With the rollout of the Canada Dental Care Plan (CDCP), Volunteer Dental Outreach (VDO) has announced changes for its Haliburton clinic effective Jan. 1, 2025.

The CDCP is a federally-delivered public plan designed to help ease financial barriers to accessing oral health care for up to nine million uninsured Canadian residents. They are assisting people with an adjusted family net income of less than $90,000 and no co-payments for those under $70,000.

The program has been accepting applications from seniors 65-plus, people with valid disability tax credit certificates, and children under 18-years-old. In 2025, all remaining eligible Canadian resident can apply.

The VDO board recently issued a media release saying that in response to the evolving landscape of dental care in Canada, they are adjusting their services to better meet community needs.

“With the federal government’s continuing rollout of the CDCP, many low-income residents in Haliburton County will now have wide access to affordable dental care, resulting in a decreased patient load at VDO.”

In the new year, VDO will no longer provide dental care through the Ontario Seniors Dental Care Program.

VDO president Bill Kerr said in an interview that people 65 and up represent about one-third of the work VDO does, so, “a third of everything is disappearing as of the beginning of January.”

He added, “our policy has always been we look after the dental needs of people in Haliburton County that have nowhere else to go, and we don’t want to be taking patients away from other practices that are operating, and the majority of the patients that qualify for VDO are now qualifying for the federal program.”

However, the board stressed that VDO will remain open to provide care to those County residents who do not qualify for the CDCP, and meet the VDOs qualifications. Basically, they look at household income, the number of people living off of that household income, then household expenses to make a decision.

The board said in light of the changes, they are also suspending the 2025 Lisa Kerr Memorial Golf Tournament fundraising event. The board said it would assess community needs before making further decisions.

They don’t know what impact rolling out the federal program to all age groups will mean next year. Kerr said the original plan by the end of 2025 was to have everybody covered.

Kerr said that, overall, what is happening is good news. “

I thoroughly enjoy doing dentistry for free for people that can’t afford it. But if there are other opportunities, I’m quite comfortable doing other things, it’s not something I need to do. If they roll out the way they say they’re going to roll it out, we anticipate the amount of appointment time, the amount of patient time, to continue to reduce.”

However, it’s still a wait-and-see for VDO as a Liberal federal election defeat could change the playing field once again.

In the meantime, they have taught people about how to qualify for CDCP and to apply for it.

He also thinks his late wife, Lisa Kerr, would be pleased with the direction dental care is going.

“Lisa is going to love that there is access to care because she was the one that would drive to someone’s house and pick them up if they didn’t have a ride. She was all about looking after people. It was all of our dreams that one day the government would step up and look after the people that needed it the most.”

After a frustrating meeting with representatives of the Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB) last week, Dysart et al and Minden Hills mayors, Murray Fearrey and Bob Carter, said they will now take a school busing issue to the province.

Fearrey and Carter said they were told the new busing rules – stating elementary-aged students living within 1.6 kilometres of school, and high school students within 3.2 kilometres, aren’t eligible to be bused – were set by the Ministry of Education a few years ago.

Carter said, “each board put them into place over a period of time but they hadn’t gotten to Haliburton and Minden yet. This is the year they got to it.”

Carter and Fearrey are worried about the danger of children walking country roads, particularly as Daylight Saving Time ends Nov. 3, bringing darkness in the morning and evening.

The Minden Hills mayor said the board representatives said they sent staff to drive Highlands’ roads, but were not concerned.

“We suggested that perhaps the roads in July and in January are different, but that didn’t phase them too much,” Carter said.

“They gave us some examples of new areas in Huntsville, but it’s a lot different walking on a street that has no sidewalks in a subdivision in the middle of a city, as opposed to Hwy. 118, or Bobcaygeon Road, or CRD. 121.” He said the reps rebutted they have a school in Kirkfield, and in other rural areas.

Fearrey said he could not understand the answers, and while trustees are “honest and good” people he feels they rubber stamped an administrative decision.

Carter added TLDSB indicated they had only two public complaints. He asked whom people should contact if not happy and was told Patricia Hayward, transportation services supervisor, and Tim Ellis, superintendent of business services.

Carter said he was “shocked by the nonchalance” of the responses given, particularly after driving the roads children are now walking. “There’s a lot of dangerous roads that don’t even have shoulders.”

