County council, at its last meeting, voted to send its short-term rental bylaw to the four lower-tier municipalities for possible adoption.

It’s now up to Algonquin Highlands, Dysart et al, Highlands East and Minden Hills to pass it.

Further, council has directed County staff to work with employees from the four townships to prepare a request for proposals (RFP) for a third-party provider to administer the new rules and regulations, if adopted. It’s hoped municipalities can report on what they think will be required of them when it comes to inspection and enforcement. After all of that, local government will be looking towards setting an implementation date.

The decision came after a lengthy debate in which warden, Liz Danielsen, expressed frustration that it, “looks like we can’t make a decision if our life depends on it.”

Coun. Murray Fearrey also commented, “how come all these other municipalities have done this and we’re so complicated?”

Director of planning, Steve Stone, brought clarified definitions and further refinements of the bylaw to the July 26 meeting. However, he said, “the most critical piece of the bylaw that was changed really reflects council’s interest in allowing for operators to sign up, and basically swear that their establishment is operating in accordance with all of the rules and regulations, so building code, fire code and so on and so forth.

“But there is a notwithstanding clause in the bylaw that allows municipal departments to do their own deep dive… so hold back from issuing a license if they have a concern that they may have heard about or may have seen in their own records as they’re processing applications.”

Stone said the City of Kawartha Lakes had approved a short-term rental bylaw.

County to prepare MAT bylaw

He said they have set a license application date of April 1, 2024. After that date, CKL is capping the number of STRs and putting STR owners on a wait list.

He added the County had received correspondence from two, third party contractors who do short-term rental work on behalf of municipalities in Ontario. They’ve indicated there could be anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 of them being advertised in the Highlands.

After Coun. Lisa Schell expressed concern with Minden Hills not having enough planning and building department staff, specifically bylaw enforcement, to manage the portfolio, Stone said the third-party providers “can do pretty much everything up until the enforcement – inspection side of things. They can run the permitting side of things. For their fee, they can pretty much do everything, taking the major administration burden away from the municipalities.”

He indicated with a self attestation form, municipalities would not have to inspect all of STRs, perhaps auditing just five per cent every year.

Fearrey said he understood the contractor would do much of the work. “What we’re going to do is what we have to do at the local tier because that’s where the bodies are, if we have to do a fire or building inspection. So, there will be some work there, there’s no question about it, but it’s minimal.” He added, “we’re never going to get this perfect. We’re going to have to amend it as we go along…”

Coun. Walt McKechnie noted third-party providers also monitor compliance issues. They can levy fines, issue demerits and suspend licenses. They are on call for complaints. CAO Mike Rutter noted the contractor can take and upload videos for municipal bylaw staff to review if they cannot attend on a weekend, for example.

Will generate revenue

Rutter, while arguing the townships have to take on the bylaw due to them having paper copies of all relevant documentation, said the licensing fee, “will generate a fairly significant source of income to help you get more staff to do all of the things.”

Coun. Bob Carter reiterated he did not want any tax dollars to go into the program.

During his presentation on a possible municipal accommodation tax, director of economic development, Scott Ovell, said local governments can keep 50 per cent of revenue and apply it anywhere, including to short-term rental program costs.

Carter said one of the most difficult things is “we have no idea how many there are. This is the real crap shoot in all of this.” Fearrey suggested some rentals won’t make the cut.

Carter agreed the County, “can’t make this perfect, it’s a leap of faith, but we all know we need to do this. It’s an issue on so many levels. We’re going to have to figure it out.”

Fearrey said he was prepared to take the bylaw to his council. “We’ve been diddling around with this thing for six months.”

With the MAT tax, council authorized staff to prepare a bylaw for consideration by lower-tier municipalities and put the wheels in motion to set up a municipal accommodation tax association.

Nomi Resort hosted an open house July 22.

The day featured food, live music and raffles.

Development Lead and COO Elise Blouin said, “this is a great opportunity for cottagers and community members to learn more about what we do here at Nomi and the different developments at the resort located along Elephant Lake.”

There were resort tours offering visitors a look at the spa, pools and sauna treatment rooms.

For more information on Nomi Resort go to nomiresort.com.

Gooderham is celebrating its 150th birthday this year, and the hamlet’s music festival July 28 is keeping the celebrations going.

Valerie Dugale, chair of the Gooderham Community Action Group, said making a few changes to the timing of the festival has allowed them to bring a tribute band to headline. “We have shortened the time from 1-7 p.m. instead of the whole day. We found shortening it up allowed us more money for bands.”

