Schools across Haliburton County could be set for a prolonged, unexpected closure beginning Nov. 4 as support staff provincewide get ready to go on strike.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) gave formal notice to the Ontario government Oct. 30 that its members are prepared to hit the picket line if a new contract isn’t agreed upon by close of day today (Nov. 3). This comes even after education minister Stephen Lecce attempted to quash any strike Oct. 31 by introducing the Keeping Students in Class Act, legislation that imposes a contract on the workers and prevents them from legally walking off the job.

Local CUPE 997 president, William Campbell, said many of his members are prepared to incur hefty daily fines of $4,000 in order to strike.

“My members are really frustrated. Since 2012, they’ve had a bunch of zero per cent wage increases. They’ve had a collective bargaining agreement imposed upon them. They’ve had Bill 124 thrown at them. They’ve had enough,” Campbell told The Highlander.

Campbell said 93.01 per cent of his members voted on the strike action, with 98.19 per cent in favour of it.

Negotiations between the province and CUPE have been ongoing for several weeks. The union is looking for annual salary increases of 11.7 per cent, while the government has so far offered raises of two per cent annually for workers making less than $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for all others.

With inflation topping out at 6.9 per cent in September, Campbell said his members are struggling to make ends meet on their current salary.

“I have some members that are living in their car. They’re permanent, full-time school board employees and they cannot afford a place to live. You wouldn’t expect that to happen, but it does,” he said. “Most of my members live paycheck to paycheck, and a lot of them access food banks. Right now, they’re concerned about potentially missing one day’s pay because they don’t know how they’re going to pay their bills.”

Campbell said the local CUPE 997 currently has around 850 members. That number is down drastically from previous years, with people moving on to other careers in search of better pay. He said supply staff numbers are down 25 per cent from the previous school year.

He wanted to stress that the fight is with the Ontario government, not the Trillium Lakelands District School Board. If picketing, members will likely attend Laurie Scott’s office in Lindsay, he said.

TLDSB issued a statement of support for CUPE employees Oct. 31. He said schools would be closed to all students should a strike commence, with classes moving online.

“CUPE members include secretaries, clerks, technicians, custodial and maintenance staff, and educational assistants. These members are critical in keeping our school buildings and sites safe for students, not only for the cleanliness of our buildings, but for the support students receive each day,” said Wes Hahn, director of education. “We respect and value our CUPE staff and are hopeful an agreement is met before the end of the week.”

The County’s physician recruitment coordinator says she is currently in regular contact with seven physicians who are considering relocating to the Highlands.

In a report to an Oct. 26 council meeting, Wendy Welch summarized her last six months of work.

She told council she had sourced a new rental for visiting doctors on Lake Kashagawigamog, giving up a lease on a Harmony Road property. She said it’s a three-bedroom, lower-level walk-out, furnished, with laundry, fully-equipped kitchen and a dock and firepit.

She said she is contacted regularly from community members about housing options and is keeping a file of potential rentals for when the need arises.

She noted five road-side signs are in place and she had received a couple of physician leads, who called after seeing the signs. They are the large billboards that depict a parking space for a canoe at work.

Welch added she had been posting on social media, targeting medical universities, resident groups and other physician recruitment groups. She is gaining followers on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

She noted the County had recently retained a local drone photographer to shoot footage of the hospital and medical building in Haliburton, “highlighting the beautiful lakes and lush green community surrounding them.”

They’ve been added to the physician recruitment website and #myhaliburtonhighlands YouTube channel. She said in future they would expand to include other County medical facilities. They’ve also updated the Halidoc website.

Welch said she also has lunch meetings with residents and learners and gives them a gift basket. As for recruitment events, next up is Nov. 25 at the University of Ottawa.

She’s had pull-up banners at events such as the recent Storm the Trent race at the Haliburton Forest, the Independent in Haliburton, and Dorset Tower over Thanksgiving weekend. She added she will be speaking at the high school this fall.

Referencing the seven candidates, Welch said it, “can often take months or even years as candidates seek out a location that works for them and their families. This regular contact ensures they know we are interested in seeing them practice in the County of Haliburton, and are willing to do whatever we can to assist in the transition.”

Haliburton County hotel and resort owners have won their battle to keep hot tubs open after the province changed some Ministry of Health regulations Oct. 24.

The ministry announced last week that Regulation 565: Public Pools under the Health Protection and Promotion Act was amended to exempt hot tubs operated in conjunction with an individual dwelling unit or suite of a hotel for the exclusive use of its occupants – if required signage is posted.

