I can always trust this job to spring a surprise or two every now and then and get me thinking about things differently.

In this case, it happened at the Haliburton Legion on a sweltering Friday afternoon before the long weekend. I was there to listen to people talk about apples.

It turns out Haliburton County has a fascinating history with the fruit, stretching back hundreds of years. Steve Hill, the recently-retired former curator of the Haliburton Highlands Museum, was one of close to a dozen speakers at last week’s ‘All About Apple Trees’ symposium, hosted by ATIP Haliburton and U-Links Centre for Community-Based Research at the Haliburton Legion.

There, Hill told how, late last year, he found evidence of heritage apples thriving in the Highlands as far back as 1890. Strange, considering Haliburton County sits quite a way north of the area the Ontario Apple Growers has established, outlining zones where native apples grow.
Many of the attendees – some of them cottagers getting an early start on the weekend – were fascinated to learn apples do grow this side of the Canadian Shield.

We have Luba Cargill, founder of ATIP, to thank for this revelation. When she moved to Haliburton County from Niagara-on-the-Lake around 20 years ago, she was surprised to find apple tree orchards in the Highlands. She knew how harsh the winters can get this far north and wondered how they survived the elements.

She stewed on it for years, before finally reaching out to U-Links to suggest a student-led analysis of the County’s apple trees. Cargill and Carmen Galea, the research lead, found 170 existing apple tree locations, including 10 orchards.

Much of the presentations I heard focused on what could, and should, be done with these apples. Some are collected and donated to SIRCH Community Services and turned into apple sauce. SIRCH executive director, Gena Robertson, said 9,669 servings of free apple sauce has been distributed across the County since 2014.

We heard, too, how the apples can be used to make apple cider, apple chips, and freeze-dry apples.

Aisha Malik, co-chair of Harvest Haliburton, said there are many ways to maximize the County’s apple supply. By investing further in tree plantings and apple collections, she believes the fruit could play a pivotal role in improving food security for people living beneath the poverty line.

It’s a great point – Haliburton County remains one of the poorest regions in Ontario, with 17 per cent of residents living in poverty according to the City of Kawartha Lakes Haliburton Poverty Reduction Roundtable. Given the recent increase in demand at food banks in Haliburton, Minden, Wilberforce and Cardiff – up around 35 per cent this year at each – help is desperately needed.

While people can’t live exclusively off apples, the fruit can be used in a variety of tasty dishes that are relatively easy to prepare. Hey, if I can make an apple pie, anyone can!

It was interesting, too, hearing Scott Ovell, the County’s director of economic development and tourism, say his department would be willing to work with the likes of ATIP Haliburton to make the Highlands a destination for people interested in apple-based products. Comparisons were made to Prince Edward County – now one of Ontario’s premiere tourism destinations for wineries and vineyard tours.

This symposium attracted speakers from North Carolina, Kingston, and Guelph. A couple I spoke with said they made the trip from near Ottawa.

It’s great to see people are coming up with new potential ways to fight the County’s cost of living crisis. Prior to a few weeks ago, I didn’t have apples anywhere near that particular bingo card. Now, with enough local buy-in, they could be a real part of the solution.

Melanie Klodt Wong and her board at the Haliburton Highlands Health Services Foundation are pretty savvy when it comes to marketing.

It’s no coincidence they have kickstarted their fundraising campaign for a new CT scanner, and CT mammography unit, in time for the Victoria Day long weekend.

They clearly want seasonal residents to know about their ‘Here for you in the Highlands’ campaign.

They want generational, and new, cottagers to know that when they have an accident, or illness, while here in the County, they can go to Haliburton hospital’s emergency department. And, as of this summer, be able to use the new CT scanner. Mammography will roll out a bit later, but will also be able to be accessed by both full-time and part-time residents.

What our cottagers may or may not know, is the Highlands was the only County in Ontario without the diagnostic imaging equipment. It has resulted in patients having to make lengthy trips to Lindsay, Peterborough, Bracebridge, Huntsville and beyond for CT scans and mammograms. It has taken County land ambulances out of our service area. It has made it difficult for Haliburton Highlands Health Services to recruit doctors. We just got a new ER doctor in Haliburton, and the fact he can soon avail himself of CT scans no doubt helped to get him here.

On Monday, the foundation announced that a long-established County family – the Cockwells, who own Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve, had donated half-a-million dollars to the campaign. That comes on the heels of the County of Haliburton’s taxpayers chipping in $1 million. Other fundraising efforts and gifts have brought the total to $2.59 million of a $4.3 million goal.

