A start but a long way to go

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October 21, 2021

The Rails End Gallery and Highlands Summer Festival have been awarded provincial Community Building Fund grants.

The grants are given to arts organizations that have demonstrated impacts in their communities.

Laurie Jones, executive director of The Rails End Gallery, said their $50,000 grant will help fund the staffing model of the gallery which supports the board and volunteer committees as they “get things rolling again.”

While the gallery has been hosting virtual and socially-distanced functions outside, many cornerstone events such as their Haliburton Drum Fest, arts and crafts market or mass yard sale at Head Lake Park haven’t been able to run for two seasons.

“That sidetracked us. It’s like someone changed the deck of cards,” Jones said.

She said the funds will be especially helpful over the next sixth months as they begin to “gear back up” to regular operations. Online programming will continue in some capacity: “everyone loves to talk about art in their pajamas having a coffee,” said Jones.

The Highlands Summer Festival (HSF) will use their $14,000 grant to fund the ongoing costs related to their office and storage space.

“We’ve had two seasons without any shows on the board. We’ve got some operating expenses, there’s rent, there’s heat, there’s hydro, too,” said HSF president Brian Kipping.

2022 will see HSF producing a slate of shows that were planned for 2020. While some, such as “The Sound of Music,” might need to be recast because of ageing cast members, Kipping said he looks forward to being able to gather in person to prepare for the season. In 2020, HSF’s survival was unclear.

“When we looked forward, we couldn’t say with any certainty that we were going to survive financially,” Kipping said. “The grants saved our bacon.”

Laurie Scott, Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP, said the taxpayerfunded community building fund will help revitalize the arts communities around her riding.

Many have criticized the Ford government’s treatment of the arts in Ontario since he assumed power in 2018. In 2019, he cut nearly half of funding from the Ontario Music Fund and reduced the Ontario Arts Council’s funding by $10 million.

However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Queen’s Park funded 140 arts organizations to the tune of $24 million in a one-time COVID-relief grant.

“I would say it’s a little flip-floppy, they take with one hand and give with the other. A consistent approach would be much better,” Jones said. She added she was encouraged by the support of the Trillium Fund, which awards the grants.

Despite a turbulent 18 months, both organizations say the grant will help keep them on track as they, and the rest of Haliburton’s arts community, emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I really appreciate it,” Kipping said. “The grant from Trillium: that’s substantial.”

Certified coach empowers transformation

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October 21, 2021

Certified coach Heather Battié knows transformative changes in health and life require more than surface solutions.

“So often people know what to do, they know what to eat and not to eat, they know that exercise is good for them and that eating whole foods over fast foods is a better option, but the question is, why aren’t they doing it then? or why do they start and stop, never make any real progress with their weight and health goals?” asked Battié.

“I realize that food, diet and exercise are only a very small piece to the puzzle of achieving and maintaining your weight loss and health goals.”

Battié offers customized one-to-one programs and group cleanses to women around the world. She helps each client shine a light on any limiting beliefs so they no longer block the client from achieving the desired results, and make a plan “with realistic goals that they can achieve with ease.”

“Past clients have reported that they were able to ditch feelings of deprivation, shame, guilt, worry and the feeling of impossibility surrounding their health and weight goals [and that] their self-confidence grew as they hit milestones and achieved their goals.”

Born and raised in Charlottetown, PEI, Battié originally envisioned a school-teaching career. She took a year off after university and worked on private yachts in Florida, where she experienced yoga for the first time. Passionate about natural health and alternative healing since her late teens, she fell in love with yoga. It would set her life on a new course.

“I continued to attend classes wherever I was travelling and living, deepening my knowledge and love for how transformative it was for the body and the mind,” said Battié. She did get her education degree and began teaching, but quickly saw that fulltime teaching wasn’t the path for her.

Battié switched to supply teaching and became a certified yoga teacher in 2006. After moving to Haliburton in 2009, she and her husband Marc had two sons. Battié gave up teaching yoga when their second son was born, but eventually missed sharing her passion for health and wellness with others.

