An emotional night inside S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena Nov. 25 helped inspire the Haliburton County Huskies to one of their biggest wins of the season.

It was a full house Saturday as the organization held its second Pink in the Rink Huskies Conquer Cancer event. Hockey took a back seat pre-game as team president, Paul Wilson, welcomed Julie MacInnes onto the ice for a ceremonial puck drop. Julie’s husband, Wade, passed away in August following a battle with lung cancer.

Buoyed by an exuberant home crowd, the Huskies dominated the toothless Aurora Tigers 7-1, with a hat-trick from team captain Patrick Saini and further tallies from Nicholas Lamont, Adam Smeeton, Lucas Vacca, and Lucas Stevenson cementing the win.

“It was nice to see the guys playing with some confidence and putting up a big win. Smeeton getting his first of the season was a nice moment for him – we haven’t really had any secondary scoring all year, so that’s a nice thing to get, especially coming into a busy stretch,” said head coach, Ryan Ramsay.

The Huskies enjoyed lots of time on the puck in the first, regularly testing Yianni Karkoulas in the Tigers’ goal. Ian Phillips went close to establishing a lead halfway through the period, picking up speed coming out of his own zone and beating two Tigers players before flashing a wrister off the post.

With time ticking down, it appeared the Huskies would have to wait for their opening, but Saini had other ideas. After Phillips had found Charlie Fink in the slot, the 20-year-old saw his shot padded away by Karkoulas, but Saini was in the perfect position to slam home the rebound at 19:03.

The home crowd was back on its feet seconds later as Lamont notched his 10th goal of the season. After Stevenson skied the puck out of his own zone, Lamont expertly brought it out of the air while in full stride, went eye-to-eye with Karkoulas and beat him glove side at 19:40 to give the Huskies a two-goal lead.

Smeeton made it a three-goal game 1:25 into the middle frame, assisted by Raine Nadeau and Izayah Luddington, with Vacca adding a fourth five minutes later, finishing off a nice move that also involved Alex Bradshaw.

Luke Hampel netted a consolation for the Tigers at 7:49, but that’s as good as it got for the visitors. Stevenson got in on the action at 16:10, assisted by Saini and Phillips, before the Huskies captain potted an unassisted shorthanded tally at 19:52. He completed his hat-trick three minutes into the final frame, assisted by Stevenson and Phillips.

Ramsay said he was pleased to see his team get back to winning ways following a disappointing 4-3 loss on the road against the Lindsay Muskies Nov. 22. He noted this would be a big month for the Huskies as they look to improve on their ninth-place league standing and solidify themselves as championship contenders.

“We’re coming into a busy stretch here leading up to Christmas. These games are really going to make or break our season. Either we climb the ladder and start to put some pressure on those teams near the top, or we stay where we are [which is outside playoff contention],” Ramsay said. “It’s going to be a good challenge for the boys.”

The team lost 6-3 to rival Cobourg Cougars Nov. 27, and travel to Brantford Nov. 30 for a tilt with the 99ers. They play six more times in 17 days before Christmas, with three home match-ups – Dec. 3 against the Stouffville Spirit, Dec. 9 against the Pickering Panthers, and Dec. 16 against the North York Rangers.

Huskies in the community

Ramsay said Christmas is also the time of year his team likes to give back to the community. After participating in the Minden and Haliburton Santa Claus parades the past two weekends, the Huskies assisted the Minden Hills Fire Department with its annual toy drive Nov. 26.

The organization also partnered with the Haliburton Highlands Health Services Foundation earlier this month for a 50/50 fundraiser to help bring in money for a CT scanner and mammography unit at the Haliburton hospital.

“This community has been great with us since we arrived… it’s Paul’s and my vision to not only have a great hockey program in the County, but to work with our community and rally behind great causes to show you can bring good things to small towns through sport,” Ramsay said.

Haliburton author Janet Trull said her latest book, End of the Line, provides an interesting look at what life was like for early Highlands settlers when the first trains carrying new immigrants arrived in the late 1800s.

