I’m sorry to see Haliburton County Public Library CEO Chris Stephenson leaving.

While Chris was very open during a chat last week about the medical reasons behind his decision (back-related), it’s the other ‘back’ story that worries me.

Chris talked about how he moved here two years ago. He was lucky to find a rental because he had contacts at the County of Haliburton, his new employer.

However, his dream of home ownership eluded him. The lack of local housing stock and the astronomical prices were not his friend.

When he and partner, Amanda, crunched house buying numbers, they could not find anything in the Highlands that matched their algorithm. Instead, they were directed to property on the east coast. In this case, Saint John, New Brunswick.

Add the fact Chris has been unable to find a primary care provider. With that bad back and related medical issues, he had to go to the ER when things starting causing problems again. And, most of the specialist medical care he needs cannot be found here, or if it can, there are long waiting lists.

Chris had planned to stay another three to five years, and retire. However, our double whammy – the lack of affordable housing and insufficient medical care – is sending him elsewhere. It’s a story we’ve heard before and a story we will hear again.

Many candidates for job vacancies in the Highlands are telling prospective employers they would love to take the job, but can’t because there isn’t anywhere to live and no one to take care of them if they get sick or injured. Others take the job but commute from towns an hour or more away. That has proven unsustainable.

None of this is new to County politicians, realtors, health care providers, or any of us, really.

There have been some improvements.

We are starting to see the County and its four lower-tier municipalities working towards fulfilling the mandate of the More Homes Built Faster Act. Official plans are being changed. The County of Haliburton yesterday (Oct. 11) received a report from its director of planning, Steve Stone, aimed at additional residences. Once the County is done, Algonquin Highlands, Dysart et al, Highlands East and Minden Hills can follow suit.

We’ve seen Places 4 People selling bonds to help them bring more affordable housing to the Highlands. Paul Wilson continues to work towards overcoming hurdles to bring 88 units to Haliburton. There are other planned builds in Dysart, including a newly purchased parcel of land on County Road 21; and at the corner of Maple Avenue and Victoria Street. Fleming College said it is nearer to breaking ground on student housing. That should free up rental units.

Is all of this happening quickly enough? No.

Minden Hills coun. Shirley Johannessen wants developable land now seemingly abandoned to be looked at in her township. At the last meeting, she asked about the former Beaver Theatre. The most recent owner said he was going to convert to condos but has disappeared. The property already has servicing and would be ideal for a housing retrofit. Councils have to chase these owners down. They have to force their hands. Develop or sell.

And while the Minden ER may have been replaced by now a full-time urgent care clinic, that is not helping the hundreds, if not thousands, of Highlanders who do not have a primary care provider. People like Chris, who can’t get the support he needs to deal with a chronic condition. We have fewer doctors but more residents.

Sure, a CT scanner and CT mammography might help attract new physicians. However, it isn’t like we have a shiny new toy that no one else has. In fact, we had the dubious honour of being the last health services in Ontario to get the diagnostic tools.

More must be done on all levels if we ever hope to retain good talent in the Highlands.

It’s been a big week for the Haliburton County Development Corporation (HCDC).

The organization unveiled its new digs – The Link, located on County Road 21 beside Haliburton Timber Mart – last Wednesday, welcoming around 50 of the community’s most prominent business leaders for tours of the facility.

The project, months in the making, is significant in that it provides a recognizable face for business services to the community. As well as housing all HCDC staff and operations, including the business incubator – previously located beside Dysart town hall – The Link brings the Haliburton Highlands Chamber of Commerce, the Arts Council – Haliburton Highlands, and services from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) together under one roof.

The space also features room for networking events that will be used to host a series of workshops and other gatherings soon. There are five private offices available to rent, with eight new ‘hot desks’ providing working space for emerging businesses and entrepreneurs.

Outlining her vision for the new space, Patti Tallman, HCDC executive director, said she hopes it will become a bustling hive of activity for the local business community. Having so many supports and services available in a single location will be a major benefit to many people starting out on their business journey, Tallman said. She noted the concept has been well received in other communities, such as Belleville and Kawartha Lakes.