Her next step was to create programs to help people lose weight, increase their energy, strengthen their relationship with food and their bodies and rediscover themselves. Battié became a Certified Human Potential Coach through the Human Potential Institute and launched her coaching business in 2018, but she still wanted to provide her clients with greater support. She became a Certified Health and Life Coach through the Health Coach Institute in 2020 and is set to graduate from the HCI’s Mastery Level Certification program this month.

“Having a coach is an amazing way to have the accountability to commit to your vision for health,” said Battié. She offers a complimentary Weight Loss Transformation Breakthrough Session that can help prove the point.

“As my clients develop the skill of managing their thoughts and tuning in to their bodies, emotional eating and yo-yo dieting become things of the past. I teach them essential skill sets for losing [weight] … and maintaining their desired weight so they can thrive in all areas of their life with vibrant, joyful energy.”

Heather Battié Coaching: heatherbattiecoaching.com, shaktiyoga16@gmail.com, 705-935-0006, @iamheatherbattie

HHHS Foundation navigates milestone year

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October 21, 2021

The Haliburton Highlands Health Services Foundation contributed $464,142 to Highlands’ health care in its recent full year of operations.

With those funds, the hospital has purchased a portable digital X-ray machine, iPads for long-term care residents, completed a new website redesign, and made numerous COVID-19 capacity upgrades including hand-washing stations, automatic medication dispensing and additional beds, along with other upgrades.

“Not surprisingly given the generousity of our community, we received great acknowledgement and appreciation of our health-care professionals, and immediate support through many donations of COVID relief, including personal protective equipment (PPE),” wrote HHHS Foundation executive director Lisa Tompkins in an email. “And, we continue to be very grateful for the extraordinary generosity from permanent residents, seasonal residents, cottagers and visitors who helped the Foundation meet our fundraising goals in the past year.”

It’s also a milestone year for the foundation, which turns 25.

“I would like to acknowledge the 25 years of incredible support from the Foundation to build the service to what it is today,” said Carolyn Plummer, HHHS CEO, at the foundation’s annual general meeting Sept. 30.

Audit reports stable finances

Thomas Turnbull, of Grant Thornton LLP, congratulated board members on weathering a difficult year of pandemicstyle fundraising.

“Some kudos and applause need to go to management and the board to take this opportunity to manage discretionary expenses,” Turnbull said.

Many of the Foundation’s regular fundraising events were transposed into COVID-19-safe conditions. The summer’s Radiothon raised $33,670 for new Workstations on Wheels systems for an upcoming clinical information system upgrade. Last year’s Believe in the Magic of Giving campaign garnered $163,375. Monthly online lotteries have netted $32,764.

Tompkins said the most difficult part of the last year for her was working without volunteers, due to COVID-19 safety protocols. “We miss our volunteers,” Tompkins wrote. “A small organization like ours relies on the talent and expertise of volunteers in many aspects of our fundraising, and the Foundation has been blessed to have wonderful volunteers. We look forward to being able to work with them again soon.”

The Foundation also announced at its Sept. 30 meeting that David Zilstra and Steve Todd will be on the board until AGM 2025.

Injuries take toll as Huskies split games

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October 21, 2021

SG-huskies oct. 16-4- — Oliver Tarr is currently the OJHL's top scorer

Haliburton County Huskies forward Oliver Tarr has been labelled “the best player in the league” by head coach and general manager Ryan Ramsay after back-to-back hat-tricks against the Cobourg Cougars in OJHL action this past week.

The Huskies put in their best performance of the season on home ice Oct. 16, putting the Cougars to the sword 5-0 in front of a packed crowd at S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena. Tarr was the star, scoring his team’s first, second and fourth goals and assisting the fifth. Davis Bone and Lucas Stevenson also found the scoresheet, while Patrick Saini put up four assists. Ramsay reserved special praise for goaltender Christian Cicigoi, recently acquired from the Ontario Hockey League’s North Bay Battalion, for a 39-save shutout.

