Skyline Dance Studio brought its spring showcase to Haliburton March 7, with 39 dancers from its pre-competitive team performing in two shows at the Northern Lights Performing Arts Pavilion.

Skyline’s Amanda Conn said the showcase, “gives dancers the opportunity to show their family, friends and community what they have been working on this dance season and allows them to practice on stage under the lights before going to competitions later this spring.”

There were 51 different numbers over the weekend, including routines in ballet, jazz, contemporary/lyrical dance, musical theatre, hip hop, acro and various open categories.

The Skyline team will be competing at DanceAttack in Cobourg later this month, Breakthru in Ottawa in April and Shooting Stars in Huntsville in May.

In memorializing Ian “Scotty” Morrison, who passed away last week, Carol Moffatt said he was “a fine man, a loving father, an National Hockey League (NHL) icon, and a good family friend.”

While tributes have been pouring in from the NHL, the Hockey Hall of Fame, national sports streaming channels, and national newspapers, Scotty is being remembered locally for his time in the Highlands.

He and wife Joan lived in the GTA during Scotty’s career as an NHL official, referee in chief, executive, and later as a president, chairman, and chief executive officer, of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The couple moved to the cottage in Haliburton County before Scotty left for B.C. in 2018.

Moffatt recalled how her mom and dad, Bruce and Betty, visited often with the Morrisons “and, of course, with Scotty’s immeasurable contributions to the community, they saw each other often when out and about.”

‘He was just this lovely man’

She went on to describe Scotty as a man “of fierce pride, integrity and conviction. His generosity was incomparable and his contributions abundant.”

CanoeFM manager Roxanne Casey met Scotty when she was working with Community Care, and through his involvement with the Scotty Morrison Charity Hockey Tournament. She then had dealings with him when he was honourary chair of the Canoe board 2017-2019. She recalled how she had a cousin visit from Scotland and Scotty toured her cousin by boat around the lake. 705-286-3167 • 94 Bobcaygeon Rd DOWNTOWN MINDEN info@riverview-furniture.com www.riverview-furniture.com

“He was just this most lovely man. He would do anything for Haliburton County. He was involved with so many organizations. There was nothing you could say about him that wasn’t gentlemanly. If you were lucky enough to have him involved in your organization, he was a champion for whatever organization he was involved in.”

Scotty also did a once-a-week hockey talk show with Paul Cameron on CanoeFM. “Scotty loved doing that. If he was away from here, he would phone in. If he was here, he would come in. And he was always giving away Hockey Hall of Fame tickets.” He would tease Casey, as she didn’t like hockey.

Casey added that Scotty also worshipped his family. Former NHL player, and Dysart et al deputy mayor, Walt McKechnie, said, “he was just such a positive, upbeat guy in the community. He always did all kinds of things for charity. He loved the community.”

Surprise party

The community surprised Morrison with a Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers on Dec. 28, 2016. About 120 people were on hand, along with the Stanley Cup. VIP’s included former Hockey Hall of Fame president and CEO Jeff Denomme, former OPP commissioner Julian Fantino, and senior vice president of hockey operations with the NHL, the late, Jim Gregory.

A surprised Morrison thanked the crowd “from the bottom of my heart. This has just been a very special day that I will obviously never forget. I will wear the small badge with honour.”

Speaking to the hockey tournament, former HHHS foundation chair Don Popple said on the night, “we got the NHL, we got the Stanley Cup, we got the hall of fame and we got this group of hockey personnel that classed up our tournament completely. Scotty has a great deal of passion towards any job he decides to do and that is why we are celebrating today.” The tournament ran for seven years.

On the night, Dysart et al mayor Murray Fearrey spoke of Morrison’s commitment to community, no matter where he’s been.

“When he came to Haliburton, he was instantly accepted and fit in and he got involved. It was his personality. He is just a very good, solid person, with a love of family.”

Morrison was born in Montreal in 1930 and died in B.C. Feb 25 at the age of 95.

