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Forever ‘Mrs. Walling’ to thousands of students

By
Lisa Gervais
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0

Known as Mrs. Walling to thousands of kids, a woman who taught at the Victoria Street School in Haliburton for 36 years has passed away.

Bonnie Walling was in her 89th year.

Her daughter, Susan Baszczynski, returned to the school that is now home to Community Living Trent Lakes Sept. 6 to reflect on her mom.

Sitting at a picnic table overlooking what would have been Mrs. Walling’s Kindergarten and Grade 1 classrooms, Baszczynski said her mom spent the bulk of her career there and was also a student herself.

“It’s a reminiscing spot. She has a picture of the school that was painted for her when she retired. I brought it to the funeral home and I’m going to hang it in my home. It’s a nice print.”

Baszczynski said there is no doubt her mother had an impact on the community. She said it’s been “heartwarming” having former students reach out in tribute to the woman who lived in the village until she was 85.

“I think she truly gave a lot of kids a very positive start with their school education. They began in a happy spot. I think it carried a lot of them throughout their years. Anybody I’ve talked to that had her [as a teacher] has fond memories.”

Many have commented how Mrs. Walling would recognize them.

“She amazed me how she remembered names. Not only would she remember the child, she would remember other kids in the class and the year the kid was in Kindergarten. She had it all down. That was up into her 80s she was still doing that.”

By the end of her career, she was teaching kids of kids.

Bonnie Walling (Lee) grew up in the village, just up the hill from the former school. The family had a cottage on Drag Lake they would go to the day after school ended right up until Labour Day. They would come into the village for the annual Rotary Carnival parade.

Baszczynski said her mother showed her and other kids at the cottage a good time every summer. For example, she would set up treasure hunts and hide clues. “And it always included a treat at the end.”

Although she lived to be nearly 90 her life was not without its health challenges. She was a three-time cancer survivor, had Crohn’s and in the end died of congestive heart failure. Despite that, she remained a caregiver, undergoing radiation for breast cancer in Kingston while caring for her husband who had Alzheimer’s in the early 1980s.

Baszczynski said she would joke with the doctors that her mom’s nickname should be “lucky” for all that she had survived.

With her dad being a road surveyor, Baszczynski said she and her mom were close growing up.

“She was my rock. We did a lot together growing up. And we share a similar sense of humour so we got along. She came to anything I ever had or did. That was always nice to know she was there.”

Of the many tributes on the Haliburton County Funeral Home website, Jacoba Lilius wrote, “Forever Mrs. Walling to me. What an impact a caring teacher can have and she certainly did. She nurtured my love of learning and reading and inspired me to become an educator too. Sending my sincere condolences to her family.”

Live dance returns to Haliburton Sculpture Forest

By
Lisa Gervais
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0

Live dance is coming back to the Haliburton Sculpture Forest.

Forest spokesperson Youkie Stagg said on Sept. 2 that the Throwdown Collective and five other dancers have devised and choreographed dances inspired by the art of the Sculpture Forest.

From Sept. 13-18, visitors will have a chance to see Brian Solomon, Noriko Yamamoto, Phylicia Browne-Charles, Madeline Friel, and Throwdown Collective’s Mairéad Filgate, Brodie Stevenson with Irvin Chow perform.

Stagg said, “these selected artists have been invited to take an existing work or idea perhaps halted by the pandemic and to re-engage, re-configure, and adapt it to the outdoor environment, exploring it through a new lens.”

The event has been dubbed Re-emergence and Re-engagement.

Stagg added it coincidentally occurs during the week of Hike Haliburton, so hikers taking a guided tour of the Sculpture Forest will be able to see the dancers at work.

The artists will be in the Sculpture Forest (weather permitting) from noon to 4 p.m. each day. Community members are welcome to come and see their work in progress. There will also be a community forum on Friday, Sept. 17 for people to talk with the artists about their process. In light of COVID-19 restrictions, organizers are asking the public to bring a mask for when social distancing is not possible.

Stagg said the dance event aims to bring back collaborative dance to Haliburton after a year and a half of lockdowns. The Sculpture Forest is working with Dance Happens Here Haliburton.

