County coun. Jennifer Dailloux termed the state of a 10-year housing and homelessness plan a “bone-chilling nightmare” during a special council meeting Oct. 25.

Her comments came after a presentation from City of Kawartha Lakes – human services division employees, Kirstin Maxwell, CEO of Kawartha Lakes Housing, Michelle Corley, manager of human services, and Don Quibell, manager of building and property.

Corley said the current 10-year plan was established in 2020 but most of the work leading up to it occurred in 2019.

It concluded 750 new affordable housing units were needed in the Highlands by 2029. The County determined it needed partners, with the KLH Housing Corporation building 150 new affordable rental units and non-profit partners and private developers each contributing 50, while accessing approximately 500 existing or new market rent units to make them affordable through rent subsidies.

Slide after slide showed the challenges. For example, there are now 2,383 households waiting for community housing in the region, a more than 300 per cent jump over a 10-year timeframe. People are waiting 10-plus years.

Between 2020-22, in Haliburton County, KLH Housing Corporation has built just 15 units. They project another 35 between 2023 and 2029 – for a total of 50 of their 150 goal, or a third.

Also flagging badly are partner builds. With construction costs skyrocketing, the CKL staffers told County council that 735 units at $400,000 each would require $294 million, or $49 million annually.

The three said it’s obvious now the 750 target had been based on a misconception that upper-level government funding is always available; that completing a project every couple of years was possible; that borrowing money alone was enough to make a project viable; that revenues would be sufficient to cover financing and operating costs; and that rent subsidy costs are sustainable.

Some of the other curveballs, they said, were significant changes to the housing market creating challenges for first-time buyers; people being evicted for short-term rentals; rising inflation; and rental rate jumps.

Combined with that are construction cost increases, interest rate increases and household incomes remaining static, directly affecting project revenues.

For example, they said the Gull River housing project has seen square footage construction costs climb to $440/sq. ft., compared to historical pricing of $200/sq. ft. Financing costs have risen to five per cent, from two per cent. They said capital is now needed to pay for these types of projects.

Other development challenges include availability of serviced land, cost of servicing, and availability of labour.

They said there may be hope in a municipal accommodation tax, and the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus 7 in 7 initiative. They also encouraged municipalities to continue to look for other ways to support the plan.

Coun. Bob Carter said other housing corporations are facing similar problems, in some cases $500/sq. ft. building costs, so there is no way of making units affordable. “And it’s not changing. It seems to continue to accelerate.” He added they could borrow money but have to pay it back without revenue until a month after a renter moves in. He said it will make it very difficult to achieve the target.

Dailloux said, “this is a nightmare. It is a bone-chilling nightmare… it’s really, really frightening. We all know it’s not just us. It’s the entire province and well beyond that. But to see how those figures materialize in our communities is really, really, really, frightening. They’re only getting worse and they’re clearly set on a trajectory for getting worse. I can only think that a complete overhaul of our economic system is going to be what (is needed)… and obviously that’s far beyond the control of anybody sitting here, or anywhere for that matter.”

When Lori King moved to Haliburton in 2019, she said she was told not to feed the deer.

“I was here two days and they said ‘you won’t be very popular if you feed the deer.’ I thought, wow, these people are brutal,” she says with a laugh. She said she was sent literature on how bad feeding is for deer and thought, “‘alright, I don’t want to make any enemies right away’.”

She didn’t feed – until a young deer showed up at her back door with an injured leg, followed by what she presumed was its mother, also hurt

She calls up a photo on her laptop, cooing, “oh my God, he is too cute.”

She said she called the Ministry of Natural Resources for advice. She claims she was told, by possibly a volunteer, 50 per cent of infant deer die in winter without feeding and she could do so responsibly. She said she was also advised once she started, she could not stop. Even on vacation, she had to ensure the deer were fed when she was away.

Today, she said no one at the MNR would admit to giving such advice.