Dysart et al mayor Murray Fearrey told County of Haliburton council at its last meeting that his township will continue to fight a proposed development of 25 residential lots, 38 cottage lots, and three blocks for waterfront access, as well as condominium roads, fronting Elephant Lake.

Director of planning, Elizabeth Purcell, brought the file to the Feb. 25 County council meeting. Her report included background information on a proposed draft plan of subdivision and common element condominium.

She said some of her initial key findings are that the land contains provincially-significant wetlands, watercourses, and regulatory floodplain areas, “creating significant environmental constraints.”

She added her preliminary review, “identifies potential consistency issues with the 2024 Provincial Planning Statement, particularly regarding rural development, natural heritage, and flood hazards.”

She said the developers are proposing private wells and septic systems, with multiple technical studies having been submitted to support the suitability. She said other, key, supporting studies, such as an environmental impact study, hydrogeology, lakeshore capacity, boating capacity, stormwater, archeology, and landfill review are now under third-party peer review.

Purcell noted a related official plan amendment was denied by Dysart et al council and appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

During a short discussion, coun. Jennifer Dailloux asked about the sensitive wetlands, and the fact the developers are saying property owners would not be able to access them to get to the shoreline. Rather than every lot accessing the lake, the plan calls for three blocks for waterfront access.

Fearrey condemns development on sensitive wetlands

Dailloux asked how that would be enforced to ensure people are not accessing the lake from their lots. “Who would be responsible? How often would they be checking. What’s the teeth behind that?”

Purcell said it was a bit of a “precarious situation because people are people and if you have a shoreline lot, a lot of people would like to access the water from their own lot. It would be an enforcement matter through the Municipality of Dysart, or through the province, as it is a provincially-significant wetland.”

Dailloux then asked Dysart what it thought would be possible from an enforcement standpoint.

Fearrey told her, “that’s one of the reasons we turned it down. We can’t handle this. If they get this approved, then we might as well forget about trying to protect our lakes and our wetlands. It’s just a terrible proposal. So, we’re going to fight it as hard as we can to make sure it gets defeated.”

Purcell said the land is now vacant with existing access via Benoir Lake Road. She said the site is 122 hectares, with a little over 1.6 km of frontage on the road, and more than three kilometres on the lake.

The planning director said the County received the file Feb. 9. Staff will make its recommendation at a later date.

People can submit comments, be notified, or get additional information from epurcell@haliburtoncounty.ca or 705-286-1333 x 222.

Purcell noted if a person, or public body, does not make written submissions to the County before the approval authority gives, or refuses to give, approval they are not entitled to appeal the decision to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

When Sara Burtch was in elementary school, she remembers filling out a career aptitude test giving students a list of jobs their personality and interests most align with.

“I got plumber – and everybody made fun of me for it. So, I never really looked into it the way I should or took it seriously,” Burtch said.

Now, years later, she’s enjoying a fulfilling career working with G.J. Burtch Construction. Four years into her foray in the trades, Burtch tells The Highlander it’s the best decision she’s ever made.

“It’s funny, because now I can do a lot of the things a plumber does. I can change filters and swap out toilets. It’s made me wonder how, if everyone hadn’t laughed at me, would I have gone down this path years ago? I have a daughter who is interested in construction. I don’t want women growing up today going through the things I did, thinking ‘I can’t do that because that’s a man’s job’.”

With that in mind, Burtch is one of the driving forces behind the Haliburton County Home Builders Association’s (HCHBA) new ‘women in construction’ group. She and Aggie Tose, HCHBA’s executive officer, got the idea after attending a Canadian home builders national conference last fall and hearing from other regional entities how successful they’d been developing women-only meets.

An inaugural gathering is being held at The Link in Haliburton March 6 from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

“We’re hoping to get more women out to volunteer and start having more of a presence in the community. Our long-term plan is to have our own board for women in the trades,” Burtch said.

Over the past few months, Burtch said she’s been developing her own inventory of women that she knows are working in the industry – noting, after talking with her husband, Andrew, and father-in-law, Gary, that numbers are way up from even 10 years ago.