Stagg added there will be an event later this winter as well, called Re-connection. She said the dancers and choreographers will reconvene for a live event to discuss their work, sit in for a question-and-answer session and possibly perform their work live depending on pandemic restrictions.

She also encouraged the public to visit the Downtown Haliburton Sculpture Exhibition, an exhibit of six sculptures in downtown Haliburton. The sculptures are available for purchase until Oct. 28.

The Haliburton Sculpture Forest is home to 38 outdoor sculptures and six unique sculptural benches by indigenous, international, and Canadian artists.

People can find guides for both the Haliburton Sculpture Forest and downtown exhibit at the Haliburton Welcome Centre on York Street, at the entrance to the Sculpture Forest, or online at haliburtonsculptureforest.ca.

For more information on COVID19 guidelines and tours go to: haliburtonsculptureforest@gmail.com or call 705-457-3555.

New enterprise lighting up the Highlands

By
Lisa Gervais
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0

Brandi Hewson is shining stylish light on design for local consumers and trades through her new company, Kohara + Co.

Hewson will officially launch the interior/ exterior lighting, décor and design business on Sept. 16 and 17 with grand opening events at the showroom and store on Industrial Park Road in Haliburton.

“It is our mission to deliver exceptional lighting solutions and a very tailored experience to our clients,” said Hewson.

“We work very hard to collaborate with designers, trades, consumers, or homeowners to provide functional and elegant lighting enhancing interior and exterior spaces.” in addition to highquality lighting fixtures, Kohara features home décor pieces, candles and lamps and provides free design consultations.

“We will also be offering select custom furniture and already are looking at other items to expand into as our vision to provide a full home solution.”

The name Kohara is rooted in Hewson’s beginnings as an entrepreneur in New Zealand. In the Indigenous Māori language, it means “to gleam, to brighten, to shine, to be passionate,” said Hewson.

Kohara is a division of another Hewson business, WAI Products Ltd. Hewson said WAI’s customer base has been “95 per cent non-local,” distributing water supply, irrigation, and landscape lighting products throughout Canada to trades and the country’s largest national retailers. WAI also operates a business development consulting division for international manufacturers.

When COVID-19 hit, Hewson saw potential for both risk and opportunity in her field and the Kohara concept was born.

“Having been in the landscape lighting industry over the past eight years, we were being asked by our valued trades for interior and exterior lighting solutions. The challenge of supply to local trades and consumers presented the gap we needed to dive in. It is important to me that we contribute to our own local economy and support so many local talented trades as well.”

Hewson thoroughly researched the market before taking the plunge, including considering client input, local contractor and designer needs, competitors and the best quality manufacturers to ensure the right selections for every budget and style.

“Haliburton has drastically expanded over the past couple of years as the dream of lakeside living and cottaging grows but also as COVID hit our market, and [that] lifestyle is very much desired. The contractors are all overwhelmed with work and opportunity so what better time for Kohara to provide full support on quality lighting solutions?”

While business at WAI dipped as predicted at the start of the pandemic, it “took a major growth leap” a few months later, creating a juggling challenge with the Kohara start-up. Hewson credits Tamara Bain, lead account and office manager, with helping to keep things on track and aligned with the Kohara + Co. vision.

“I am very grateful to have someone equally as committed, excited and passionate on my team,” said Hewson. “No matter what style of fixture or spec of ceiling fan you need, Tamara will find it for you on your budget.”

Kohara design consultations will feature not only Hewson’s WAI experience but also her 10-year background as owner of Elegant Details Wedding Event Planning and Decorating, which she sold just over two years ago.

“I have always had a passion for interior and event décor and a vision to fully transition spaces.

I have built and personally designed two of my own homes and our cottage and just have a love for every aspect.”

Kohara + Co. will host an invitationonly event on Sept. 16 for family, friends and customers who supported Kohara’s creation, and a public grand opening on Sept 17 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Both events will include gift bags for the first 40 guests, display discounts, draws, and giveaways for new lighting fixtures such as a Kichler chandelier, a Monte Carlo ceiling fan, a Matteo wall sconce and more. Visitors to the public event can take advantage of the chance to sign up for free in-house consultations.