In July, the HKPR district health unit ordered Buttermilk Falls Resort, Sandy Lane Resort and Lakeview Motel and Resort to shut down their hot tubs. Steve and Megan Orr of Buttermilk Falls Resort quickly contacted the Haliburton Highlands Chamber of Commerce about the issue.

Executive director Bob Gaudette said the local health unit had interpreted the regulations in such a way that it forced the closure of individual unit spas for noncompliance with regulations.

“The interpretation identified the hot tubs as public spas, requiring costly and unreasonable modifications to the spa area and equipment in order to resume operation,” he said. This included things such as timing devices, no food or beverages, being inaccessible outside of a daily use period and having a telephone landline nearby.

“The negative impacts to these local operators were very significant; a disadvantaged ability to compete against neighbouring competitors (not subject to the same interpretation) as well as the loss of spa-related income,” Gaudette said.

However, the chamber took a lead role in advocating on behalf of the three businesses. They collaborated with stakeholders, “to solve a problem that was seriously affecting several local hospitality providers.”

Lakeview Motel and Resort co-owner Harsha Manani said, “we are forever grateful for the chamber of commerce’s involvement with the hot tub issue. Our initial meeting with Bob was very productive. We can’t thank the chamber enough for all the hard work and efforts in providing advocacy and supporting small businesses like ours.”

The chamber thanked the ministry, MPP Laurie Scott, Haliburton County Tourism, the health unit, the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario and County Council.

“This matter was handled in an expedited manner with an outcome that creates greater clarity in interpretation and provides improvements in the regulation of spas that are operated in conjunction with an individual dwelling unit or suite of a hotel,” Gaudette said. “I’m pleased the chamber was able to play a role in this outcome.”

County council did not pass a short-term rental bylaw when it met Oct. 26. And, although the file will come back to a Nov. 9 meeting – the last of this current term of council – regulations are unlikely to be endorsed then, warden Liz Danielsen said.

Danielsen said in an interview Oct. 27 that some members of council thought they may be able to pass the bylaw, particularly as “there’s been very little public pushback” but “it’s an important piece of legislation and we want to get it right.”

Consultants, J.L. Richards and Associates, were unable to attend the meeting to deliver their report so director of planning, Steve Stone, took the lead. Council spent hours going through the latest draft of how to, first, register and then, eventually, license shortterm rentals.

“It took us a lot more time than I think any of us anticipated,” Danielsen said. “There were a lot of bits of minutia that we ended up getting through and clarifying. I feel good that we have advanced it as far as we have. I think that what we will see coming back to us is a document that will be easier for a new council to deal with. I think we had really not thought of some things, such as the work the consultant did after our last discussion.”

The consultant is expected to attend the Nov. 9 meeting with answers to questions raised last week and likely a revised draft. But Danielsen said, “we won’t pass it. I really and truly think that at this point in time, we probably shouldn’t be passing it.” She was referring to the fact the new County council will select a new warden Nov. 22 before holding its first council meeting Nov. 23.

She added it isn’t just about the council turnover but, “when you see the level of conversation that we had yesterday (Oct. 26), we weren’t quite ready to pass it. We needed some clarification on certain things and then we weren’t all on the same page.”

One issue raised during the meeting was challenges around a bylaw passed at the County filtering down to the lower-tier governments of Algonquin Highlands, Dysart et al, Highlands East and Minden Hills. There would also be complications around a municipal accommodation tax with two tiers of government. This led Coun. Brent Devolin to repeat his long-held belief that the County should have only one tier of government.

Danielsen told The Highlander, “I came into the discussion about amalgamation with some trepidation, but the more we’ve gone through this process, the more I see that we really do need to resolve some things.”

She referred to some lakes being in two municipalities with different sets of rules. “How are people supposed to know what it is they are supposed to do? We have different forms in all the municipalities, different fees. We’ve done some work to resolve some of that stuff but no wonder people think ‘what exactly am I supposed to do?’ Or they decide ‘to heck with it, I can’t figure it out, I’m not going to get a permit at all’. I would love to see planning, building and bylaw all land at the County in particular.”

She also hopes the new County council does not scrap a lot of the hard work that has been done to date on the short-term rental and other files, such as the shoreline preservation bylaw.

“The thing that worries me is that there’s been a lot of really good work done by County council in the last four years. I’d just hate to see it all torn down because of new members of council. And I don’t know for sure that that will happen, but you know that there are going to be different perspectives and it’s got to be hard for staff to have worked on things so hard for so long and then all of a sudden it taking a very sharp turn. It’ll be interesting to see how things flow out.”