The music festival has four bands slotted to play throughout the day starting with the B&B Blues Band at 1 p.m. Rockin’ Bob’s at 3 p.m., the Salt Cellars at 5 p.m., and Ed’s Garage at 7 p.m.

Along with great music will be a BBQ, homemade baked goods, and other refreshments. “We also have T-shirts and calendars for sale celebrating the Gooderham spirit,” Dugale said.

One of the things that has made a difference this year is a grant from the Haliburton County Development Corporation (HCDC). Dugale said they were able to put road signs up further afield. “This has really allowed us to go bigger, get it on the map, so to speak.”

The festival ran for two years before COVID and then last year and this year. Dugale said the two years that things were in hiatus has actually been good for the community action group. “When we couldn’t do much, a lot of new members came into the group. People who had cottages up here moved up permanently, so we came out of COVID with a much bigger and stronger Gooderham Community Action Group.”

The goal of the group is to bring people together, to celebrate and help one another out.

The group was formed in 2001 and has been planning events and promoting the area ever since.

“We still have a number of events coming up,” said Dugale. “We have the 503 street sale in August, a trunk and treat Halloween event where people come, open their trunks and hand out candy. We had more than 50 children last year.”

The group is able to fund their events through a bottle return. Gooderham Timber Mart built a bottle shed a number of years ago on their property, and the community drops off their empty bottles, (beer and other spirits).

“We really thank our community because they drop off their empties to keep us funded,” Dugale said. “It is such a fabulous community. We have also been able to provide a bursary for a student going on to post-secondary studies.”

For more information about the Gooderham Music Festival, and other events in the area, log onto their website at gooderhamontario. ca.

Haliburton’s Matt Duchene will be joining the Dallas Stars this coming National Hockey League season.

He’s committed to a one-year deal after the Nashvlle Predators bought out the remainder of his contract June 30.

“It was a shock to be leaving Nashville, because Nashville is home for my family,” Duchene said during his namesake charity golf tournament at Blairhampton Golf Course July 21.

Duchene had three years left on a sevenyear, $56 million, contract he signed with the Preds in July 2019. The rest of his contract will be paid out within the next three years

“Dallas was my first choice coming out of this, and fortunately, I was able to sign this deal with them,” Duchene said. His one-year deal is worth $3 million.

Duchene said he is “very optimistic” about the 2023-24 season with the Stars. Last season, Dallas lost to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the western conference finals and the Knights went on to win the Stanley Cup.

Duchene, 32, started his NHL career with the Colorado Avalanche, before moving on to the Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets and then Nashville. Last year, he played 71 games with the Predators, notching 22 goals and 34 assists for 56 points.

He is approaching the 1,000 game milestone, with 976 under his belt. In that time, he has scored 316 goals, and 428 assists for 744 points..

The Eagle Lake Church and Community Centre celebrated its 85th year this past weekend.

Volunteers hosted a BBQ for the community. They also had 114 homemade pies for sale along with crafts and quilts.

A historical display was set up for trips down memory lane.

Most of the sale proceeds are headed back to the church.

Congregation member Russell Whetstone said, “this anniversary means a lot to me and a lot to all of the members of the church.

The church members are my family and I’m really happy we had this event for the community.”

For more information on The Eagle Lake Church, go to eaglelakecc.com.

One-hundred-and-fifty golfers raised more than $209,000 July 21 to help the Haliburton Highlands Health Services Foundation (HHHSF) with money to put towards diagnostic equipment.

HHHSF executive director, Melanie Klodt Wong, said that includes the recently approved CT scanner and mammography unit for Haliburton Highlands Health Services.

“We’re so happy to have all of this support from so many local businesses, sponsors, and Matt Duchene and his family,” she said.

Duchene added, “I’m very proud to be from this community. It’s always an honour to have this tournament in my name and this is going to be our biggest year yet.”

The Blairhampton Golf Club hosted the event this year. The full day of golfing included lunch, an opening ceremony at 12:15 p.m., auctions and prizes and a dinner.

Prior to the event, the tournament organizing committee said it had been working hard over the past few months to engage with previous sponsors and local businesses. Troy Austen, co-chair of the organizing committee and a HHHS Foundation board member, said he was pleased to announce that “over $1 million has now been raised by this long-standing tournament thanks to our friends, family and countywide community. We are beyond thrilled to bring this event to a new level, and to continue to invest in making health care better for all of us.”

This year’s charity event was presented by Ridgewood Ford Sales.