However, King said she stopped feeding this past summer, and as soon as Dysart et al council started talking about a ban. However, she said the young deer showed up last week with another injury and, “he’s not going to survive unless he gets a bit of help…”

Referencing the do not feed petition, King said some people didn’t sign it because they plan to continue.

She said she won’t be able to feed as she is known after making a delegation to council, but says people around still will.

She thinks council is short-sighted and does not know anything about deer. She said she’s been studying them since COVID.

“This is not going to work. People will feed them at night so they can get away with it and it’s going to increase the collisions because they’ll run from house to house like little trick or treaters. I see when my neighbour shuts up shop, they all come here, and I just think there’s a better approach to this.”

Asked for suggestions, King says, “stick with their plan to not ban it this winter – and rely on the media to really educate people.”

She said if the total ban goes ahead, deer will starve to death in town. “It’s the abruptness of it. I cannot believe that people are OK with them starving to death. I can’t wrap my head around it.”

Asked for other ideas, she said people could make their gardens less appealing or put up small, electrical fences.

She adds, “I want to think outside the box. Get the town… both sides together.

“There has been some success leading deer out of towns. If we all get on board with this. It will require discipline from a lot of deer lovers who are in areas where they should not feed. They just have to reject them and let the people on the outskirts take care of it. I could sign up for that plan if someone told me they’re not all going to starve to death.” She said the feeders could be exempted from the bylaw and given a permit.

She agrees with the anti-deer feeders it isn’t the deer’s doing. She said cottagers came up during COVID and bought deer feed locally. She said people worked on elaborate gardens.

“You don’t think the deer are going to miss that tragically… this is catastrophic… we don’t know what will happen.”

King said she is planning to move somewhere where she does not have neighbours, and can feed the deer.

“I know I’m going to fail. Another lame one will show up and I’ll be on my third glass of wine and I will be emptying my fridge for them. I know it as surely as I know my own name.”

When Greg Gillespie and his wife, Gail, moved to their current Haliburton home 10 years ago, Greg says they had a lot of regeneration under their mature trees. They had Hermit Thrush nesting on the property as well.

However, Greg says the deer have eaten the undergrowth and the birds have moved on.

“So, it’s not just traffic accidents,” Greg says of the deer problem in Haliburton. “It’s a whole litany of things they’re impacting.”

As if on cue, a deer walks into the forest behind Gillespie’s house, visible through the living-room window where he and Chris Bishop are sitting on a couch.

The two are behind the Stop Deer Feeding Property Owners Coalition. They made a delegation to Dysart et al’s Oct. 24 council meeting, calling for an immediate, year-round, ban on deer feeding in the Haliburton settlement area. They came armed with a 720-name petition

Council is expected to formalize a bylaw at its November meeting.

Gillespie said he was concerned with talk of the ban only being for Ward 1, since they want the settlement area included, and the section north of Harburn Road, up to the area around Country Rose.

“If it wasn’t for Pat Casey stepping in with a very timely refocus on what we’re trying to do here I’m not sure what would have happened and then there was confusion about the map…” Gillespie says.

In the end, Gillespie and Bishop said council appeared to get to where they wanted them to go

“If they do the coverage area that we presented in the map, we’re happy with that,” Bishop said. “It’s a starting point, that’s for sure.”

The coalition had also asked that notice of the bylaw be posted at feed stores, as well as attaching their research paper ‘consequences of deer feeding in urban areas’ to the bylaw. However, they conceded council could not do the two minor asks.

“But the key is education,” Gillespie says. “Notification of the bylaw, and education of why the bylaw is there in the first place.” He added it sounded as if council was conducive to doing that.

Bishop said he would like education on the township website, and an insert with tax bills.

“If they don’t educate the people, and people don’t know that they’re not supposed to be feeding them, people will feed them,” Bishop said.

He added when someone complains, he is okay with a first-time warning.

Gillespie said they want a ban first, then enforcement, then possibly a County-wide ban.

