Fleming College administration has welcomed more than a dozen full-time support staff back to their roles at the Haliburton School of Art + Design after a month-long standoff between the College Employer Council (CEC) and the union OPSEU/SEFPO ended Oct. 16.

News broke last week that the two sides had reached an agreement that would send 10,000 striking employees back to work. No terms have been revealed, but the agreement that ended a five-week strike at Ontario’s 24 public colleges, which began Sept. 11, is subject to the union members’ ratification by Nov. 4.

Chris Jardine, associate vice-president of marketing and advancement at Fleming, said the college was glad to have workers back on campus.

“Yes, a tentative agreement for fulltime support staff has been reached, and picketing has ended,” Jardine said. “We’re pleased to have full-time support staff back at work and college operations returning to normal.”

About 15 workers had been picketing for weeks off the HSAD property on College Drive, after their contracts expired Aug. 31. Of Fleming’s 250 full-time support staff, 79.8 per cent were in favour of striking, said OPSEU Local 351 president Marcia Steeves. She did not elaborate on the terms of the deal.

Christine Kelsey, chair of the union’s bargaining team, celebrated the deal in an Oct. 15 statement.

“After months of intensive negotiations with an incredibly difficult employer, the gains made in this agreement would not have been possible without members holding strong these last weeks,” Kelsey said. “We had no choice but to fight back amidst a plan to privatize public education, as well as 10,000 job losses and over 650 program cuts across the system.

Fleming have been lost and more than 20 programs cut. In July, 29 Fleming workers were informed their positions were being terminated effective Oct. 9, including at least one from HSAD.

Since 2020, HSAD has lost four fulltime support staffers, dropping from seven academic support roles to three.

Part-timers vote to strike

The Ontario Labour Relations Board confirmed that only 30 per cent of approximately 13,000 unionized part-time college support staffers participated in a four-day strike vote Oct. 14-17, with 64 per cent in favour of striking.

Part-timers have been without a contract since Jan. 31, 2024, with negotiations over a new collective agreement for the past 18 months proving unsuccessful. OPSEU/ SEFPO and the CEC have agreed to three mediation dates – Nov. 20, Dec. 12 and Jan. 28, 2026 – with a proposed strike in February if a new deal isn’t agreed.

“Our proposals aren’t unreasonable, they are what we deserve,” the union said in an Oct. 17 statement.

The CEC’s Graham Lloyd said all unionized employees have been offered a two per cent annual wage increase; a six per cent jump in vacation pay; two paid sick days per year; no loss of pay for permanent employees whose shifts are cancelled within 24 hours; stronger protections in cases of workplace sexual harassment; and an internal applicant status for part-timers applying for full-time roles.

The union is calling for a six per cent annual wage increase, eight per cent in vacation pay, five paid sick days per year, and unlimited paid time off for religious and cultural reasons.

“A strike amongst our valued part-time staff is not necessary to achieve a fair agreement,” Lloyd said. “The part-time support staff are important to the colleges and have worked hard, especially during the last five weeks, to support colleges operations.”

The prospect of Highlands East closing fire halls is already proving contentious, with Coun. Angela Lewis grilling fire chief Chris Baughman during a Highlands East council meeting Oct. 14.

Baughman tabled a report asking council whether they would like to stick to their vehicle replacement schedule, or come up with another approach in line with recommendations in the fire master plan.

Consultant, The Loomex Group, told council Aug. 12 they should close station 6 in Paudash and station 2 in Highland Grove as part of a consolidation plan.

Baughman noted the existing plan called for five vehicle replacements for 2025: a fire chief vehicle ($70,000), station 2 rescue pick-up ($70,000), station three rescue pick-up ($140,000), station one pumper ($600,000) and station 3 ATV/side-by-side ($25,000). He said they still need to buy the Station 3 rescue pick-up, station 1 pumper and station 3 ATV/side-by-side.

In a written report, he said, “alternatively, if council wishes to put these vehicle replacements on hold, the recommendations from the master fire plan could be further investigated.”

He said he would then bring a detailed report to a future meeting of council. He added he could report back on the reassignment of existing apparatus to different stations, eliminating the need to replace two vehicles for this budget year and in future, to save $740,000 in the current budget year.

He acknowledged, “reassignment rather than replacement purchases would result in a station operating without specific apparatus… (which) could present an opportunity to revisit the fire master plan recommendations regarding long-term service delivery planning.”

Prior to being elected in 2022, Lewis served on Highlands East’s fire committee, where she advocated against the closure of the Highland Grove fire hall.