Kohara + Co. is located at 175 Industrial Rd., Haliburton. Phone 705-455-9417; email info@koharaco.com; visit koharaco. com.

Sending a Libertarian ‘suitcase’ to Ottawa

By
Sam Gillett
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0

THE HIGHLANDS VOTES

He might be running as a candidate for the Libertarian Party of Canada, but Gene Balfour said he isn’t a politician.

“I see myself as an advocate for ideas that are affecting the political realm,” he said.

The former People’s Party of Canada candidate from Fenelon Falls has run as a Libertarian before, most recently in the 2018 provincial election.

He spent more than 40 years working in the IT sector in professional recruitment. Running for the Libertarian Party, said Balfour, lets him focus on freely spreading his ideas and message of limited governance and personal freedoms.

“If the public can begin to understand those ideas, and begin to see the value in pulling back the size of our government to something that’s more sustainable and more purposeful, they’ll start putting pressure on the people we send to Ottawa,” he said.

That’s why he said he supports Conservative candidate Jamie Schmale, who he said has a proven track record in advocating for a reduction in government size. He said he’d like to provide Schmale with a “suitcase full of requests from citizens” who want to reduce the size and scope of the Canadian government.

Key fixtures of Balfour’s conservative libertarian approach would have on the ground consequences for Haliburton’s healthcare, social services, environmental protection measures and even COVID-19 protocols.

On housing, Balfour claimed Canada’s government spending and legislative restrictions have contributed to sky-high housing costs. In an area with limited, and expensive, rental opportunities, Balfour suggests lower rental and housing costs can be achieved through decreasing government spending and lowering the rate of inflation and living.

Balfour criticizes what he calls the “nanny state,” which refers to the funding and operating of a suite of social programs and bureaucratic systems. In an area such as Haliburton, many regularly access programs that employ professionals to assist people living with addiction and other mental health conditions, seeking housing stability and more. Balfour said he approaches the issue with “communitycentred values,” which he describes as putting the responsibility of social care to “neighbours,” instead of publicly-funded professionals. With less government spending Balfour said limited taxation will put more money in peoples’ pockets. He said decreased regulations on industries will stimulate the economy, providing more opportunities for work and betterment.

Balfour said he supports regulations that protect wildlife and lake quality in areas such as Haliburton County.

“There are laws and regulations that need to be in place to protect those things that are so valuable to us, but we don’t need all the other ones,” he said. “Let’s strip away the regulations that have been built up over many years over partisan political concerns to give certain special interest groups power over people at the expense of taxpayers.”

Balfour said the response to COVID19 should be an individual one without restrictions such as mandated mask-wearing or lockdowns. He referred to the Great Barrington Declaration, a COVID-19 response strategy penned by scientists which promotes herd immunity. It’s an approach criticized by many health professionals, who say it would result in even more deaths than COVID-19 has caused so far, which amounts to more than four million.

He mentioned how lockdowns have resulted in high rates of mental health distress, as well as limiting job opportunities for people desperate to work.

“You can’t throw those people under the bus. You’ve got to give them the freedom to look at their own situation, their own risk” he said. He thinks mainstream media “fear mongering” has overstated the seriousness of COVID-19 infection. The virus has caused 26,977 deaths in Canada.

Alison Davidson runs for ‘rights and freedoms’

By
Sam Gillett
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0

THE HIGHLANDS VOTES

Alison Davidson became a candidate for the People’s Party of Canada two days after the federal election was called.

She said the process so far has been “very stressful, but also encouraging.”

Davidson doesn’t have election experience. She wasn’t a party member until she submitted a candidate application, realizing there was no representative in the riding.

On the last day to apply, Davison said, “I thought ‘you know what, somebody has to do it and sometimes that somebody is you’.”

“We sit around our porch and complain and complain about what’s going on,” she said. “And then I knew I liked the PPC, I really liked that they were really standing up for our rights and freedoms.”