The Moose ski trail in Algonquin Highlands will reopen for the first time in five years this winter, thanks to a $10,000 donation from the family and friends of one of its greatest champions.

Before her passing in August 2021, one of Anu Lellep’s favourite things to do was strap on a pair of skis and head out on the trails surrounding her cottage near Kushog Lake. Her feats are almost legendary. Anu would often be out early in the morning and have completed a full circuit of the 26-kilometre trail around the Frost Centre before township staff had a chance to get out and groom them.

Together with her partner, Wally Ozog, Lellep helped form the Ski Friends of the Frost Centre in the late 1990s. The volunteer group maintained the trail loop for 14 years before handing the responsibility to the township in 2011.

Ozog was joined by Anu’s brother, Lembit, and several Algonquin Highlands staffers and council members Oct. 27 for a cheque presentation. Chris Card, parks, recreation and trails manager with the township, said the trail had been closed since 2017 due to safety concerns.

“Beech bark disease hit that whole trail loop very hard… what happens is the tree starts to rot from the middle out, so you can’t see how badly a tree is rotting,” Card said. “It gets to a point where the trees just started falling randomly. We tried to do trail maintenance and clear some of the dead standing trees, but those particularly are very dangerous. As a staff, we just didn’t have the experience to handle them.”

Card hoped to reopen the trail in 2018, forging an agreement with a forestry company to come in, fell the trees and then take the wood away, but after several years assessing the site, the company decided to walk away.

Following Anu’s death, Wally and Lembit knew they wanted to do something to both remember and honour her. They decided it would be “a really nice thing” to get the trail reopened for the community, with the Lellep family contributing $7,282 and the Ski Friends of the Frost giving $2,718. That money has already been put to good use, with 117 trees being removed from the site. Card said another 100 trees have been identified as problematic and will be taken down over the next couple of years. Work has also been done to prune the trails, repair a boardwalk and restore several drainage ditches and culverts.

“I know how dear the whole Leslie Frost ski trails were to my sister. I’m sure she’s looking down on us from somewhere now and appreciating this support.” Said Lemibt, who travelled from Zurich, Switzerland to attend the ceremony. A plaque honouring Anu has been placed at one of the warming shelters along the trail.

Card said the Moose ski trail should open up for sking in December.

The Ontario and federal governments are partnering with Bell Canada on a new $20 million investment to further bolster internet services across Haliburton County.

MPP Laurie Scott was at the County of Haliburton office Oct. 28 to make the announcement, joined by warden Liz Danielsen, Minden Hills mayor Brent Devolin and Dysart et al deputy mayor Pat Kennedy. Scott said the money would help connect thousands of homes across 16 communities in the Highlands to reliable high-speed internet.

The bulk of the work, around 75 per cent according to Scott, would involve installation of or upgrades to hard-wired fibre optic connections. The remainder will feature infrastructure upgrades for line-of-sight connections.

“There has been a lot of work over a lot of years leading up to this… it really is great news for our community and for those who have been waiting for high-speed internet connections,” Scott said.

She noted the latest investment builds on the Ontario government’s previous $4 billion commitment to bring all rural communities online by 2025.

Projects in Highland Grove and Paudash are expected to wrap up by March 2025, with Carnarvon, Eagle Lake, Fort Irwin, Gooderham, Haliburton, Horseshoe Lake, Ingoldsby, Irondale, Lochlin, Lutterworth, Minden, Moore Falls, Tory Hill and West Guilford looking at a completion date of December 2025.

Devolin said it’s been a “big priority” of his to improve high-speed internet options in Haliburton County. He has been one of the driving forces on the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) board, resulting in last year’s $300 million public-private partnership with Rogers to improve cellular connectivity throughout the region.

“We have two titans fighting over who can more quickly serve the people of Haliburton County. It’s great news,” Devolin said. “I think the next 24 to 36 months are going to be exciting, with the amount of stuff that’s coming here. When we get to the end, people are going to be like ‘holy, I didn’t think they could do that’.”

He believes this project is “legacy stuff” for the Highlands.

“This is about ‘have’ and ‘have not’ communities, and we want to be a ‘have’. We need [high-speed internet] for health care, education, working from a distance and just keeping track of friends and families. It’s never fast enough, but we can finally say improvements are coming,” Devolin added.

Danielsen said the announcement would be welcome news for businesses in the area.

“Access to high-speed internet is essential to allow rural residents, businesses and communities to grow and prosper in an increasingly connected world. Businesses need to remain competitive, and the lack of reliable internet should not be a barrier to their success,” she said.