She said the fire master plan spoke to “transparency, trust and communication,” especially when talking changes to service.

She said if they alter how they replace equipment, “there will be a fire station that is left with not enough apparatus to give the essential services that it has to a community.”

Baughman said his ask last week was “not leaving any stations short of any equipment at this time.”

Lewis asked about timeframes, and which stations would be impacted. Baughman said it would mean moving station 6’s rescue vehicle to station 3, eliminating the purchase of a rescue at station 3, and leaving station 6 short of an apparatus.

Lewis responded, “so what type of public consultation are we going to have?” She asked if they could defer the report to give the public a chance to speak.

Baughman repeated, “there’s been no recommendation to close stations, move apparatus or anything at this point. We’ve had a third-party provider give us a report with their recommendations. None of the recommendations have come from myself or council.” He said it was up to council to provide direction.

Deputy mayor Cec Ryall asked about timelines for getting new vehicles. Baughman said the average wait time is 18 months to three years, and he anticipates two years. Ryall thought it was important to make a decision by first quarter 2026.

Lewis suggested sticking with the current vehicle replacement plan and councillors agreed.

CAO Brittany McCaw said that was the intent of the report, but it gave council the opportunity to look into the fire master plan’s recommendations.

Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve managing director Malcolm Cockwell told a roomful of County leaders Oct. 2 that invasive species pose more of a threat to his operations – and the wider Highlands environment – than climate change.

Speaking at Haliburton County Development Corporation’s (HCDC) annual general meeting earlier this month, Cockwell was asked about the major obstacles facing his business, which employs about 100 County residents fulltime.

While he name-dropped forest fires, tariffs and climate change as the perceived threeheaded dog, Cockwell said none have been a major concern.

“Wildfires have not affected our forestry operations much at all… there were a few small fires in the region, but the forests around here, fundamentally, have not evolved to burn. The natural catastrophic fire interval (referring to the average time between major fires impacting ecosystems) in this region is one every 1,000 years,” Cockwell said.

He believes the heat Haliburton Forest and other local tourist operators feel from fires is entirely preventable.

“People read articles on CBC or wherever, which suggests Haliburton County is a chartered hellscape due to forest fires, but we don’t feel or see that whatsoever, certainly not in our forest management business,” Cockwell said. “It’s the tourism side that gets hit, people not wanting to come here because of the things they’re reading, when maybe those things aren’t always accurate.”’

After U.S. president Donald Trump imposed an additional 10 per cent tariff on imported Canadian timber and lumber this month, taking the total tariff to 45 per cent, Cockwell said Haliburton Forest has found a workaround, expanding its clientele to more markets in Europe and Asia.

Pre-tariffs, Cockwell estimates between 30 and 50 per cent of Haliburton Forest’s products, predominantly raw lumber, was shipped to the U.S.

“Basically, every board foot that we had going across the border to the U.S. still has a home, only now it’s going overseas,” Cockwell said. “We’re still selling the same amount of lumber… the silver lining we’re focusing on is that when this all settles down, we would love if we could redirect our material back to the U.S. and really ramp up [the business].”

Above all else, Cockwell said it’s the non-native creepy crawlies that have taken refuge at Haliburton Forest in recent years that keep him up at night.

Beech bark disease has been described as the “biggest, most significant problem” Haliburton Forest has faced in recent years. It was first identified in 2010, with the disease spread through fungus that lives inside insects that feed off a beech tree’s sap. There’s no cure, with Forest scientists estimating the species will be wiped out completely by 2033.

About 15 per cent of all trees on the forest’s private property are beech trees. Ash trees are also vulnerable, due to the presence of the emerald ash borer.

Cockwell said Haliburton Forest has also started to help remove invasive species from other parts of the region. He says people can send pictures of anything “that seems funny, or out of the ordinary” to info@haliburtonforest.com and his team will either identify it themselves or send it to research partners at the University of Toronto to examine.

Over the summer, a cottager sent in a sample of what ended up being giant hogweed on Kennisis Lake Road. The perennial can grow up to 14-feet and crowds out other native plants. Cockwell said staff visited the site and removed hogweed; follow-ups have shown the plant hasn’t returned.

“I’m really tired of hearing about climate change… if you were to ask me to show you where climate change is happening in our forest, I wouldn’t be able to do it,” Cockwell said. “The thing we really need to be talking about is these invasive pests. For a business like ours, invasive pests are 10 times more present and clearer as a danger than climate change.”