The Save Minden Ontario Emergency Room and Minden Matters group descended on Queen’s Park May 10 – bringing their fight to save the Minden ER to the Ontario Legislature.

The group, led by citizens Patrick Porzuczek and Richard Bradley, left Minden Wednesday morning on one bus, some by public transit from Peterborough, and others carpooling.

They also donned yellow ‘Minden Matters’ T-shirts in the hopes of attracting media attention in Toronto.

Porzuczek said via the Facebook page, “we want everyone to be heard and seen. This topic of the ER closing is not in the best interests of our community. It does not give us accessible health care and it will also reduce quality health care.

“Nurses will be pushed beyond their limits. One site will be overwhelmed. Air ORNGE will need to respond to one site with possibly double the numbers of flights. EMS will double, if not triple, the number of trips into Haliburton, plus those making their own trips to the ER.”

The group leader added, “let’s stand together. We are running a marathon at the speed of a sprint. We have 22 days to achieve our goal.”

The group was planning to attend Question Period and the reading of a petition that now has more than 17,000 signatures.

On May 6, many of those same residents attended a rally at the Minden fairgrounds.

Minden Hills council also put out a press release May 5.

In it, the township said, “the fight to save the Minden Emergency Department continues. Minden Hills council continues to look for a solution and denounces the decision made by CEO Carolyn Plummer and the HHHS board to permanently close as of June 1.”

In the release, the municipality added, “our objective is to work with HHHS and all of the stakeholders to pursue a long-term solution. However, we repeat our appeal for a moratorium on the June 1 closure date. Although that request was denied at an April 27 meeting, council maintains that this date (June 1) is unreasonable and imprudent.

“There will be no stone left unturned as we work together to save the Minden ER.”

Water Depot in Minden has moved to a new location.

Now pitched at the corner of Newcastle Street and Hwy. 35, where Spa in the Highlands used to be, the new store has been completely remodeled to better serve customers, says co-manager Krysta Neave.

“We’re super pumped to get into this new space. It’s a different layout than we had before, but we think this is the perfect place to expand the business,” Neave said. “Maintaining access off the highway was a big deal for us. We think we’ll have great visibility here.”

They took ownership of the space last September and have spent months renovating. Much of the work inside has been complete, with the space opening May 8.

A new six-tap water table has been installed, featuring both reverse osmosis and alkaline options, while Neave said there’s more space to showcase some of the water treatment equipment Water Depot stocks, such as ultraviolet systems, replacement bulbs and filters, iron reduction units, water softeners, reverse osmosis systems, and chlorine reduction units.

Neave said the store is maintaining its hot tub services, including sale of units, installation, and maintenance. A new addition is the Chilly Moose line of reusable water bottles and coolers.

Locals will be able to get water at all hours, with a new outdoor station installed May 9. Neave said the unit can be accessed 24 hours a day.

While securing the new space has been a sizeable investment and represents a change in business model – Neave noted the building has been purchased, while the previous location was rented – there’s more work to come. She said the siding on the building will be replaced later this year.

“We see this as securing our future [in Minden]. We now have a space to call our own, and we’ve made it really welcoming for customers. It’s much brighter when you walk in here. We couldn’t be more excited about the move,” she said.

For more information, visit waterdepot. com/locations/minden.

Local film buff Keith Stata is optimistic for another successful season as Kinmount’s Highlands Cinemas reopens for its 44th year.

The theatre welcomed guests back May 5 with screenings of The Super Marios Bros. Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. It was the culmination of weeks of work for Stata, who began preparing for the new season in March.

“It’s been 100-hour work weeks for me – it’s a frightening time in early spring. All the stock comes in and has to be put away, the theatres have to be cleaned, the equipment serviced, we have to clear everything up outside,” he said. “I do it because I love it, but it’s a lot of work.”

There was a point not so long ago where the future of Highlands Cinemas was in doubt. After being shuttered through the first two years of the pandemic, Stata reopened to much fanfare in 2022. It was that response, he said, that helped him to keep going.

“I was besieged with people telling me how much they enjoy the theatre and how glad they were to be back. There was one guy, around 25 or so, who stopped me on his way out. He said he’d been coming to the theatre since he was six years old and just loves the place. He couldn’t imagine going anywhere else to see a movie,” Stata said. “Those are the stories that make it all worth it.”

The five-screen 550-seat cinema is one of the most unique in the country. It features items and memorabilia from more than 450 theatres across the continent, which Stata showcases in his main foyer, halls, and an adjoining 4,000 sq. ft. museum.

He has life size replicas of vintage characters such as Pennywise the Clown, from 1990’s It, Alien from the 1979 movie of the same name, and the Pink Panther, from the 1963 classic. He also has an extensive collection of old-school projectors, including an early 1900s Lumiere from Paris, France, and a rare Motiograph F that he secured from a closing theatre in northern Ontario in the 1980s.

“I don’t look at projectors like other people do. You look at one of these machines and you see a rusty piece of metal. I look at them as memories,” Stata said. “Millions of people sat in the dark watching things like Bambi’s mother dying, or the chariot race in Ben-Hur. I cherish these things for what they are.”

There are some big releases slated for this year. Starting May 12, Book Club: The Next Chapter, starring Jane Fonda and Diane Keaton, will be a big hit among seniors, Stata said. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the fifth movie in the franchise, debuts June 30, with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One coming July 14.