There was more big news to come. Admittedly, when board chair Pat Kennedy stepped up to the podium, saying he had a major announcement, I was skeptical. Usually these sort of things fall flat, but when Kennedy said HCDC had become the first community funds development corporation in Ontario, and only the second in Canada, to surpass $100 million in support for local business, the gasps and applause from the audience were merited.

Since its inception in 1985, HCDC has assisted 2,324 businesses across the Highlands, a phenomenal number.

Of the 60 or so similar organizations provincewide, HCDC stands above them all – a beacon of success. The organization is what its staff and volunteers say it is: one of the biggest and best CFDCs in the country. That they’ve been able to make such a contribution despite operating in one of the smallest communities, by population, makes the milestone that much more impressive.

Over the years, the organization has earned over $19.8 million in interest, enabling it to support an array of community initiatives outside its usual scope of investment. Non-profits such as SIRCH Community Services, Wetlands and Waterways EcoWatch, and many others have benefitted from money filtered down from HCDC. The organization has been instrumental in the launch of the Haliburton Highlands Sports Hall of Fame, supporting operations at Glebe Park, and the recent inclusion of athletes Taly Williams and Lesley Tashlin on Haliburton’s mural wall of sports heroes. It has helped with the start-up of Skyline Dance Studio, Project SHE, and is supporting efforts to bring a new performing arts centre to the Highlands.

In short, as well as ensuring its bank balance is topped up, HCDC is spreading its wealth across Haliburton County. That commitment to bettering the community it operates in deserves recognition.

Congratulations to all those involved with HCDC on a job well done. Keep doing what you’re doing.

I’ve lived in the County for seven-plus years. County council was talking about public transportation before I arrived. It’s discussed it since. Tens of thousands of dollars have been spent. It’s long past time something was done.

If other Association of Municipalities of Ontario cities and towns can deliver public transit to their constituents, why has Haliburton County not been able to?

Granted, it’s complicated. The County is more than 4,000-square-kilometres. The logistics of getting a bus, from say, Dorset in the north, to Wilberforce in the east, and to hamlets such as Carnarvon and West Guilford, and all points in between, has so far proven impossible.
Consequently, councils have thrown their hands up in the air in capitulation, constantly kicking the tires but never getting the wheels in motion.

Part of the problem has been trying to offer a service that provides all things to all people. The wish list has been long. Dial-a-ride to get to people’s doors. Accessible in every way, shape and form. Serving as many villages as humanly possible. All of this rendered complex and expensive propositions.

Then there’s the four-township challenge, as I like to call it. Since every municipality pays into the County’s transportation reserve, they all, naturally, want a piece of the pie. However, that has also resulted in nothing happening to date.

So, Coun. Bob Carter’s notice of motion last week – that the County look into a simple shuttle between Minden and Haliburton as a starting point – is refreshing.

No dial-a-ride. No manner of strapping on bicycles and watercraft. Catch route one from Minden to Haliburton at set times of the day, and catch route two back again, six days a week. In other words, keep it simple.

Warden Liz Danielsen – who is the mayor of Algonquin Highlands – raised the point her constituents don’t want to pay for a service that only benefits Haliburton and Minden. And Highlands East Coun. Cec Ryall certainly doesn’t want his folks paying operational costs for a service they are not benefitting from.

I see their point. I live in Carnarvon and pay taxes to Minden Hills. I wouldn’t be crazy about subsidizing a bus that ran between Algonquin Highlands and Highlands East exclusively. However, if a bus between Minden and Haliburton means the stores and services I use there can be bolstered by, say, more employees, and therefore longer opening hours, I’d be happy to see my tax dollars used for that.

All too often our parochialism blinds us as to how we can benefit from better services in our larger centres, and let’s face it, those larger centres are Haliburton and Minden.