“We played a sound game on Saturday. I think it was our best 60 minutes as a team. We didn’t really have any letdowns or breakdowns, and the boys put in a huge effort,” Ramsay said. “With Cicigoi, he’s a good goalie who brings some leadership to our back end. Bringing him in was a big trade for us, and he’s settled in nicely so far. The Oct. 18 return match-up in Cobourg was a barnburner, a frenetic back-and-forth game resulting in a 6-5 loss for the Huskies.

The team started poorly, quickly finding themselves down 2-0. Forward Sam Solarino was handed a game misconduct for fighting at 6:59. That inspired the Huskies, who scored two goals – at 10:34 and 12:39 of the opening period – to tie the game.

The first was a clever finish from Tarr, off a Stevenson pass. The second was a shorthanded goal by Saini – who finished a twoon-one after a give-and-go with Nicholas Athanasakos. The Cougars’ Steve Whittle then fired his second of the game at 14:23, giving the home side the lead at the end of the first period. Isaac Pascoal extended the Cougars’ lead mid-way through the second.

Oliver Tarr skates up the ice on Oct. 16

Tarr brought the Huskies back in the game with an absolute beauty on the breakaway at 2:32 of the third. There was controversy at the mid-way point of the period, when a Huskies apparent goal was waived off. Ramsay said he was told the puck had struck both posts, but didn’t cross the line. Nine seconds later, the Cougars extended their lead to 5-3. The Huskies replied with spirit and character.

Tarr grabbed his hat-trick at 14:47, before Athanasakos notched his first goal as a Huskie, tying the game 37 seconds later. But the team’s excitement was short-lived as the Cougars’ Kallaway Mercer pounced on a defensive error to fire in the game winner at 15:50. Ramsay said, “Obviously there’s disappointment that we didn’t get the two points, but the compete level was there. We pretty much only had two and a half lines, so I think the boys did pretty well.”

Tarr is now at the top of the OJHL’s scoring leader charts, leading all players with nine goals in six games. “Oliver’s a great player. He’s a young man that grew late, and is still really coming into his body. But I can’t say enough about the kid on and off the ice – he is, in my opinion, the best player in the league,” Ramsay said.

Tarr deflected the credit to his linemates. “In these past couple of games, the puck just seemed to find its way on my stick, but I can’t not credit my boys for finding me when I’m in good positions,” Tarr said. An assistant captain, Tarr has enjoyed a leadership role with the Huskies.

He said he wants the team to make the playoffs, and secure himself a scholarship for Division 1 hockey in the U.S. The Huskies are 3-3 on the season, in last place in the East Division. The Huskies have added forwards Christian Stevens from the Battalion and Graham Dickerson from the Kitchener Rangers. Both are expected to play Oct. 23 vs the Wellington Dukes. Puck drop in Minden at 4:30 p.m

TLDSB scrambling to find occasional staff

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October 21, 2021

Haliburton-area trustee Gary Brohman asked if the board has enough supply staff to meet demand during the Oct. 12 Trillium Lakelands District School Board meeting.

Superintendent of human resources, Traci Hubbert, replied, “We do not have enough occasional staff available. We have shortages on a daily basis. We are advertising aggressively on many different platforms to try to recruit.”

She said it’s a struggle and challenge to find occasional staff when the board pays some employee groups only marginally more than fast food chains.

She added, “We have teachers on paper, but the reality is a very different thing right now.”

Hubbert said there are 285 teachers on the occasional teachers’ lists across the board. On a typical day, the board has “high double-digit absences” but classes still can’t be filled.

“Many occasional staff have taken leaves,” Hubbert said. “They don’t want to work at multiple locations during a pandemic and they don’t want to work with unvaccinated students. We also have retired teachers on the list who can only work 50 days and teachers who have taken long-term occasional contracts (to cover a teacher’s class for an extended time period) who still are counted on the list even though they are working.”

Hubbert praised the Ontario Secondary School Teacher’s Federation for working cooperatively with the board to contact teachers on the list to see if they want to continue working as an occasional teacher.

