Algonquin Highlands deputy mayor Jennifer Dailloux says far from a midlife crisis, her upcoming five-kilometre charity swim is a celebration of turning 50 – and to raise money for the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust.

Dailloux will jump off her dock Aug. 17 and swim up the Oxtongue River to the base of Ragged Falls and back. She thinks the swim will take about three hours and 15 minutes to complete.

“I have been training for this all winter and am absolutely stoked for it,” she says on her Canada Helps fundraising page.

In addition to raising money for the Land Trust, an organization she has “loved for many years” and sits on the current board of directors, it is in honour of Steph Laurence, a friend who recently died but spend his working life at camps and lodges in Algonquin Park.

Dailloux said traditionally, land trusts protect sensitive ecosystems through the stewardship of properties entrusted to their care in perpetuity, as well as doing scientific research, education, and advocacy work.

“But HHLT is evolving beyond that mandate in breathtaking ways: it has identified a significant wildlife corridor here in the Highlands, comprised of 100,000 continuous hectares of predominantly undisturbed Crown, municipal, and private lands connecting three provincial parks.

“Rich in wetlands, forest, lakes and rivers, the corridor is a powerhouse of biodiversity, and its preservation is vital for the wildlife communities and species at-risk that call it home. Working in concert with private landowners and multiple levels of government, HHLT is committed to ensuring the corridor is recognized and safeguarded for the long-term.”

Speaking of Laurence, she added, “he has been involved in enabling thousands of campers, and adult guests at these resorts, to really connect with their natural surroundings.”

Dailloux started training in the fall and through winter at a pool in Huntsville. Since spring, she has been swimming in the river.

“Mine will not be a speed swim. This is a swim of reverence. It is a swim undertaken with my head held above the water, counting not the strokes but the swathes of water lilies, of purple pickerel weed and joe-pye weed, the pops of vibrant cardinal flower, the warblers and sparrows, herons and waxwings.

“Swimming along beside me, watching and listening and revelling in this delight, will be the echoes of my three grandmothers. Nan, on my left. Joan, on my right. And Anne, there with the megaphone, sitting in coxswain position on the safety boat. They would have loved this. Proud doesn’t begin to describe it.”

Nan is her maternal grandmother, a former long-distance swimmer and naturalist. Joan is her paternal grandmother. Her dad was adopted so she only recently connected with Joan, which she said had been a “most extraordinary reunion and coming together of minds and spirits, a beautiful thing.” She was also a sportswoman and naturalist. Anne is her adopted grandmother.

Asked if she has watched the movie, Nyad, starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster, about Nyad’s swims from Cuba to Florida, Dailloux said, “what a fabulous set of women and a fabulous movie.”

While this is not Cuba to Florida, “it’s not a bad swim and I have learned in my training over the course of the winter, and then really trying it out in the Oxtongue this spring and summer, that it’s a doable swim.”

She’ll have a current to contend with heading upriver, but it will be a more pleasant swim coming home. She added there are a number of places where you can stand up and walk because it’s shallow, but she won’t let her feet touch the ground.

Back to the midlife crisis question, Dailloux replies, “if anything, it’s a real midlife celebration. I’m happy where I am in my life. I’m delighted we have come to Haliburton County after years of being overseas and in pretty complex neighbourhoods, in conflict and post-conflict settings. I feel like we’ve really landed in a beautiful chapter of our lives. This is a great way of celebrating that.”

The Haliburton fire management headquarters is being kept busy, with crews deployed to Ontario’s northwest region, and British Columbia.

MNRF spokesperson, Isabelle Chenard, said five FireRanger crews have been sent outside of the fire management area. Each fire crew varies from four to six firefighters.

“Four of these fire crews are working on active fires in Ontario’s northwest region, in the Dryden and Red Lake fire management areas, and one has been deployed to British Columbia,” Chenard said.

She added that as of 12:30 p.m. Aug, 6, there were 59 active wildland fires in Ontario, of which 37 are in the northwest region (seven not under control, two being held, four under control, and 24 being observed), 22 in the northeast region (three not under control, two under control and 17 being observed).