‘They’re not afraid’

“You read all of the consequences of feeding deer. It is absolutely amazing to me that the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ontario government, hasn’t stepped in to legislate against it. They’ve got reams of information on their website and yet they leave it to the municipalities to deal with, if there’s a problem. I just can’t understand it,” Gillespie said.

Bishop said they went door-to-door to collect the signatures and encountered a lot of domesticated deer. At one property, he said he was told the feeder gets up to 30 deer at a time. He added he does not buy the argument that people are hitting deer with vehicles because they are speeding.

They’re (deer) not afraid. That’s why they walk out on the road in front of you.”

He added because they are being fed in winter, fewer deer are dying, which does not allow for natural control of the population.

Gillespie said the pro-feeders are bringing the emotional side of the debate, “which is powerful.” He added they are arguing for private property rights. “But we have property rights too.”

For example, he said he and Gail can’t use their property in the spring when doing maple syrup because their paths are paved with droppings and buckets have deer hair in them. They added people’s gardens are being decimated.

Nor do they want the bylaw phased in. “We have to deal with this issue now or next year it’s going to be even worse. The sooner we start, the sooner we get it resolved,” Gillespie said.

Bishop added, “the deer are going to die. They always do die in the winter. Yes, the first couple of years, there will be more carcasses. That is nature’s way and the reason that’s going to happen is you fed them. People who are feeding them need to take responsibility because they are the ones causing all the problems.”

Timeline

• Haliburton residents Mike and Debra Landry made a delegation to council in December 2022. They believed deer were becoming a nuisance in the downtown, and contributing to deer-vehicle collisions.

• Dysart debates a bylaw, coming up with a May 1-Sept. 30 ban.

• The Stop Deer Feeding Property Owners Coalition, Haliburton-by-The-Lake Owners Association and Shelley Stiles of County Rose write to council Sept. 26 saying the bylaw, approved in July, needed a revisit. They wanted a complete ban.

• Greg Gillespie and Chris Bishop spoke to council Oct. 24. So did resident Lori King, who offered a counterargument to the anti-deer feeders.

• Council is expected to pass a revised bylaw at its November meeting.

Reasons not to feed

The Stop Deer Feeding Property Owners Coalition say the village deer population has experienced rapid and exponential growth over the last five to eight years because of feeding. “This has had serious consequences on private properties, public spaces, the natural environment, the local economy, and the deer themselves.” They say:

• Natural and planted vegetation on private properties and public space is being damaged. Many residents have lost thousands of dollars in destroyed landscaping and gardens, they claim.

• Over-browsing jeopardizes the natural food supply of deer, and their shelter. Can lead to decline in other species. Forest regeneration is reduced.

• Easier for deer-to-deer transmission of disease and parasites, as well as to humans. More ticks.

• Deer-vehicle collisions

• Impact on deer: shelter (takes them from dense cover in winter); food (deer are supposed to lose weight in winter). Artificial feeding disrupts this. Commercial deer feed is nutritionally inferior to natural food, can cause gastrointestinal problems; behaviour (robbing deer of their wildness); and competition at feeders can lead to issues.

Household do’s and don’ts

The MNRF has put out a fact sheet on the do’s and don’ts of feeding wildlife, saying feeding wild animals may do more harm than good.

Do: appreciate wildlife from a distance; keep household waste, compost and pet food out of reach of wild animals; attract wildlife to your property by improving natural habitat; work together with your neighbours to help keep wild animals wild.

Do not: put out food to attract wildlife; try to approach or touch wild animals; feed pets outdoors or allow pets to roam free or put garbage out until the morning of collection.

The Haliburton County Huskies have shaken things up with an early season trade.

Coach Ryan Ramsay said, “We’ve had inconsistent goaltending all year and we just made a trade to bring in a goaltender.”

To date, Vlad Visan and Logan Kennedy have been between the pipes but neither has a lot of OJHL experience.

The blue and white have brought in Brett Fullerton, a 2004, 19-year-old that played in Saginaw with the OHLs Spirit.