Hubbert said she hopes to add an additional 45 teachers to the secondary list soon. She said right now, secondary schools are getting by with teachers covering other teachers’ absences as defined in their collective agreement, but those days are dwindling.

“We will have a problem at elementary covering teachers once board professional development begins,” Hubbert said. “We have a much worse time covering absences for educational assistants.”

Trustee Judy Saunders wanted clarification as to whether a teacher could just take up a spot on the supply list and not work.

“They can stay on the list and book a year of unpaid leave off,” Hubbert said. “To remain on the list (when not on a leave) they do need to work a minimum number (30) of days.”

Driver shortages still an issue

The board is “in much better shape” than some others when it comes to bus drivers, Supt. Tim Ellis said, thanks to drivers doubling up, or running two routes in both the morning and afternoon.

Ellis said the board is servicing its contracted routes.

He added that in conversation with local operators, they were hopeful to see a steadier stream of job applicants in early October.

“Very few applicants came through the doors of operators in September,” Ellis said. “So far in October there appear to be more folks looking for employment. This is not a typical year locally for drivers.”

In Haliburton, Ellis said “We have had issues in getting single routes operational and have had to double run buses. This requires students to wait at school up to an hour after dismissal to be picked up, creating additional supervision for principals. The issues in Haliburton are because of the region’s geographic diversity.”

Extracurriculars available

Elementary school students are participating in inter-school athletics, Supt. Jay MacJanet told the meeting.

He said with the help of the local health units they have put safety protocols in place and cross-country and soccer have happened or are going to happen by the end of the month. Chess and reading clubs are also up and running.

Archie Stouffer Elementary School will be hosting a countywide soccer tournament Nov. 3.

Supt. Kim Williams, who oversees high schools, said band, choir, chess, Gay-Straight Alliance, comedy-improv, intramurals, Outer’s Club, Reach for the Top, robotics, student council and truth and reconciliation groups are all meeting.

Williams added girls’ basketball, crosscountry, field hockey, football, golf, girls’ rugby, tennis and boys’ volleyball are up and operating with badminton and swimming already gearing up for their seasons.

Board chair Bruce Reain wanted to know if district championships would be hosted by the Georgian Bay Secondary School Association and the Central Ontario Secondary School Association at the completion of regular season schedules. Williams did not have any information that would indicate that was not the case.

Trustee John Byrne asked if interested fans could watch outdoor sporting events from property adjoining schools and was told there was nothing the board could do to prevent that. The board is still not budging on allowing fans onto school property or into the building to watch friends and family compete, citing COVID-19 concerns.

HHSS enrolment up seven per cent

Enrolment is up seven per cent at Haliburton Highlands Secondary School.

It’s impacted class sizes, teacher hiring and bus route capacities, the board was told.

As of Oct. 4 across the board, there were 11,611 students, 550 more than predicted last June. Secondary numbers were 4,664, up 100 from June estimates.

Director of education, Wes Hahn, said, “We believe a number of these kids are from outside the area and they have either decided to stay with grandparents or they are remaining at the family cottage as their parents are working remotely.”

Hahn added that he “definitely knows” that some of the elementary numbers are very late registrations for kindergarten as parents waited for the last moment to commit because of COVID-19 and what school programming might look like.

Public gets first look at Minden Hills budget

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October 21, 2021

Minden Hills has gotten an early jump on its 2022 budget, holding its first meeting Oct. 14 versus an historical December first round of deliberations.

As usual, the initial needs and wants of various departments is inflated – at a 14.47 per cent levy increase (or $1,333,065) – with a plan to whittle that number down over the coming months.

“It’s good to get the budget process going early,” Mayor Brent Devolin said.

CAO Trisha McKibbin said the game plan is to pass the budget in January to allow the township “to hit the ground running” with tender and procurement documents so work can start in the first financial quarter of 2022.

She acknowledged budget changes, including the continuing impact of COVID-19 on municipal services, such as several staff vacancies and service demands.