After spending the better part of three years working on the 252-page historical fiction piece, Trull is excited to share it with the community. It’s her first novel, following earlier releases Hot Town and Something’s Burning, two collections of short stories, and Once a Storm, a memorial book focused on oxycontin addiction.

“I started writing it during COVID. Originally, this was going to be a collection of short stories as well, focused on Haliburton and the many quirky characters that have called this place home, with a fictitious spin. I knew I wanted to set it historically in the late 1800s, and that was the time when the Victoria rail line came in,” Trull said. “Haliburton was a busy, quickly changing place then.

“I had fun creating characters based on what we know about the history of the Highlands. I was especially interested in the tension between those who established the village in 1865, and those who arrived by the trainload, lured by land grants, in the late 1870s,” she added.

The story is told from the perspective of Ona, a local entrepreneur who operates a booming comfort business for loggers and railway workers. She also runs a nunnery for women and orphans.

With Ona’s grandfather being an early Scottish settler and her grandmother Ojibwe, she has an understanding and knowledge of two cultures that give her a unique perspective on the community’s issues, Trull said.

The story kicks into high gear when a corrupt politician, Alex Smith, is murdered, leading readers on a thrilling ‘whodunit’ adventure.

“He was somebody in a position of power who took advantage of many, many people. So, when he gets murdered, almost everyone in town has a reason to kill him,” Trull said. “It was fun, because even I didn’t know who the actual murderer was until very late in the writing process.”

While some of the issues outlined were prevalent in early day Haliburton, Trull said the bulk of the story is complete fiction and shouldn’t be considered historically accurate. There are some connections people can make, though – a character resembling Haliburton’s first reeve, John Lucas, is included, so too a doctor based on a real-life physician.

End of the Line is available at Master’s Book Store in Haliburton, can be ordered online through Indigo and Amazon, and is downloadable on Kindle. A launch event was held Nov. 18 at Rails End Gallery. Trull was in attendance, alongside Shane Joseph, head of the book’s publisher Blue Denim Press, to discuss the book.

“I feel like I’ve created my own little library now – I don’t have a favourite, but End of the Line was a lot of fun to put together. I hope people enjoy reading as much as I did writing it,” Trull said.

She has already started on her fifth book – more personal, focusing on reallife memories she has growing up with her brother, who has schizophrenia, and the things, both positive and negative, families go through when dealing with a severe mental health issue. There’s no timeline for release.

It’s going to be a minimum of four to five years before a new performing arts centre is constructed in Haliburton County, says Dan Manley, board chair of the Haliburton Highlands Arts Centre Foundation (HHACF).

Speaking at the organization’s AGM Nov. 16, Manley said his volunteer team has yet to secure a location – the main requirement needed to move forward with grant applications and other funding requests.

“I hate to use the word pause. From the outside it looks like we’re not doing much, but from the inside we’re really busy with talks, emails, calls and presentations. Not having the location puts a lot of the other work we need to do in the future,” Manley said.

Last November, HHACF released details of an arts centre feasibility study, completed by consulting firm Janis A. Barlow and Associates, which determined the Highlands could support a facility with a capacity of between 300 and 400 people.

A follow-up survey with the community found there was a demand for a centre that could accommodate a variety of performing arts mediums, including acoustic music, opera, film, musical theatre, and dance. A proscenium lyric theatre with a pit was proposed, with a 300-seat main level orchestra and a 100-seat balcony.

On top of the performance venue, Manley said the public wanted to see a rehearsal hall, professional backstage facilities, front of house lobby with concessions, music studios and educational space included in any build.

At the time, though not releasing this number to the public, Manley said the project carried an estimated cost of just over $40 million. He told The Highlander last week that number had likely increased again due to inflation.

“It’s hard to say what it would cost us now,” he said, acknowledging any build would be dependent on securing major funding from the federal and provincial governments, as well as local contributions.