“There have always been a few around Haliburton, but it was not really talked about. Even for me – a lot of people know my husband, but I’m often the one carrying the extra load that he can’t get to. I’m hoping to reach a lot of these women in the background that perhaps we don’t know about who might be willing to come forward and start to get more involved,” Burtch said, noting the group is open to anyone – not just HCHBA members.

Burtch will be at Hal High next month for HCHBA’s annual job fair. While she’ll be actively promoting opportunities at her firm, she’s also willing to discuss all potential career paths in the trades for young women. Through this new group, she’s hoping to develop a pool of workers willing to go into the high school to talk about how they broke in.

“Something where we can bring a female plumber or electrician in to speak to kids about their journey, because we all have a story,” Burtch said.

She noted HCHBA routinely assists young professionals – men and women – starting on their path to purchase tools and get help with training.

Burtch believes encouraging more women to pursue careers in the trades would benefit the industry.

“And not just in terms of numbers, but in perspective too,” Burtch said. “Don’t be put off by failing or feeling like you don’t know enough. When I first went out working with my husband, I thought it was a huge mistake. Then the more he talked about things, the more I learned. Before long, I was making suggestions to him about how to try something a different way.

“Men and women look at things differently, so to have both perspectives, I find, it really helps to see things a little clearer and get more of a full picture,” she added.

On a recent Friday afternoon, Dylan Cooney was busy washing OPP vehicles at the detachment in Minden.

The Gr. 9 student is the first of his kind in Ontario – as the local cop shop pilots a program that could extend across the province. He comes in for two hours every Friday to wash car exteriors.

The 15-year-old said he’s always liked police cars, and policing in general, and has an interest in the military.

“I figured this would be a good way to start it off.” By starting it off, he means one day potentially working in either policing or the military.

He’s so far enjoying the work and interacting with the officers. “You get to talk to them and see the other side, when they are not out on the streets.”

One day, he too would like to make the community a safer place. “You want to make sure there’s no speeders because there are more accidents. There are more dangerous drivers out there now and the OPP is there to help people in need.”

The student car washer is just one of three youth initiatives emanating from the OPP detachment in Minden. It is also starting a youth in policing academy, and hiring its first-ever summer student.

Haliburton Highlands OPP detachment commander Deb McClure recalls being exposed to the DARE (drug abuse resistance education) program when she was in school. DARE is a police officerled series of classroom lessons that teaches children from kindergarten to Grade 12 how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.

McClure said “that officer did make an impression on me.”

She said the three programs are all about positive interaction between cops and kids, and maybe helping with recruitment one day.

“Recruiting, in general, is just really important to me; especially coming here and learning we haven’t had a ton of applicants from the community,” McClure said. She added she is keen to share “the great opportunity this is as a career, and showing them so they can see for themselves. That is a motivator for me.

“It is a very critical time for youth. If they have some positive engagement with us – because a lot of time they are only seeing the negative engagement – it can touch someone’s life and is why it is a passion of mine for sure.”

Youth in policing academy

The ‘youth in policing academy’ is now accepting applications from students in Grades 9-12, who live in the Highlands, and are interested in learning more about a career in policing.

McClure said participants will gain handson insight into a variety of policing areas, including general patrol duties, major criminal investigations, canine services, emergency response, forensic identification, and impaired driving investigations.

The academy will be hosted at the detachment Wednesdays from 5-7 p.m., starting March 25, and concluding April 29.

Applications are available at the detachment in Minden, or at the front desk of Haliburton Highlands Secondary School. Applications can be submitted at either location. The application deadline is March 9. Successful applicants will be notified by email.

McClure said she hopes the academy becomes an annual thing.

Summer student

Meanwhile, the detachment is looking to hire a summer student in 2026. It’s the first time they have gotten one under the Canada Summer Jobs program.

They are looking for a student, or recent graduate, seeking “meaningful work experience, transferable skills, and the chance to grow your professional network.”

Apply online through the OPS Careers Portal (GoJobs.gov.on.ca) and search for job ID 239472.