The County should absolutely see if there is a provider out there willing to do a two-year pilot project between Haliburton and Minden. The money is there, with more than $200,000 in a reserve. If it’s working, then consider adding some of the other major hamlets, such as Wilberforce and Dorset. If it can’t be expanded, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Figure out how Minden Hills and Dysart et al can fund it, and reimburse whomever has to be reimbursed.

But, please, County council, do not squander another attempt to provide this service to at least some of your residents.

Not everyone needs a Tesla charging station, but quite a few need a bus.

Last week’s 1 Million March 4 Children event – contrasted with a quickly-organized Minden Pride counter-rally – was eye-opening for a number of reasons.

First, I was surprised to see more than 50 folks turn up for the first rally and march – part of a cross-Canada movement concerned about sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) curriculum in schools. The locals joined with people across the County in calling for an end to gender-based pronouns, ideology and mixed bathrooms in schools.

A local spokeswoman added the movement’s mission is to free children from the bondage of indoctrination, breaking a system they say is designed to sexualize children.

I noted some of the people attending the 1 Million March 4 Children were the same people I had seen at the Freedom Convoys during COVID, and anti-vaccination gatherings. The same Canadian flags that showed up there, showed up here.

In many ways, these protestors are fighting all things government. They are also battling what they believe is a shift to a far left-wing, woke, agenda.

On the other side of the park, they were certainly outnumbered by the Pride-gathered folks. They argued that the idea of removing queer ideology from the curriculum in high schools is a very dangerous proposition, because it’s been proven that people who are within the queer spectrum have to have some sense of belonging. If you remove it from the education system, they argued, they don’t know where else they’re supposed to get it from.

Here’s one idea; how about their parents.

The other counter-argument was that education is not about the sexualization of children.

They called out “educate don’t discriminate” as the 1 Million March 4 Children folk yelled “God bless you.”

This division in Haliburton County – indeed this division across Canada – is a byproduct of COVID. When people live in states of fear, they do everything they can to protect their patch.

And that was the other telling takeaway from last week. Both camps stayed in their camps. No one ventured across the parking lot divide to have a discussion about their differing opinions. All said they were there for the children. However, there wasn’t much of an attempt to understand each others’ differences.

For example, if one of the 1 Million March 4 Children lot had talked to 22-year-old Poet, they would have found out that what is being done in schools isn’t classroom-based curriculum or ‘gay class.’

Poet grew up queer, always struggling with her identity, and was bullied at school.

She wishes she had been exposed to the education, or staff telling her it was fine to be who she was. That didn’t happen and she was at-risk. She thinks when resources are removed, young people fall through the cracks. Some commit suicide.

No one on either side of the Head Lake Park lot would want that to happen. The lack of discussion last Wednesday was a lost opportunity. Going forward, if we want to tackle the great divide that is growing in our County, we have to begin a dialogue to at least try to understand each others’ differences.

Last Friday, Sept. 22 was a special day inside the Baker household – my daughter, Emma, turned three months old, and with it shed the newborn moniker she had reluctantly worn since birth.

In some ways it feels like the time has flown by since I was sitting in an empty hospital bed at Peterborough Regional Health Centre, scared out of my mind, waiting for a nurse to come and get me so I could be with my wife in surgery – because of course Emma decided she just had to arrive via emergency c-section.

Absolutely nothing about the birth, pregnancy, and the six years leading up to it all, was straight forward. I don’t think I’d have it any other way though.

I’ve known since I was a wee whippersnapper myself that I wanted children. My wife, Laurie, and I are very lucky in that sense – we started dating during Grade 12 at high school and were serious right away. By the time we were celebrating our six-month anniversary, we’d agreed on having two kids. A boy and a girl.

Life got in the way, of course. After I completed J-School and Laurie graduated from university, we packed up our three possessions worth more than $20 and headed west. We were in Alberta for two-and-a-half years – living in a community four hours northeast of Edmonton. I thought I’d experienced snow before moving out there… how wrong I was. We decided to show mercy, opting not to bring a baby into what must surely have been the North Pole.