At last year’s unveiling, it was noted a new facility could generate approximately $1.14 million annually for the local economy.

HHACF has been working with Peterborough-based The Dennis Group for much of this year trying to find a path forward. Between October and December 2022, the firm interviewed and surveyed Highlands residents for a community assessment and planning study, which Manley said was designed to determine local “affinity” for the project and gauge fundraising potential.

Some concerns were raised during that process, notably the lack of a site and concerns over the project’s feasibility. There was also a call for HHACF to collaborate and develop partnerships with other organizations.

Since then, Manley said they have met with Places for People to discuss potential housing options that could be tied into any build, Point in Time for possible social service and youth supports, and Haliburton School of Art + Design.

With Dysart et al recently purchasing a 90-acre plot of land along County Road 21, and mayor Murray Fearrey indicating a portion could be used for recreational purposes, Manley said HHACF has sent a letter to the township outlining their interest in building an arts centre there.

“Finding and securing a location is our top goal… without one, a purpose-built performing arts centre exists only as a concept in a feasibility study, and a vision in our dreams,” Manley said.

“We just have to keep pressing forward and putting ourselves in the best position possible, keeping our eyes on what’s going on, so that we can be ready at a moment’s notice if some funding, or land, comes up. We have a study, we have almost all the pre-work done,” Manley added. “But we recognize, even if a piece of land showed up on our door next week… we’re still years away.”

Spending part of his youth in North Bay, new County of Haliburton CAO Gary Dyke said he was partially drawn to the top Highlands municipal job by the lure of returning to rural Ontario.

In recent years, he’s worked for some big municipalities, including North Grenville, the City of Kingston, the City of Cambridge, and Quinte West.

But what he has never done is work for an upper-tier government. The County of Haliburton is an upper-tier government to the lower-tier governments of Algonquin Highlands, Dysart et al, Highlands East and Minden Hills.

“I’m a rural person at heart. I grew up in northern Ontario. I like the rural side of things,” Dyke told The Highlander. “I’ve done rural. I’ve done large urban, and this seemed like a natural progression. The big draw was working at the upper-tier, which I hadn’t done before. So, let’s try something different.”

He said the contrast between being a city manager in a place such as Cambridge, with 145,000 people, versus a County with 20,000 permanent residents is it is more hands-on.

“I would spend 95 per cent of my day going from meeting to meeting to meeting to meeting and when you get into the smaller municipalities it’s much more tangible. You can physically say ‘I’ve done something’; you’re working on a specific thing versus just oversight.”

He’s also gone from a city of 113 sq. kilometres in Cambridge to a County of more than 4,000 sq. kilometres. He’s wrapping his head around that but it is not completely new.

“It’s what I remember of northern Ontario, or the near north, growing up as a kid. A lot of small communities. It’s about identifying how that positive actually leads to the challenges in today’s organizational piece, with the finances and operational needs and stuff like that, and expectations,” he said.

While he is still getting a handle on some of the challenges facing Haliburton County, he said from a 30,000-foot level, they’re similar to what other regional and rural Ontario towns are facing, namely resources, finances, and attracting and keeping employees.

He said one strength he brings to the job is organizational management. That’s allowed him to form contacts in the public and private sectors. He’s been a Rotarian. He’s always connected with BIAs, the building and development community. He said he has successfully used those contacts’ knowledge and skillset and implemented them in the municipalities he has worked at.

“Which was unheard of when I was starting out. They say the two can’t marry but I think smart ideas are smart ideas. You have to work together to be successful.”

He has been an economic development officer and has a planning background.

“Everything you do has an economic impact, from policies you pass, to your taxes, to your finances. I don’t partial it off as this is economic development. This is my mindset, when you are putting things together, give thought to who are our customers, what are their needs, how do our regulatory responses mesh with their needs so you’re creating a package that makes sense.”

He added he is a collaborative manager, involving everybody in an organization. “Use that knowledge and that information to leverage the strength around you to hopefully create policies and operational things that make sense.”