“Ontario has deployed personnel to Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba in the form of fire crews, incident management teams, and overhead staff. There are also northeast region fire crews deployed to the northwest region, as well as some overhead staff,” the spokesperson said.

“In terms of equipment, Ontario has provided 1,000 lengths of hose and 40 sprinkler kits to Manitoba. The deployment of these resources has occurred via resource sharing agreements with our partners, through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre and the Great Lakes Forest Fire Compact.”

Chenard said the current fire hazard in areas of the fire region located east and south of North Bay, Thorne and French River (which includes the entire Haliburton sector) is generally low to moderate, as precipitation continues.

Chenard added fire is a natural part of the ecosystem in the boreal forest. When naturally occurring, not threatening people, property or infrastructure, they are sometimes allowed to behave as they would in the natural environment – without human intervention – with the ultimate goal of allowing the natural benefits of fire to occur.

These include regeneration of habitat and forest growth. Some tree species need the extreme heat of wildland fires to reproduce, as is the case for Jack Pines that have cones sealed by resin (serotinous cones). The resin is melted from the heat of fires, ultimately releasing the seeds that had previously been locked inside. This is the same for lodgepole pine (mostly in Western Canada) and for other local tree species such as the black spruce (semi-serotinous). Other tree species have evolved to adapt to fire on the landscape, such as poplar and birch. They can sprout new trees from the root systems that survive forest fires. Some animal species prefer fire-affected landscapes, such as the black-backed woodpecker.

A fire that is ‘being observed’ is one that is being monitored to allow the natural ecological benefits of wildland fires to take place as they would in the natural environment without human intervention. If monitored fires pose any risks to people, property, or infrastructure, the MNRF would take action to mitigate risks.

Updates about active wildland fires in the province, as well as Ontario’s Interactive Fire Map, can be found at ontario.ca/ forestfire from April to October. To further stay up to date with the forest fire situation this season and to help you learn more FireSmart and fire prevention tips, you can follow them on X (the social media channel formerly known as Twitter), Facebook and Instagram @ONForestFires in English and @ONFeuDeForêt in French.

Dysart et al fire chief Dan Chumbley credited Haliburton Foodland staff for quickly evacuating the local store after a delivery truck caught fire early Aug. 2.

Chumbley said the fire department received a call at 8:06 a.m. about a blaze at the downtown grocer. Upon arrival, firefighters saw the cabin of a semi-trailer truck parked beside the building up in flames. “The truck itself was fully involved and the flames were working on the front of the trailer.

The truck itself is a total loss,” Chumbley told The Highlander. “Some of the lids for the dumpsters nearby [also] melted due to the high heat.”

Fourteen volunteer firefighters from Dysart responded, with support provided by the Minden Hills department. Chumbley said the fire was quickly brought under control, with all firefighters leaving the scene before 10 a.m.

He said the fire was first observed below the driver’s door, but the ignition source was uncertain during initial investigation. Manasvi Thakur, spokesperson for Sobeys, which owns the Foodland brand, said an internal investigation into the incident has been launched.

Thakur said staff acted swiftly once the fire broke out, containing it to the vehicle and ensuring the blaze had no impact on the store. Customers were evacuated within minutes, with no injuries reported.

Chumbley said he was pleased to see everyone outside the building when he and his team arrived.

“It was very reassuring to hear the building had been evacuated before our arrival,” Chumbley said.

David Partridge was enjoying an early morning at the Haliburton skate park when he noticed thick plumes of smoke rising about a block away. He went to investigate and found he was the first person on-scene, aside from evacuated shoppers. He took out his phone to snap some photos and attempted to shoot a video when the fire worsened.

“It blew up a couple times while I was nearby and I’ve seen enough fail videos to know when I’m tempting fate, so I bolted back to the skatepark where I barely landed a kickflip,” Partridge said. “It was a pretty wild scene to stumble on.”

Thakur said firefighters had the situation under control within an hour, with the business reopening later that morning.