Fearrey said he was “annoyed” and “I just can’t believe the process.”

The Minden Hills mayor added townships such as Minden and Dysart can’t suddenly build sidewalks, hire crossing guards, and install flashing lights as they are expensive. Nor does he know where they would put crossing guards. In Minden, he said there are quirky areas in front of the post office, at Bobcaygeon Road and Water Street, and at Bobcaygeon and Deep Bay roads.

Fearrey said they cannot do maintenance to offset the changes as, “we can hardly afford what we’re doing now. We can’t start trying to get out before the buses, or before the children walk to and from school, we only run the plows one time a day.”

Carter said, “these kids are going to be going to school in the dark. If it’s snowing, we will have plows, we will have icy roads. It’s not like we can put out some cones, and put a sidewalk or a protected area in place, because some of these roads aren’t even wide enough for two cars.

“I don’t want this to be another one where the province reduces services in a department and then turns to the municipality to pick up the slack. They don’t raise taxes but make us raise taxes to pay for these things we are really not set up to do.”

He added not all families have a second car for driving kids to school, and in some cases, parents have to be at work before school starts, and after school ends.

Fearrey said on Oct. 18, he would be contacting MPP Laurie Scott about the situation. The two mayors will also be pushing to have a delegation at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference in Toronto in January.

“The ministry of education can’t do a one rule fits all scenario, particularly when talking rural Ontario, this is ludicrous,” Carter said.

Fearrey said he told TLDSB, “I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an accident here because you can’t walk on some of these roads in the winter.”

Minden Hills mayor Bob Carter is on the board of Habitat for Humanity Peterborough and Kawartha Region, and also sits on the board of Kawartha Lakes Haliburton Housing Corporation.

The housing advocate will be attending the Oct. 24 housing summit in Minden.

Updating The Highlander on some initiatives to date, he said the County is looking into communal servicing for water and septic.

Following County of Frontenac director of economic development and planning Joe Gallivan’s delegation to County council in September 2023, Carter said the upper-tier government has been looking into communal servicing with director of economic development and tourism, Scott Ovell, working behind the scenes.

“I think in the next couple of months, you’ll see it. There’s lots of legal issues setting it [a municipal services corporation to oversee communal servicing] up, towns have to own it, but we’ve been doing the research at the County so we’re very much going to do that.”

Carter said Ovell had been following along with Frontenac County and the issues they’ve had getting the Frontenac MSC set up.

“We want to make sure it’s set up once, and good,” Carter said.

As for housing strides being made in the Town of Collingwood, Carter said he believes one problem in Haliburton County and Minden Hills is they have no strategic plan.

“We really need to decide what we want to be when we grow up, like how much growth we want to have, where we want to have growth and so on.”

He conceded housing has been the most frustrating portfolio since he has become a local politician, now into his sixth year.

“The only way you’re going to be able to get anything supportable is through densification. You’ve got to be building up. People aren’t necessarily going to want that, but we don’t really have much of a choice.”

He said Collingwood has more available land, and a much larger tax base.

In the Highlands, he said, “we’ve got all sorts of projects that people are planning, and have talked to us about, we’ve done pre-consultations, but bringing it to fruition is really difficult. There’s no money coming from the government.”

Speaking to the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus 7-in-7 initiative, he said another problem is having shovel-ready projects ready when the government advertises funding with short notice.

The EOWC’s 7-in-7 regional housing plan proposes building at least 7,000 community rental units over seven years across the region to address wait lists. Using a mixed-model approach, the 7-in-7 plan was designed to bring on nearly 21,000 additional market rate units. This would total 28,000 housing units.

The plan requires partnering with the federal and provincial government, as well as the private and non-profit sectors, and Indigenous partners.

Carter said he and fellow Habitat and KLH Housing board member Fay Martin plan to meet with the Frontenac and Collingwood staffers after the summit.

“They’re (Collingwood) looking at lots in a city you can put a house on, in ones and twos, but I’m more interested in 30-40-50s.” He said he’s been told by some people that 100 houses wouldn’t sell but “the numbers are huge in what you can potentially sell. Having some on the market would make it easier for employers to recruit.”