He is already rolling up his sleeves, reviewing the services delivery review.

“The next step is really going through and quantifying and monetizing those implementations… you have to prioritize them. It would be nice to do everything today but one, you don’t really have the capacity to do it and, two, people are still doing their core job. You throw change on top of it, it’s more work. You have to balance that piece out.”

Dyke said this is likely his last municipal job. “I’m a five-year guy in a sense. I believe people in my position; five years is a pretty good number. You can go beyond but you have to evaluate if you are still making positive movement in the organization. A friend and I say we never want to become custodial CAOs where all you’re doing is keeping the lights on. As long as I’m bringing value, that’s my goal.”

A joint HKPR and Peterborough Public Health working group met Nov. 16 to begin talks about a possible voluntary merger of the two health units.

HKPR chief medical officer of health, Dr. Natalie Bocking, said voluntary mergers have been put forward by the province of Ontario.

The Ford government is offering funding to units that want to merge as it works on a longer-term approach to public health that clarifies roles and responsibilities, health minister Syliva Jones said in August.

The PCs proposed consolidating units in 2019, but COVID-19 put the plans on hold.

In a speech to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, Jones suggested the government is again looking at the structure of the public health system.

“We are also going to work with the sector to clarify public health roles and responsibilities to reduce overlap and ensure public health care is aligned with provincial priorities as outlined by the chief medical officer of health,” Jones said.

She added, “we will be providing one-time funding and support to public health units that voluntarily merge, to increase their ability to provide care to more people.”

The health minister also said the province will increase base funding for public health units by one per cent a year over the next three years and will reverse cuts to a public health funding formula.

The Progressive Conservative government in 2019 moved from funding 75 per cent of public health costs, with municipalities paying for 25 per cent, to a 70-30 costsharing formula.

Bocking said they had already shared publicly, as well as with employees of both boards, about the ongoing conversation.

She said the next step is a feasibility assessment “to determine the positive and negative impacts of what a voluntary merger could look like as well as any of the risks and liabilities associated with it.”

She said the working group will bring the feasibility study back to the two boards for discussion.

Highlands East deputy mayor Cec Ryall sits on the HKPR board on behalf of the County of Haliburton and updated that council at its Nov. 22 meeting.

He told council the boards had hired a company to do the feasibility study.

“They will assist both boards of health on a go-or-no-go decision on whether we do or do not merge. And if we choose to proceed, will put together a business case of one-time, and ongoing funding, with a draft report mid-January, and a final report with a recommendation at the end of January,” he said.

County councillors have signed off on the final draft of a short-term rental bylaw that is now headed to the townships for licensing and regulating. Meanwhile, a request for proposals for a third-party administrator of the program is expected to come back to the next County council meeting, scheduled for Dec. 13.

Director of planning, Steve Stone, had presented the draft of the bylaw to Algonquin Highlands, Dysart et al, Highlands East and Minden Hills. He was accompanied by director of economic development and tourism, Scott Ovell, who updated the lower-tier municipalities on a municipal accommodation tax, or MAT.

Stone said Dysart et al’s building department suggested a couple of changes in the definitions section, for accessory building or structure, putting the size at 10 sq. metres, or 107.64 sq. ft., in line with the Ontario Building Code.

He said a member of the public also raised the issue of short-term rental use of municipally-owned shore road allowances. He said he added a clause prohibiting such use.

Stone said when it came to the question of commercial short-term rentals operating in residential zones, it was a municipal zoning bylaw issue.

“What we’re trying to do here is really regulate the rental of homes very specific to the tenure of 28 days or less. It is the responsibility of municipal staff to look at their bylaws to see if they need some changes,” he said.

With regards to bunkies or sleeping cabins, Stone said each township could put its own spin on what is allowed but the intent of the County bylaw is that bunkies can only be rented out as part of a rental of the whole property, not just the bunkies themselves.