It’s been a slow start to the summer construction season across parts of Haliburton County, though Kevin Hodgkinson, president of the Haliburton County Home Builders’ Association (HCHBA), says it’s too early to hit the panic button.

While he’s noticed a bit of a downturn at his custom cottage building business, with others in the local construction space reporting similar decreases in demand, Hodgkinson said he still has enough work to keep his staff busy.

“I’m quoting a lot more renovations than I am new builds – that’s been happening, really, over the last six months,” Hodgkinson said. “The days of having two or three years of jobs lined up, that’s probably over for now. One of the issues we’ve been seeing, too, is more contractors from down south coming north to complete jobs too.”

He said he’s hearing from friends in the industry that business has slowed substantially in the GTA.

Hodgkinson said he has one major project booked for 2025. Usually, by this time, he has two projects pencilled in with a lengthy waitlist.

“I’m not overly worried – we’ve been extremely lucky as contractors that, in the last 15 years, it’s been as busy as it has been here. Going through COVID was absolutely crazy, we were so unbelievably busy. I’d say things are moving back to the way they always were, reverting to the norm. It was always going to slow down,” Hodgkinson said.

In Dysart et al, chief building official Karl Korpela said it had been a “dismal” summer for construction. The township issued 49 building permits in June – down from 73 in the same month in 2023, 85 in 2022, and 83 in 2021. That adds to the 45 applications processed in May, which was the lowest the township has seen for that month since 2019.

Most concerning, Korpela said, is the construction value of approved projects over the past two months – way down from the past three years. For May and June, the total value is estimated at just over $10.1 million this year, less than a third of the $32.3 million recorded in 2023 and down from $21.4 million in 2022 and $20.1 million in 2021.

Year-to-date construction values are pegged at $29.5 million, with 216 permits issued – both four-year lows.

“I’m not exactly sure why our permit numbers are so low… it’s hard to point a finger at any one thing. It could be Canada’s high inflation rate, interest rates, capital gains tax regulations, the carbon tax,” Korpela said.

He noted the problem appears to be taking hold provincewide. Quoting a recent Statistics Canada report, Korpela said construction of single-family homes is down 24 per cent, with all other dwelling types down 12 per cent for June year over year.

Comparing new construction through the first half of 2024 to last year, Korpela said Dysart is down 69 per cent for single-family homes, 25 per cent for seasonal dwellings, and 78 per cent for all other accommodation types. Total permit applications are down 16 per cent – with smaller projects such as decks, sheds, and garages making up most of the numbers.

Mayor Murray Fearrey said it’s a cycle he’s seen before.

“I think a lot of contractors are working on contracts they already have,” he said. “We all knew this would happen. Whenever you have a peak, you have to expect a valley. I don’t know how long it’s going to last, but it’s not good news.”

Any decrease in business for the building sector is filtering down to companies that assist with major projects. Coun. Pat Casey, who owns Total Site Services – specializing in site preparation, drilling, blasting, excavation, and septic services and Casey’s Water Well and Geothermal, said business is down 30 to 40 per cent so far this year.

Around the County

It’s largely been business as usual in Algonquin Highlands and Highlands East – with both townships reporting an increase in estimated construction values for projects approved by the building departments.

Through the first half of 2024, Algonquin Highlands chief building official, Greg Moore, has reported 65 building permit approvals carrying a total value of almost $18.4 million. Over the same time last year, the township issued 100 permits at an estimated value of $12.5 million.

In Highlands East, there have been 78 permits issued year-to-date, with construction value pegged at $19.9 million. Last year, the township processed 54 permits through the first six months of the year, valued at $11.5 million.

Minden Hills’ building department hasn’t released updated statistics since April, when 32 building permits were issued. That’s up from 23 in April 2023. Estimated construction values were not provided.

From Jan. 1 to June 30 last year, Minden Hills processed 136 building permits – 30 of them single-family dwellings, 35 accessory structures, 31 demolitions, and 40 minor projects. The township did not provide updated statistics for 2024 by press time.