It was after we moved back to Ontario, living in Orangeville, that, unknown to us at the time, we began the climb. We tried on our own for 18 months, but nothing. It was another year before we went to see a doctor. IVF, we were told, was our only option. And it was a slim chance at best.

I put on a brave face, but the truth is the longer things dragged on, the more depressed I got. By this time, we had moved to Lindsay, and I was working here in Haliburton. I had convinced myself that kids just weren’t on the cards for us.

First, there was a delay because of a COVID-19 outbreak at our clinic. Then they wanted us to start the process about a week before we were due to fly to England for my brother’s wedding. I felt as though the universe was trying to send me a message.

A few months after we got back, we got the first call. We had an embryo. I still wasn’t convinced. I think it was my brain trying to protect me – before I got carried away expecting it to happen.

I had looked up all the stats – the best number I could find pegged our chances at about 35 per cent. I still remember getting up the morning we drove down to Toronto to find out if it had worked and giving myself a pep talk: “you’ve got to be the strong one, man. For Laurie.” I was dreading it.

Instead, I was treated to the most wonderfully cathartic moment of my life… well, up until I held Emma for the first time.

When I think back at everything we went through – the pain, the anguish, the anger… all I need to do now is close my eyes and picture that little face, it draws a smile every time.

I realize, though, just how lucky I am. Our first run at IVF, and it actually worked. It sounds strange considering you’re literally along for the ride with another person, but I’ve never felt as alone as I did for that period when I thought I was the reason we couldn’t start a family. That wears on you. As someone who never really struggled with mental health before this, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Fortunately, we came out the other side.

And the best part? There’s still another embryo left. So, we still have that chance to hit a double homer after all. Life’s a funny ol’ thing, isn’t it?

I’m wearing a figurative black arm band this week.

Metroland Media’s Sept. 15 announcement that it is restructuring its operations and filing for bankruptcy is just another blow to community journalism in Ontario.

For those that don’t know what I’m talking about – and many will not, which is why purveyors of local news are in dire straits – most of Metroland’s 71 community newspapers will move to a digital-only model effective immediately.

The final delivery of the print edition of local papers was last week. Metroland’s six daily publications are the only ones that will continue to publish both online and in print.

In a letter to readers, the company’s vice president said they’re confident the restructuring will make the company a sustainable business moving forward.

We’ve heard that before. In fact, the decision to use newsprint as glorified wrapping paper for advertising flyers must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Editorial staff were slashed and local news became an afterthought in the quest to flog the weekly shopping glossies.

So, I’m not wearing the armband for Metroland, but for the hundreds of journalists who will be laid off, as well as the communities who may now get an even more watered-down online version of news, business, arts, sports and event coverage.

Coming on the heels of another major company – Facebook – throwing local news off of its platform in a hissy fit over the Canadian government wanting them to pay for what they have flogged as free content for years – it is another painful sting for the industry.

Luckily, The Highlander as well as the Haliburton Echo, Minden Times and County Life are not Metroland rags. We will continue to have print editions. As I have said before in this space, the County of Haliburton is blessed to have such robust media.

As larger towns around us see papers close, the Highlands has had the gift of a continuous media presence of no less than four award-winning newspapers.

At The Highlander, we are able to not only publish a weekly paper – and have an online presence – but provide it for free. For this, we can thank our advertisers, who still believe people want to hold a physical newspaper in their hands.

If the Metroland story tells us anything, it’s that we need to appreciate local media. We need to use it – advertise – and as I like to say, “read before burning” in your woodstove or campfire.

Metroland says people are getting their news online. Great. People need to go to their websites. When papers call for paid online subscriptions, readers need to support them.

We encourage readers to pick up our print edition, sign up for our weekly newsletter, and bookmark our website for breaking news since we don’t use Facebook anymore.

I still believe in community journalism. I still believe we are here to inform and challenge. I still take great pride in bylines above the fold. I believe people like to physically read our product – and yes – before using it to wrap fish or start fires.

As the old adage goes, use it or lose it.