The bylaw now goes back to lower-tier municipalities for final adoption.

Coun. Bob Carter did express some “real concern” about telling short-term rental property owners they cannot do temporary leases if they do not own their shore road allowance.

He said there could be hundreds affected by the rule. Right now, he said the Township of Minden Hills processes between eight and 10 shore road allowance purchases at every council meeting, and he is concerned about staff being inundated with requests. “We are not going to be able to react,” he said.

Warden Liz Danielsen countered people should not be operating short-term rentals on municipally-owned shore road allowances.

However, Carter said he thinks the council will be challenged, possibly in front of the Ontario Land Tribunal. He said they risk losing appeals or winning but it costing a lot of money.

However, Stone said property owners cannot take municipalities to the OLT over shore road allowances, as it is not a landuse planning matter. He noted under the STR bylaw, a property owner can appeal to the County if it doesn’t like a lower-tier township decision with regards to short-term rentals. CAO Gary Dyke said the ultimate authority would come via a court challenge.

Coun. Cec Ryall suggested that, similar to the self-attestation short-term property owners will fill out for licensing, for example that their properties comply with the Ontario Building Code, the townships can ask that people swear they will purchase the shore road allowance in front of their property to get licensed as a short-term rental. Stone said that could be done.

Side-by-sides will not be allowed on the Haliburton County Rail Trail – after council denied a request for a two-year pilot project during a County meeting Nov. 23.

The decision followed a June 14 delegation from Carolyn Richards of the Kawartha and Haliburton ATV associations, seeking the trial. Council deferred a decision pending a staff report. Friends of the Rail Trail also voiced its concerns with the idea during the summer meeting.

Public works deputy director, Sylvin Cloutier, delivered information pertaining to both sides of the debate at last Wednesday’s meeting. He did not make a recommendation either way.

During deliberations, coun. Bob Carter expressed concerns with the ATV associations’ request.

“This trail is intended to be a multi-use trail and I don’t see how I could take my family, children, grandchildren or dogs along a trail where there are vehicles travelling at 50 km/hr. I just don’t think that would be responsible of me to do that,” he said.

He added he believes the trail is too narrow to add vehicles, which Cloutier said would be 64 inches across (5.3 feet). Carter said that would no longer render it a multi-use trail, but just a vehicle trail.

The Minden Hills mayor said it seems there are a lot of trails in the County dedicated to, or used, for ATVs and other motorized vehicles. And while understanding the rail trail is considered somewhat of a spine to access other trails, he was not convinced.

Warden Liz Danielsen agreed. While she complimented the associations on their work, she said the rail trail and its usage has been one of the biggest and most controversial files to cross the County table over the past decade.

‘True multi-purpose trail’

She said what is supposed to be a multi-use trail is leaning far more towards motorized use. She added the argument is it benefits the economy, however, “we might be failing in looking at the benefits to our economy from cycling as well. I just see that the more motorized vehicles we put on the trail, the more challenges there will be for walkers, hikers and cyclists… Naturalists enjoy the condition the trail is in now.”

She also expressed concern with the County’s ability to enforce bylaws, and extra trail surface maintenance costs, including the possibility of having to widen the trail.

She said with side-by-sides being able to travel on roads, “I’d rather see us not do this at all… and for it to remain a true multi-purpose trail for all users.”

Coun. Murray Fearrey also felt it best not to proceed at this time, sharing enforcement concerns. He also thinks it would be hard on the trail surface, causing ruts.

Coun. Jennifer Dailloux said the County has “a wonderful series” of trails for ATVs and side-by-sides. “What we don’t have in the County are any dedicated, maintained pathways for cyclists. We don’t have one apart from the rail trail.

She added, “given the number of kilometres we have for ATVs and snowmobiles already, we might preserve just this one stretch for non-motorized vehicle use, such as bicycles.”

Danielsen said, “I’m generally hearing that we want to retain the status quo.” Council then voted to deny the request.