They still have $1.7 million to go. However, Klodt Wong told The Highlander she and her volunteer fundraising committee want to exceed that target as the need for equipment continues at Haliburton hospital and they have big plans to make this small rural hospital better.

Health care has been a contentious issue in this County over the past year. We are coming up to the one-year anniversary of the closing of the Minden emergency department. Many have still not accepted that decision. Some will never donate money to the Foundation or HHHS again. While respecting their stance, it may be a case of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. We know that full-time residents will benefit from having access to CT scanning, and CT mammography.

But we address this call for financial help to our cottagers. Many of you from the GTA would not necessarily know that Haliburton hospital is behind the eight-ball when it comes to capital equipment. It is a small service that can generally cope with patient demand during the spring, fall and winter. However, when our population balloons to two to three times the size in summer, the hospital is stretched as thin as a hospital can be. We need you to help us so HHHS and its Foundation can indeed be ‘here for you in the Highlands.’

Hands up if this column is the “oh sh… oot” warning you’ve been waiting for that Mother’s Day is right around the corner?

Don’t worry – it happens to the best of us. The fact I’m ready several days out this year is a minor miracle, and, admittedly, may have more to do with me wanting to prove my mother-in-law wrong than it does turning over a new leaf on the preparedness scale. But that’s OK. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Mother’s Day has always been a big deal for me. My mom and dad separated when I was young. Since then, my mom has been the one constant, the role model in my life. She juggled raising three kids alone with a hectic full-time job. She always found the time to cook our meals, do our laundry, clean the house, and take us to soccer practices.

She was always a super mom. And I was never afraid to tell her that.

While I’ll still take the time to say a few nice things again, and maybe treat her to a nice meal out, Mother’s Day has taken on an entirely new meaning this year. That’s what happens when you start having kids of your own.

Over the past 18 months, I’ve watched my wife struggle through daily bouts of morning sickness, scream pain-induced obscenities through a frankly torturous labour, and care for and look after our daughter with a smile on her face and love in her heart – despite only getting a couple hours sleep per night for weeks on end.

So, yeah, now I have a second super mom in my life.

I wanted to go all-out for the first Mother’s Day. Buying a cute gift and regurgitating a cringeworthy poem in a dollar store card wasn’t going to cut it.

I got to work planning. I’m not sure I’d go as far as to call it the perfect day, but I’m confident I’ve done enough legwork that the effort, if not the execution, will likely be well appreciated.

To start, the easiest thing on this list – let them sleep.

When you hear them stir, instead of surprising them with breakfast in bed, deliver a piece of paper with two or three dishes to choose from. Or better yet, have your little one – human or fur baby – do the deed instead. For this to work, you must be able to put bread in a toaster without burning it. If that’s beyond you, save her taste buds and treat her to breakfast out. Of course, you’ll have remembered to make a reservation.

Map out your day. Have an itinerary of things to do. Share this with your guest of honour. It’s a lot more fun if they’re excited.

This is where you get to personalize your offerings. Think of a few things your wife/mom enjoys and find a way to DIY it. Me? I’m turning my basement into a movie theatre, which will have anything my wife wants. There will be snacks. And I will be on-hand to serve them.

I almost forgot about gifts… this isn’t so much of a must-have. Let’s face it, our wallets have taken a collective, relentless battering for some time now. But don’t fear, homemade gifts from the heart are to moms what Superbowl – or in my case, World Cup final – tickets are to dads. Again, apply a shred of originality, have your little one write their name, or scribble on it, and tah-dah! Probably the best gift she’s ever gotten. Do it right and she might even cry.

Above all else though, take the time to let your mother, partner, or whoever, know just how much you love, appreciate, and value them for all they do. It’s the kind of thing we should do every day, but don’t.

Today, of all days, it’s important to go that extra mile. Love you, mom. Love you, Laurie.

Once again, Dysart et al council has gone it alone in making a decision on behalf of its ratepayers that does not align with the other three County municipalities.

Dysart has decided to set its pending municipal accommodation tax, or MAT, at two per cent. Meanwhile, the townships of Algonquin Highlands, Highlands East and Minden Hills have opted for four per cent. In doing so, the three have accepted the recommendation of the County’s director of economic development and tourism, Scott Ovell.

Ovell knows a thing or two about the MAT tax, as he does about short-term rental bylaws. He was the economic development coordinator for the Town of Huntsville, which adopted a MAT about six years ago – incidentally at 4 per cent.

While Ovell has fallen short of calling it an industry standard when he made the recent rounds of councils, he did say 95 per cent of Ontario municipalities have gone with that four per cent figure.

Why not Dysart? Apparently because… in the words of mayor Murray Fearrey, Dysart dares to be different.