Davidson, who runs a log home building business and cabinetry shop with her partner in Kawartha Lakes, said the most important issue for her is “respecting our constitution” in regards to health mandates such as lockdowns and COVID-19 passports.

For Davidson, lockdowns in particular caused more damage than good. She said while COVID-19 deaths are tragic, “the suffering caused by lockdowns outweigh the risk of COVID-19.” For Davidson and the PPC party, health advice from Canada’s chief public health officer Theresa Tam (who they propose to fire) has spread fear and division.

“I’m tired of all this fear all the time,” she said. “We need to work, we need to get back to school, we need to get back rolling. And then we can start working on the economy.”

The PPC party opposes vaccination requirements for healthcare workers, as well as the recently announced vaccine passport system which will be introduced in Ontario Sept. 22.

She said “crazy spending” by the Liberal government has directly contributed to high living costs and the current housing crisis in Haliburton. She also suggests lowering immigration levels to “a more reasonable number,” to help decrease competition for housing in Ontario.

The PPC party takes a skeptical view on climate change, claiming “none of the cataclysmic predictions that have been made about the climate since the 1970s have come true.”

The PPC party also proposes to leave the Paris Agreement, a collection of 190 countries who have pledged to reduce emissions and work to adapt to climate change.

Davidson said Canada should look to what it already does well in conservation and environmental protection. “Part of it is we just talk doom and gloom instead of [saying] there are some things we’ve done that are good, and we should celebrate.”

She said if Canada commits to reducing C02 emissions, it would “devastate” the economy while high emission countries wouldn’t be impacted.

“If we really want to do something about the global environment, we have to do something about China and India,” she said.

Davidson runs for ‘rights and freedoms’

By
Sam Gillett
-
0

THE HIGHLANDS VOTES

Alison Davidson became a candidate for the People’s Party of Canada two days after the federal election was called.

She said the process so far has been “very stressful, but also encouraging.”

Davidson doesn’t have election experience. She wasn’t a party member until she submitted a candidate application, realizing there was no representative in the riding.

On the last day to apply, Davison said, “I thought ‘you know what, somebody has to do it and sometimes that somebody is you’.”

“We sit around our porch and complain and complain about what’s going on,” she said. “And then I knew I liked the PPC, I really liked that they were really standing up for our rights and freedoms.”

Davidson, who runs a log home building business and cabinetry shop with her partner in Kawartha Lakes, said the most important issue for her is “respecting our constitution” in regards to health mandates such as lockdowns and COVID-19 passports.

For Davidson, lockdowns in particular caused more damage than good. She said while COVID-19 deaths are tragic, “the suffering caused by lockdowns outweigh the risk of COVID-19.” For Davidson and the PPC party, health advice from Canada’s chief public health officer Theresa Tam (who they propose to fire) has spread fear and division.

“I’m tired of all this fear all the time,” she said. “We need to work, we need to get back to school, we need to get back rolling. And then we can start working on the economy.”

The PPC party opposes vaccination requirements for healthcare workers, as well as the recently announced vaccine passport system which will be introduced in Ontario Sept. 22.

She said “crazy spending” by the Liberal government has directly contributed to high living costs and the current housing crisis in Haliburton. She also suggests lowering immigration levels to “a more reasonable number,” to help decrease competition for housing in Ontario.

The PPC party takes a skeptical view on climate change, claiming “none of the cataclysmic predictions that have been made about the climate since the 1970s have come true.”

The PPC party also proposes to leave the Paris Agreement, a collection of 190 countries who have pledged to reduce emissions and work to adapt to climate change.

Davidson said Canada should look to what it already does well in conservation and environmental protection. “Part of it is we just talk doom and gloom instead of [saying] there are some things we’ve done that are good, and we should celebrate.”

She said if Canada commits to reducing C02 emissions, it would “devastate” the economy while high emission countries wouldn’t be impacted.

“If we really want to do something about the global environment, we have to do something about China and India,” she said.

Haliburton man pleads guilty to manslaughter

By
Submitted
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0
Police have arrested three people in connection with an ongoing investigation into a theft and drug ring. File photo.