He noted Habitat for Humanity is working on three or four projects in the County, including the Wee Care property in Haliburton. They take time, with environment assessments and geotechnical work.

“There’s lots going on… but even after you go through that, you have to bring it to fruition by hopefully having enough money.”

As Haliburton County struggles to house moderate-income earners, staffers with the towns of Collingwood and Frontenac County will share success stories at a housing summit Oct. 24 in Minden.

Claire de Souza, the housing development coordinator for the Town of Collingwood, and Joe Gallivan, the director of planning and economic development for the County of Frontenac, are keynote speakers at the Minden Hills Community Centre.

Forum spokesperson, Fay Martin of Places for People, says, “this will be the third time we’ve taken a deep dive into what’s happening in Haliburton County to create the housing people who live and work here need. The day will open and close with from-away guests sharing experiences that have relevance to Haliburton County.” There will be panel discussions on worker housing and densification.

De Souza was hired because Collingwood councillors recognized they had an affordable housing crisis. The town established an affordable housing task force in 2021 and has done a housing needs assessment. The task force remains active today.

De Souza highlighted some of the current, and planned projects, during an interview with The Highlander Oct. 11.

She said they are targeting people with household incomes of $74,000-$109,000, calculating they can afford to buy a home valued at $248,000 to $366,000. Those earning $47,000-$68,000 would be looking at rental rates of $1,200-$1,700-a-month.

“You never see these prices, so that shows us how far away we are from what is actually affordable for folks in the community,” she said. “That is the challenge; how do we get things like that built? What can we do? What can the private sector do? What can the non-market developer group do, or the non-profit development community do, to hit those markers?”

‘Every other township in Ontario can do it’

They responded with a rapid additional residential unit (RARU) program. Part of that is a concierge service. De Souza walks people through the sometimes “technical” planning and building process for affordable housing, or purpose-built rentals. “I try my best to streamline where possible.

After launching the program, she said building permits more than doubled, to 22 from eight.

They also provide pre-approved designs. De Souza explains they put an open call to designers, manufacturers, architecs and builders. Their designs go through town hall and get a stamp of approval with the designs posted on the township website.

“If you’re the average homeowner who’s never done this before, check out these preapproved designs. A lot of the work is done for you. You can contact the designer directly to use the design and it just streamlines the process.”

Another recent move is passing a zoning bylaw amendment. De Souza notes while Bill 23 allows three total units, they’re allowing four on serviced residential properties.

In addition, the town just announced a new seed funding opportunity to help increase the supply of affordable housing.

New or existing housing organizations are now invited to apply to receive up to $25,000. It’s for non-profit or not-for-profits that can develop, own, and operate affordable housing in the community.

Overcoming barriers

The housing development coordinator said she understands the barriers to affordable housing cited by the County of Haliburton and its four lower-tier townships, such as high building costs and a lack of developable land.

“As a municipality, we can only control so much, such as our policies and regulations to make it easier.”

“The private sector cannot build affordable housing without financial support from all levels of government. We’re trying to set up an incentive framework to offer real financial incentives to developers, both non-market and market developers in exchange for affordable housing.” She conceded the challenge is finding the money to create incentives.

As for a lack of land, she calls for innovation and creativity. In the new year, they plan to do a high-level inventory of land that doesn’t meet typical lot size and frontage.

“How can we use smaller lots that haven’t typically been considered? We’re going to go to our development community and ask, ‘what can you do here, using unique construction techniques, different types of builds, modular-style; what can you do that we haven’t thought of before’?

“You have to consider building up rather than building out; higher density and heights, which is always a challenge in smaller, more rural municipalities. You always have to balance that with what the community is prepared for.”

She said that means people need to change their attitudes towards housing and not be so ‘not in my backyard.’

She agreed that dedicating a staff person to housing at a County level may also be key.

“We’re really lucky in Collingwood, our council has really taken the bull by the horns and said ‘we care about housing’. This is something we heard a lot about on the campaign trail. And they’ve really put that effort into creating the position and allocating a budget to housing.

“Every other municipality in Ontario can do it as well. We’re a small urban municipality but we’re taking a lot of initiative, that surprises some municipalities across the province. We have a dedicated staff person, an affordable housing task force, and affordable housing master plan, and we’ve had a budget allocation for the last three years.”