At the meeting, Fearrey said while he supported the four per cent at the outset, he started to think about it, worrying Dysart was piling too much tax onto people.

Coun. Pat Casey, naturally, agreed with his mayor. The businessman said he’s worried about discretionary income being eroded. The township doesn’t want to kill the entrepreneurial spirit of someone making a dollar. After all, money is often reinvested into the community via cottage renos and downtown shopping, he said.

Ovell said the County’s townships could split more than $2M in revenue from the tax. Dysart’s decision will erode that figure somewhat. And since 50 per cent of a township’s take goes to tourism while 50 per cent can go to almost anything else, roads for example, I guess Dysart taxpayers are okay with that loss of two per cent of revenue – and it coming onto their tax bill instead.

Coun. Pam Sayne made a good point at Minden Hills’ meeting on the MAT tax, saying townships cannot run deficits, but with provincial downloading and rising infrastructure costs, they need other sources of revenue to stay afloat.

I wonder what Dysart’s plan is to recoup the lost two per cent in MAT tax?

Further, we’ve seen the confusion that comes with four different sets of rules in four townships. The service delivery review was supposed to eliminate this silo mentality.

Dysart set the tone in this term of council when it refused to come on board with the County-wide shoreline preservation bylaw. It adopted its own set of rules and regulations.

And, it has also dismissed the idea of single-tier waste management, as recommended by its own staff – before the County even fully discusses the idea at a May 22 council meeting.

When the largest township in the County says ‘no,’ chances are this file will be killed or watered down. So, once again, taxpayers are left with four townships operating landfills and transfer stations four different ways – leading to confusion, inefficiency, and wasted money.

It’s hard to understand why Dysart dares to be different. Surely, it would be better for the entire County of Haliburton – and all of its taxpayers – if that council dared to be the same.

It was big news this week when Fleming College officially reaffirmed its commitment to Haliburton County.

There was a lot of local concern, and rightly so, when Fleming president Maureen Adamson told The Highlander in January that all projects and operations at campuses in Haliburton, Lindsay, Peterborough, and Cobourg would be assessed, analyzed, and carefully considered as the college came to terms with new federal caps on international student intake.

If you missed that announcement, immigration minister Marc Miller said the federal government plans to limit the number of international study permits over the next two years. Approximately 360,000 new undergraduate permits will be approved this year – a 35 per cent reduction from 2023.

Each province and territory will be allotted a set number of permits, with some provinces to see drops as high as 50 per cent. Ontario is expected to see the greatest reduction.

The news sent most, if not all, post-secondary institutions provincewide into a tailspin. Fleming was no different. The school has grown dependent on the inflated tuition it receives from overseas students – sometimes 10 times what a domestic student would pay. Adamson said Fleming had an approximate 50/50 split of international and domestic students for the 2023/24 school year.

So, when it was revealed 29 programs at its Lindsay and Peterborough campuses are to be shuttered over the summer, no one was surprised.

What may have drawn a few eyebrows is the fact high-enrollment courses in geographic information systems (GIS) and environmental management were cancelled while arts programs, and a new $16 million student residence for Haliburton, went untouched.

Higher-ups didn’t reveal much when asked what the key considerations throughout this months-long assessment were. They didn’t say why Haliburton had been spared.

Fleming has a rich history in the community stretching back more than 50 years. The Haliburton School of Fine Arts became part of Fleming College in 1969. Its current facility in Glebe Park turns 20 years old in 2024. Programs in glassblowing, artist blacksmith, ceramics, and jewelry-making are among the finest in Ontario – anyone who has been to an open house can attest to the geographic diversity of the student body.

Perhaps tellingly, though, the majority of the Haliburton campus’ students in recent years have been domestic. There have been no programs or services specially created for international students. The campus has thrived based on Canadian enrolment. And, speaking as a former international student, that’s the way it should be.

Canada’s post-secondary institutions have been used as an expensive bypass for the country’s immigration system for too long. Change was needed.

But not here in Haliburton. For once, community members can breathe easy knowing HSAD is safe from cuts, while larger, more established communities in Lindsay and Peterborough scramble. In fact, programming is being improved – dean Xavier Masse said the continuing education calendar is being extended, with new programs in digital media and video game development starting this summer.

That the student residence is proceeding is notable. I don’t need to take up any more ink writing about this community’s housing problem, but once those 47 units are complete, I think it’s going to have a huge impact. Students will finally have a dedicated space to live – no more bidding wars for rentals, no more couch surfing, camping, or sleeping in cars.

And the trickle-down is there will be more rental opportunities in Haliburton village for the public.

This is a win for Haliburton County no matter what way you look at it.