By Highlander Staff

A Haliburton man has been found guilty of manslaughter in the June 17, 2019 death of his housemate in the village.

Norman Hart, 33 at the time of his arrest, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Robert James Brown, 49, but guilty to manslaughter during a court appearance Sept. 7.

Justice Michelle Fuerst, in a trial by judge alone, found him guilty of the lesser, included offence.

Hart, who appeared via Zoom from the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, will be sentenced at a later date.

Rebecca Griffin, representing the Crown, read out an agreed statement of facts.

She said that Hart moved in with Brown at his rented house at 34 Highland St. at the end of May 2019.

She said the two got into an argument and then a fist fight over a $500 cheque from the City of Kawartha Lakes Housing Corporation that Hart – who had been drinking and using cocaine – brought home June 17.

“Norman Hart and Robert Brown got into an argument over how the money from the cheque would be split. The argument turned physical and Norman Hart, while still under the influence of alcohol and drugs, lost control and beat Robert Brown, causing multiple injuries, including serious head and chest injuries that led to his death.”

She said the cause of death, two or three hours after the fight, was multiple blunt force injury.

Hart then went to a friend’s apartment in the village where he borrowed a pair of pants and left some of Brown’s identification and the envelope and stub from the cheque. She said he tried to cash the cheque at Foodland but could not do so without ID so got a friend to cash it at a Bank of Montreal ATM for him.

He told a friend he had been fighting with Brown, and had knicks and blood on his knuckles. For part of the afternoon on June 17, he was in the park drinking with friends. “During that time, he made comments to the effect that he had hurt someone bad and might be in trouble.”

Griffin added that at 6:30 p.m., Hart spoke to his father on a borrowed cell phone, telling him he had some bad news. “He had been in a fight and hurt someone really bad.”

Hart returned to Brown’s residence some time after midnight June 18. Brown’s ex-girlfriend and another man came to the house. They saw Brown lying on the floor in the hallway, “cold to the touch and obviously deceased.” They called 9-1-1 and waited at the town docks.

Police arrived and Hart eventually stepped out. When the officer asked if everything was okay, Hart indicated it was not, “pointing inside and told the officer to go check it out.”

Police found Brown’s blood under Hart’s fingernail and noted his hand was so swollen there was no definition to his knuckles.

Defence lawyer Rob Chartier said supplemental facts indicated that on June 14 Hart and Brown had come to an agreement that Hart would get $400 and Brown $100. However, “sometime after Mr. Hart’s return to Mr. Brown’s residence with the cheque on June 17, Mr. Brown told Mr. Hart the cheque would be split equally. A verbal argument on that issue started between the two.” He said Hart was on the couch and Brown in the kitchen and Brown came to Hart where the two began to fight.

Dressed in CECC orange coveralls, Hart told Justice Fuerst he accepted the statements of fact. Chartier asked for a presentence report and the matter is scheduled to be spoken to on Nov. 15.

Fixing broken long-term care an NDP priority says Zac Miller

By
Lisa Gervais
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0

THE HIGHLANDS VOTES

Federal NDP candidate Zac Miller was a teenager when he ran in the 2018 provincial election, placing second to Progressive Conservative Laurie Scott and helping the party garner 26.5 per cent of the vote.

Miller is back and hopes the local party can capture 20 per cent of the federal vote this time around by targeting key polls in Haliburton County as well as in Lindsay.

The City of Kawartha Lakes resident was working on his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science when he ran four years ago and is now completing his Master of Information.

He will be beginning his online studies Sept. 13 while contesting a federal election.

“Over the last five years, I’ve learned to be myself and hold firm what I actually believe,” Miller said in an interview.

For example, he got involved with the Kawartha Lakes Health Coalition and “for the last three years, we’ve been knocking on people’s doors, talking to them and really understanding their issues.”

He said the NDP values resonate even more with him as a young adult, especially throughout and coming to the end of a pandemic. He believes government and the public don’t interact anymore.

“Over the last 30 years, we’ve become accustomed to the government not helping us and I really think that coming out of COVID-19 it shows that the government needs to be there for us. We can do so much more and be so much better.”