“The management team is aware of the challenges and pressures facing the municipality and the need to be fiscally responsible in our budget deliberations,” McKibbin said.

Referring to departmental needs and wants, she added, “We’re looking forward to working with council to prioritize these needs and to deliver a responsible budget. Staff is certainly aware this [14.47 per cent] is not an acceptable number.”

Last year, the township ended up with a 3.75 per cent tax levy increase.

McKibbin said the most significant increase is wages and benefits, showing a combined cost increase of $478,085. She attributed that to a 1.7 per cent Cost of Living Adjustment, progression of staff on the salary grid, the full cost of staff to operationalize the new community centre and additional staff in the building, bylaw and planning department.

Roads are traditionally a big-ticket item and that is no different this year. Acting director of public works, Tara Stephen, is seeking nearly $3.5 million to reconstruct sections of Scotch Line and Bobcaygeon roads and about $1.2 million for the Sedgewick Road bridge.

There was also preliminary discussion of converting hard top to gravel on parts of Henderson, Bobcaygeon, Swinson, and Queen’s Line roads.

Coun. Bob Carter expressed some concern about potentially borrowing for roadworks when the township has reserves. It’s like “going out and borrowing money and paying interest even though there’s a bunch of money in your savings accounts,” he said.

He also said he was “so disappointed” the municipality has still not produced a roads plan. “We’re looking at borrowing $5 million or something like that this year. We really should know what’s coming next. in 2023, do we have to borrow another $10 million? We need to have some kind of idea what’s going on here.”

The community services department is looking at an initial 14.7 per cent increase. Director Craig Belfry said that has to do with continuing to get the new recreation complex up and running, including paying off the loan and staff. He noted his budget now includes the cultural centre. They hope to fix up the boardwalk and village green as well.

The first draft of the building and bylaw department has a $242,565 jump, including more staff. The fire chief is looking for an additional $156,000, including new self-contained breathing apparatus and related equipment and fit training. Leasing or an internal loan were suggested by councillors.

Stephen, who also manages waste services, proposed a $183,000 increase for landfills.

She added one issue is the need for new trigger mechanisms to better alert the township of when contaminants move offsite. She said people are also dumping waste out of hours at Little Gull and they need to beef up security.

Deputy mayor Lisa Schell asked if it wasn’t a good time to consider weigh scales at Scotch Line. Stephen said ideally within the year they hope to have a scale up and running.

Coun. Pam Sayne repeated a theme she has discussed numerous times at council. She said they have to push the provincial government to increase the HST by one per cent and direct that money to Ontario’s 444 municipalities to help them with infrastructure costs. She said they can’t keep going to ratepayers.

“We need to take a stand on that.” McKibbin added it is her intention that the township work on a strategic plan for the 2023 budget.

The next meeting is Oct. 28.

Bad news bears plaguing Scotch Line landfill

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October 21, 2021

Minden Hills council will have to consider bear-proofing the Scotch Line landfill, manager of waste services, Tara Stephen, told council Oct. 14.

“I think everybody is aware we’ve had ongoing issues with bears accessing public areas at the Scotch Line landfill,” Stephen said. “The ministry has been raising red flags with me over the course of the last year and have directed us to take some action.”

Stephen said landfill attendants have been doing everything they can in the interim, including employing scaring devices and practicing proper waste cover, “but we have a few very stubborn bears that just won’t go away.”

She said, in talking to other municipalities with similar problems, it’s been recommended Minden Hills put up an electric fence. She included $50,000 for that in the first draft of her department’s proposed capital budget.

Mayor Brent Devolin said he had noticed a difference with better cover. “I don’t have bears up at my vehicle helping me unload my garbage.”

However, the mayor added he was “going to ask my redneck question. The reality is $50,000 versus selective culling of the problematic bears … am I living in an alternate reality, or is that not even a consideration of what we may or may not do around our landfills?”

Stephen said it is an option, “but I don’t know how effective it is long-term. The populations turn over every year and this is something that we have to find a permanent solution for. If we want to get into culling bears every year that is an option.”