For more information on the HHHS Foundation and the Matt Duchene Charity Golf Classic: hhhs.ca/foundation/eventscampaigns/charity-golf-classic.

No strangers to the Haliburton Highlands, internationally-renowned Annette Blady and Al Van Mil’s collaboration, 2 Part Harmony, is residing in the Corner Gallery until Aug. 10.

Gallery manager, Val Wallin, said she is excited to have Blady and Van Mil showing their work in Haliburton.

“It is an amazing show, the collaboration between the two has produced something completely new.”

Both have been individually creating their own styles of art for a very long time, but for their 40th anniversary decided to do something together. “We didn’t know what it was going to be, so we decided to play and experiment and have fun,” said Blady. “We had some parameters, we wanted something that would be different, something we’ve never seen before.”

That was in 2020, and Blady explained that with so much craziness going on, politically, environmentally, and with COVID, that she and Van Mil thought people had to start, “looking at things in different ways, different angles, different viewpoints.”

Moulding and manipulating fabric, combined with collage work, they co-invented the moulage technique and created 40 pieces for the 40 years they’d been together.

Van Mil said when they decided on the collaboration, they had to think about who they were. “Which led to, we are our paintings. So, we decided, as an experiment, to take a couple of our paintings and cut them up.” Both agreed it was a bit scary, and panicky to begin with, but once they got started and it was going well, “it became somewhat cathartic.”

Blady is known for her style of using texture, fabrics, cut glass and metallic acrylic, as well as her 3D encaustic work that incorporates paper, fabric, and wax. Van Mil leans towards landscapes and portraits as abstracted expressions in acrylics and oils. The combination of such diverse mediums comes together in 2 Part Harmony.

The gallery is at 123 Maple Ave. in Haliburton. It showcases works that provide a new, modern and abstract way of looking at the world around us. Provocative and innovative, part of their mission is to lead the growing recognition of Haliburton village as a destination for fine art.

The Rails End Gallery in Haliburton currently Recto Verso: Stories Visible and Invisible, an exhibit by Bel Angeles, is on display until Aug. 26.

Angeles is a feminist artist who believes in equality, social justice and creativity. Angeles integrates her life experience, background, ethnicity, culture and passions to create powerful acrylic paintings and collage. Her studio is currently near Perth, Ontario and she is a member of the Global Art Project, curated by Carl Heyward. She is also a part of the Ottawa Mixed Media Artists Association.

Curator Laurie Jones said it’s quite different from most art that comes through the gallery.

“I call her an emerging artist, her philosophical views are very well formed. She’s worked all over the world on humanitarian projects.” Jones said.

Visitors are encouraged to interact with, and respond to, the artwork, some of which is presented “recto verso” and intended to be viewed front and back.

In an audio recording accessed by QR code, Angeles says, “Recto Verso is a style of creating art, extremely rarely used by artists around the world to portray images, feelings, and stories on both sides of the panel. I use this method to demonstrate the physical, emotional, and physic energies needed to discover stories hidden, untold, unasked, and unexplored.”

One of her strongest pieces, ‘Power of the normal’ features a white canvas on one side and a collage of photos and words on the other “It addresses a lot of the things that we view as normal,” Jones said.

She added she’s watched people come into the gallery and just sit with one or two pieces and really try to experience the full meaning. Many are conversation starters, such as the degree of privilege scale, which allows people to place a pin on a scale of one to 10 to rank their privilege, whether it be with education, housing, work, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, citizenship, religion, travel, accessibility, or family support.

Gallery hours are Tuesday – Friday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.. For more information on Bel Angeles and the Rails End Gallery visit railsendgallery.com/ exhibitions-6.

This August, Highlander Katie Woodward is aiming to ride her bicycle 500 kilometres around the County to raise money for SickKids cancer research.

It’s Woodward’s second fundraising summer, and she has increased her goal since last year. In 2022, she set out to pedal 200 kilometres and raise $2,500. This summer, she hopes to generate $6,500.

“I have had family members with cancer as adults. It’s such a horrible thing to go through when you’re older. I can’t imagine kids and their parents and their families having to deal with that,” Woodward said.

She will also be entering a race in September at Haliburton Forest.

She plans to continue her ride past August in hopes of being able to raise more money.

“This is something that anybody can do. I know kids who are actually doing this, and of course adults all the way up to seniors, and you don’t have to ride 500 kilometres. I’ve known people with a goal of 50 kilometres,” Woodward said.

For more information on how to donate to Woodward, and more information on the Great Cycle Challenge: greatcyclechallenge.ca/riders/katiewoodward.