Asked to identify three core issues, he said: climate change, long-term care and health care in general; and more federal funding to municipalities.

“Long-term care needs to be something that’s addressed immediately and it’s something the federal government should do quickly.”

As for funding for towns and cities, he said Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock is made up of small villages “that don’t necessarily have the tax base to fund service costs or new development in the areas so the federal government should step in and provide grants to our riding so smaller areas can get services.”

He said money can be found by not subsidizing corporations, taxing the rich with a one per cent wealth tax and closing tax loopholes.

“It’s about realigning our priorities.” Miller is realistic that it is an uphill battle to defeat the Conservatives in the riding. He said his personal goal is to get at least 20 per cent of the vote. “That would be a win for us.” He added he wants to take a few polls in Haliburton County. He said there are “sympathetic areas” in the Highlands they are strategically targeting in a short election race.

“I have maps all over the walls. It is interesting for me.”

Miller said people can call him on his cell phone or email him if they have specific questions.

“We have a wide variety of policies that do speak to a lot of our needs in Haliburton and Kawartha Lakes, specifically our housing policy.”

He noted their plan to build 500,000 affordable homes, rework the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to help municipalities build housing units, and have the Bank of Canada set favourable interest rates.

Businesses navigate next COVID hurdle

By
Sam Gillett
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0

At Haliburton’s Kozy Korner, owner Ann Gordon greets two masked customers at the door, sending them to a freshly-sanitized table six feet from the next diners inside the bustling restaurant.

After navigating changing public health rules the past 18 months, the province’s upcoming vaccine protocols, which take effect from Sept. 22, aren’t too much of a concern, she said.

“It’s all worth it to keep everybody safe and force people to get vaccines. We were hoping it was coming, we wanted it to come,” she said, adding her staff will be fully vaccinated come October.

On Sept. 1, the Ontario government announced a vaccine certificate system which will mean people entering restaurants, bars, gyms, and other nonessential indoor gathering spaces must show proof of vaccination.

“Our government is taking action to minimize disruptions to the daily lives of Ontarians, help keep businesses open and kids in school by protecting the health and well-being of all Ontarians,” wrote MPP Laurie Scott in an emailed statement.

For some business owners such as Terri Matthews-Carl, mandating vaccines means one more safeguard against going takeout-only or closing completely as they have in the past.

“It will allow us to stay open indoor all year, and increase our capacity,” said Matthews-Carl.

The details are scarce. She and Gordon are unsure what enforcement will look like. On Oct. 22, Ontario is set to roll out a QR code app which will scan phone information to confirm vaccine status.

“I think that for the first month without the app, it’s going to be a bit more of a hassle, checking every person’s ID is going to be time-consuming,” Matthews-Carl said.

In certain places, such as Haliburton’s legion, vaccine requirements will serve to protect an at-risk population with most of the legion’s members being elderly.

President Don Pitman said he’s been in touch with the provincial legion governing body to determine a strategy.

He supports the restrictions, but said it adds complications to running programs.

“It makes it a bit difficult for us.

We don’t have a branch cell phone so someone’s personal cell phone is going to have to be used for that,” he said. “[the plan] is so light on details, frankly, we’re just waiting for more information.”

Pitman said “it may not be a problem at all, but we won’t know until we have the opening night, and then we’ll iron out the bumps.”

The new rules will also apply to gyms and fitness centres such as Meghan Cox’s Just Movement Fitness.

Cox is concerned the new rules will have a negative impact on people’s overall health.

“All I can say in regards to my business is that mandating a vaccine passport for a venue that promotes actual health and offers long term benefits to reducing the load on our health care system, is kind of contradictory, don’t you think?”

“The divide in humanity this is causing is both sad and disheartening,” she wrote.

Concerns over privacy, rights

Some business owners and political representatives across Canada claim the certificate program to be an infringement on Canadians’ rights.

MP Jamie Schmale said in August that while vaccines are the way to end the COVID-19 pandemic, he does not believe vaccines should be mandatory for healthcare workers and federal employees, and favours education over enforcement.