Coun. Jean Neville asked if the bears are coming when the public is on-site or just at night.

Stephen said the bears are present during operating hours “and they are no longer afraid of humans, so we’re now concerned about people’s safety.”

Coun. Bob Carter asked about the size of the site and Stephen said eight hectares. Carter said he was having some problems with the proposal to erect an electric fence around the perimeter.

“If a farmer puts up 20 acres of electric fence to protect their sheep from wolves, they would go bankrupt paying this amount,” he said. Carter suggested the estimated cost was inflated. “Electric fences are not that expensive. It is one of the reasons people use them. I am just a little shocked by that [$50,000].” He said the township could go to a feed store and get an estimate.

Stephen said the price includes the cost of bringing hydro to Scotch Line and she had not gone out to the market to test the estimate.

Neville said an electric fence to deter bears would have to be stronger and taller, as opposed to fencing for cows or horses. She said the ones she has seen around honey operations in the County “are massive and much more voltage or amp.”

She and Coun. Ron Nesbitt added there were solar and battery-operated fences on the market.

Devolin asked Stephen if she thought the ministry was going to compel the township to do something. She replied, “I think we’re getting to that point. It [electric fencing] may not necessarily be the exact solution but we’re very close to receiving an order from them to manage these bears.”

She said staff had built a very good working relationship with the district office and “we just want to show them that we are trying to address the issues that they raise.”

Coun. Pam Sayne said, “I think we need to do something here.” However, she said she’s hopeful Stephen can come up with less expensive options for the next council budget meeting.

Health unit fears unfunded service backlog

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October 21, 2021

After 18 months of COVID-19 program delays and cancellations, the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (HKPR) District Health Unit said it’s unable to meet demands due to provincial government underfunding.

While Doug Ford’s government has committed to reimbursing health units for COVID-19-related costs, that won’t cover the price of restarting programs cancelled by the pandemic, the health unit said.

HKPR reports that 2,400 students have missed school-based immunizations, more than 70 drinking water systems are overdue for inspections and 5,300 children have not received regular oral health screening.

“We are reaching a point locally that if we don’t start to catch up on these services the backlog will become too large of a hurdle to overcome,” wrote HKPR board chairperson Doug Elmslie in a Sept. 16 letter to Minister of Health Christine Elliott.

Since then, said HKPR chief medical officer of health, Dr. Natalie Bocking, in an Oct. 13 press conference, the health unit hasn’t “had communication from the province or an acknowledgment of the number of other additional expenses health units are accruing in regards to catch-up activities and recovery activities.”

Current base funding levels, which have only been increased once in five years, can’t cover the costs of restarting all these programs, she said.

“To do those catchup activities within our budgets, I don’t believe that’s a reasonable expectation.”

Additional required programs such as vision screening, infection prevention and control complaints, swimming pool inspections, as well as inflation and rising salary costs, also stretch the budget, Elmslie noted.

“This means that we were already under-resourced to respond to an infectious disease emergency, as well as implement routine public health priorities prior to the pandemic,” Elmslie wrote.

The health unit, responsible for enforcement, education and programs related to mental health, addiction, family services, and more, says its work might not be as easy to see as emergency services.

“We hear a lot about things like surgical backlogs and the gaps in other things like cancer screening in the acute health care system,” Bocking said. “We hear very little about the backlog in public health. We’re not as visible and people are not as familiar with the work we do.”

MPP Laurie Scott did not directly address the health unit’s question of additional funding, but said she’s confident the province’s new chief medical officer, Keiran Moore, will work for positive change.

“He’s going to be leading, [talking about] what happened, what can we do better. Word will come on that,” she said.

Scott said the difficulties incurred by public health units during COVID offer opportunities to “modernize.”

Previously, the Ontario government reduced its funding of public health units by five per cent, meaning municipalities are responsible for 30 per cent of public health costs, as opposed to 25 per cent. The County of Haliburton contributed $463,508 in 2020.

Province announces $484K for LTC homes

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October 21, 2021