“He’s played probably 20 games in the O, he played junior B last year. He’s got a good resume. He’s a big boy at 6’4”. He’s just a veteran goalie,” the general manager said.

“I think Vlad only played 20 games last year in our league and Logan didn’t play any, so it’s something we needed to address.”

They also traded Declan Bowmaster to Collingwood for Fullerton and Nicholas Lamont. “He played for the Patriots last year and played really well against us in the series,” Ramsay. “So, he’s a good player. He’s the same age as Declan. He’s a 2005 but last year he had 40 points, 17 goals. It’s a good move for us.”

“We’re bringing in two veterans… we needed to get a little more consistent in all three zones.”

Menace 5 Huskies 2

Milton got on the board first Oct. 24 with a powerplay goal at 11:23 of the first. They made it 2-0 with an early second period shorthanded goal.

The Huskies got on the board when Lucas Stevenson fired in his fourth of the year, from Ethan Wright and Lucas Vacca at 8:01. Patrick Saini then scored his 11th at 11:48, from Vacca and Ty Petrou.

But it was all Menace from there as they scored three in a row to put the game away, including an empty netter.

Huskies 3 Golden Hawks 1

On Sunday, Oct. 22, the blue and white travelled to Trenton to take on the Golden Hawks, emerging 3-1 victors.

After a scoreless first period, Trenton got on the board first with a goal by Charlie Key at the 6:58 mark.

However, the Huskies answered back 32 second later, as Saini fired in his 10th goal of the season, assisted by Vacca.

Johnathon Mead then put the visitors up 2-1 with his third tally of the season, at 16:30, with helpers going to Charlie Fink and Vacca.

Vacca put it away with an empty netter late in the third, unassisted, to give the Huskies the 3-1 win. Logan Kennedy turned aside 27 of 28 shots.

Tigers 4 Huskies 2

On Friday, Oct. 20, the Huskies were in Aurora for a tilt with the Tigers.

They found themselves down three goals early in the second period and Visan got the yank after giving up three goals on six shots.

Haliburton County came back with back-toback second period goals. First Vacca scored at 6:38, from Isaac Larmand and Antonio Cerqua. Then, just 16 seconds later, Cerqua fired one in from Larmand and Josh Rumolo. It was a 3-2 game heading into the third.

But the Tigers scored early, at 4:46, as the Huskies dropped the road game.

NEXT UP:

On Saturday, Oct. 28, it’s pink in the rink day. The team has pink jerseys and socks. Breast cancer survivor, Minden Hills deputy mayor Lisa Schell will drop the puck at 4 p.m. There’ll be a prostate cancer game Nov. 25 with a jersey auction.

In a thrilling home opener, the U11 Curry Chevrolet REP team showcased their resilience, securing a commanding 8-2 victory over the Millbrook Stars.

The game began on a slightly sluggish note for the Storm, as they found themselves trailing 2-0 in the first period. However, the tide swiftly turned when, with just under two minutes remaining, Blake Little unleashed a jaw-dropping shot from just beyond the blue line, narrowing the gap.

The second period witnessed goalkeeper Liam Scheffee stepping up in spectacular fashion, with a series of great saves and setting the stage for an offensive onslaught from the Storm. William Brown, Rowan Little, and a thunderous slap shot from Wyatt Braun.

Entering the final period with renewed vigour, and with Kolby Hogg taking over in net, the Storm’s Austin Cunningham emerged as a force to be reckoned with, slotting two back-to-back goals past the Stars’ defense.

The intensity did not wane as the clock ticked down. Carter McCord and Chase Casey sealed the deal with two precision strikes, putting an exclamation mark on a stellar performance.

Honourable mention to the players who helped set up these goals, notably Maddex Reynolds with four, Austin Cunningham with two and Carter McCord and Ethan Draker with one.

Keep up the good work and thank you for giving the home fans an unforgettable season opener.