Many medical professionals, such as HKPR’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Natalie Bocking, have said the certificate program is not as unusual as people think.

“For example, I can think of travel to other countries. In other countries you need vaccination against Yellow Fever,” she said. Bocking also mentioned how the certificate program does not limit access to essential services such as pharmacies, grocery stores and healthcare centres. Across the HKPR area, 76.4 per cent of people are fully vaccinated, and the health unit is planning mobile pop-up clinics which will target specific areas amid what many are calling a fourth wave of COVID-19 in the province.

And the vaccines are working: Bocking reports that among confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the region, only 10.9 per cent were fully vaccinated.

Neither Gordon nor Mathews-Carl said they are confident most patrons will willingly comply with the new rules. A few guests have mentioned they are currently unvaccinated or do not plan on attending restaurants past Sept. 22.

Gordon said enforcing the rules is a matter of safety, and she’s not too concerned about the possibility of customers angry about showing proof of vaccination.

“I think you just say ‘sorry, I’m keeping my restaurant safe’.

Supply woes hit Highlands businesses

By
Lisa Gervais
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0

Haliburton County residents will continue to experience the effects of supply chain
issues across the world as the pandemic continues and other factors come into play.

Whether it’s a decrease in new vehicle inventory at Highlands’ car dealerships, delays in getting materials for your build, renovation or do-it-yourself project, or even a takeaway container for your favourite lunch, businesses are asking for patience.


Kim Emmerson of Emmerson Lumber said despite being 18 months into COVID19, there are still supply issues.
“Which goes to show how fragile our world economy is,” he said.


Emmerson said it isn’t just the pandemic either. For example, he said cold weather early in the year in Texas affected the resin market. There have been other natural disasters, including hurricanes. He said
COVID is certainly a big factor but it’s not the whole story.
He said throughout it all, “some things have gotten better, some are the same, and some are worse whether it’s cars, appliances or building materials.”

For example, he said his business and its customers are now experiencing a 16 week wait for kitchens, 12 weeks for windows and six months for insulation. Hardware hasn’t been as much of an issue. Lumber prices peaked but have now crashed. “I don’t see this chain being rectified until next year.” Emmerson added. He said in a world of instant gratification, “people just simply have to be patient. You will get your product.”

Baked and Battered co-owner Craig Gordon said it’s been a challenge this year. He said that at different times this summer, the eatery has had trouble getting items, including ketchup, takeout containers, paper bags and even pickles. He said with COVID-19, people are not completely back
to work, which is affecting the chain.

It means several trips to Lindsay every week to get stock. Gordon said it’s the same with food shortages, including fish and flour, which are essential to their business. “We go through a lot of fish. This year, for the first year, we’ve been tapped out because there are not enough people catching, processing and packaging so therefore there is
less of all of that stuff.” For example, he said they could not get halibut until early August and the price increase
was astronomical. With the province well into stage three of its roadmap to reopening
plan, he said despite shortages and increasing prices, there is a huge demand for product.

On top of that, like many Highlands’ businesses, there aren’t enough staff.
Like Emmerson, he calls for patience as people line up at the takeout counter.

Mike Hamilton of Curry Chevrolet Buick GMC Ltd. in Haliburton and Tran LaRue of Minden Subaru said
the reason people are seeing fewer and fewer vehicles on the County’s car lots is due to a global microchip shortage.
Hamilton said when COVID hit, there was a rush on electronic purchases and demand outstripped
supply. China cut back on its exports and a key factory was also hit by the virus.
Because they are a key component in modern vehicles, the impact is
being felt in the Highlands. He added it’s not just cars but everything from
appliances to watercraft.


He said car plants have thousands of vehicles stockpiled awaiting chips.
Hamilton said he has stopped estimating when people can get
new vehicles; is trying to figure out how they can be made without chips upported features, selling demo and
lease vehicles and watching used vehicle prices go “through the roof.”
LaRue said while it appears the lots are empty, dealerships are still selling
cars. He said when a shipment comes in to Subaru, they are usually picked
up by customers in a day or two. Like other businesses in the County,
he said people will get their vehicle, they just have to be patient

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