasn’t come forward to at least project those feelings shows she’s more concerned with toeing the Conservative party line and not creating more waves for premier Doug Ford and health minister Sylvia Jones, than she is advocating for her constituents.

Scott’s absence has been noted as the community has organized several rallies to fight this perceived injustice. She has conveniently been elsewhere each time the ‘Save the Minden ER’ group has made the trip to Lindsay to protest outside her constituency office.

Might this changing of the tune have something to do with the fact many of these residents, some of whom claim to have been loyal supporters of Scott’s for decades, have sworn never to vote for her again? I’d suggest so. While a provincial election is still three years away – plenty of time for people to forget or change their minds – I have a feeling the bad blood that has been percolating may stain the long-time MPP’s reputation for good.

Slightly more innocuous but no more egregious was Scott’s apparent attempt to take credit for the Kawartha North Family Health Team (KNFHT) applying to open an urgent care clinic at the Minden site. In the aforementioned posts, Scott said the announcement “is an example of where my efforts have been spent” in the weeks leading up to the closure. She then claimed she “sought out” KNFHT and encouraged them to pursue funding for the clinic.

Asked point blank if Scott had played any role in the application, KNFHT executive director, Marina Hodson, indicated she hadn’t. She knew enough not to completely throw Scott under the bus, noting the MPP had been very supportive once learning of the proposal, but that’s beside the point. Why did Scott think she could get away with taking credit for something she had little input in?

It all suggests to me that Scott, after 20 years and six terms as the local representative at Queen’s Park, has lost touch with her community’s priorities and values.

On Dec. 12, 2000, the services of the old Minden hospital were transferred to the new one, ending close to a half century of service.
Today (June 1), the emergency department is shuttered after servicing Minden and surrounding communities for 23 years.

It is understandable that the loss is being grieved by everyone in Minden Hills and beyond.

It has been a tumultuous six weeks since the Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) announced its intentions to consolidate ER services at its Haliburton site.

We applaud the Minden community, and its council, for their tireless efforts in pushing to have the decision paused or overturned.

HHHS and its board have been consistent in their messaging from the start. It remains that a shortage of staff meant the prospect of short-term, temporary, ER closures – with as little as two hours’ notice. HHHS is also confident its plan for the consolidated site will work.

With all avenues to stop the move as of June 1 now exhausted by community members, we will all hold our collective breaths to see how it goes over the summer. We all hope and pray the transition is smooth; that wait times are reasonable; the Haliburton site does not have to temporarily close; and that lives are not unnecessarily lost.

We have also learned that HHHS and its board need to step up their transparency game. Surely, with hindsight, they must recognize that while they believe their decision is right – how they went about it was very, very wrong.

The very workings of the board are questionable. With this decision, they refused to meet face-to-face with the public. They did not consult before the announcement, even with their own ER doctors in Minden. They hold closed meetings before meeting on Zoom. Why are they even still meeting virtually? They don’t have board members’ contact details listed on their website. There have been claims the board is stacked since a past board chair selects from the nominees and the board vets candidates. County councillors say they have asked for board representation and have always been refused.

Going forward, we expect so much more of health care leadership in this County.

We hope they have read the many stories and letters in The Highlander, from doctors, other health care workers, councillors, community groups, fundraisers and service clubs. The list goes on and on of people floored by how all of this has been rolled out.

Our MPP, Laurie Scott, has much to answer for as well. While she may have backed the HHHS decision via media statements and emails to constituents, she should have come to the community.

She should have had the guts to face angry residents. She should have responded to claims her government has dropped the ball on healthcare. An MPP who truly cared about her riding – and did not take it for granted – would have appeared.

And those who voted for her again in 2022 should have done their homework. She was part of a government that capped pay for nurses way back in 2019.

Today is a landmark day in our County. We only hope that we can write in three months’ time that it was one for the better.