“Those will all do really well. I’m thankful there’s some good movies coming out, because the industry has taken a big hit with the emergence of streaming,” Stata said.

He hopes to have all five screens open sometime next month. While he’s traditionally kept the cinema open until Thanksgiving, Stata said he may close early this year.

“Last September we were dead. If there aren’t any movies people will come out for, I’m not staying open. It’s just getting too expensive,” he said. “It costs me $40,000 just to open in the spring. The price of everything has gone up.”

For more information on shows, visit highlandscinemas.com. The theatre is open Friday to Monday, with ticket prices $10 for adults and seniors and $12 for adults 13 and up.

The Haliburton Highlands LongTerm Care Coalition gathered near the Minden hospital May 4 to promote an upcoming Ontario-wide referendum on privatization of the province’s public hospitals.

Spokesperson Bonnie Roe said they’re connected to the Ontario Health Coalition, which is spearheading the effort May 26 and 27.

“Every community will be having a voting station,” Roe said, adding, “we are so happy we have 29. Some big towns only have two or three so far.”

She believes that is indicative of community support.

Roe provided a few examples of why her group and the Ontario Health Coalition is concerned with the way the province appears to be heading.

“Ontario spends the lowest amount of money on health care of any other province in Canada. Our current government refuses to withdraw Bill 124 and enable our nurses to receive a decent salary and be respected. Bill 60 is being passed to give this government more power, not that it needs it, and give citizens less power. This is being done without community engagement and with no democratic process. It’s just not appropriate.”

She touched on the closure of ERs across the province, including one announced for Minden effective June 1.

Roe added it’s been “proven that private for-profit clinics are not the best way to go. They are not cheaper. They often double bill … there are many stats that say they don’t only double bill, they bill OHIP and they bill the patient and charge them two and three times what it would be charged if it was going through our OHIP. It totally contravenes the Canada Health Act.

“That’s why we’re here. We need to fight against that. Because it’s no longer a slippery, slippery slope. It’s a whole collapse of this system and we’ve got to really make this referendum work.”

Online voting started May 2 and there is a QR code on a flyer the coalition is handing out. Voting stations will be set up across the Highlands May 26-27. The referendum question reads ‘do you want our public hospital services to be privatized to for-profit hospitals and clinics? Yes, or no?’

“We’re really trying to promote, let’s go Haliburton (County). Let’s do this,” Roe said.

For more information, email hhltccoalition@gmail.com or call Roe at 705-457-6579.

Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) CEO Carolyn Plummer said despite the Minden physician group publicly saying it will not staff the new consolidated emergency room in Haliburton, HHHS is “making fantastic progress” towards ensuring doctor coverage come June 1.

However, in a May 9 interview with The Highlander, Plummer said she could not share details as HHHS is still working on a final staffing plan.

She told the paper this week, “the physician schedule is close to being completed. We’re continuing to work with our management team, with Ontario Health, and with Health Force Ontario to make sure we can confirm things before we’re able to share them publicly.”

Her comments came after Dr. Dennis Fiddler told The Highlander his Minden team will not be going to the consolidated Haliburton ER site.

He said during 18 months of talks about staffing shortages and temporary ER closures, they told HHHS they could not support a full closure of one of the EDs.

“The Minden ED physicians knew it would be the end of our ability to provide the highest standard of care [for patients].”

HHHS ‘very, very close’ to finalizing staffing model for Haliburton site

Dr. Fiddler went on to say, “over the years, increasing ED volumes have made these shifts more challenging, however a 24-hour shift [available in Minden] was still feasible to do and provided a balance that made the long drive from our home bases acceptable. We told the HHHS executive and board in February 2022 we could not provide physician coverage if one of the EDs were going to close, and it is still the case today.”

Plummer said the group had made it clear that if the Haliburton emerge were to temporarily close as a result of a physician shortage, the Minden emerge would also have to close at the same time because they wouldn’t be able to provide coverage.

“They indicated it wouldn’t be safe … for them to provide medical coverage for the whole community with that 24-hour shift coverage model …” She added that meant both emergency departments would have had to be closed at the same time, “and I don’t know that people have really realized that before.”

Pressed as to how they will staff the consolidated site, Plummer said, “we are certainly very grateful for the ongoing support that we’re getting from Ontario Health and from the Health Force Ontario Emergency Department locum program, and we’re continuing to work with them to establish a model going forward. We’re very, very close to having a plan. It does take time to work these things through.”

Pressed for details, such as the number of doctors signed up, Plummer said, “I can’t share the details quite yet. I should be able to do that very, very soon.” Asked how soon “very, very soon” was since the new model goes online in three weeks, she said “days. I would love to be able to tell you more. At this point I just can’t. I can tell you that we have made very good progress and that we are very, very close to having a plan finalized, but I can’t give you the details of that quite yet.”

Asked why not, she said she cannot discuss contractual arrangements involving the Ministry of Health and the Ontario Medical Association. “But we are getting very close to being able to share what the staffing model is going to look like.”

As for the nursing schedule, Plummer said, “I do believe that’s been worked out.”

On-site works

Plummer said when it comes to work at the Haliburton site, “there’s regular meetings happening and there is work being done to some of our spaces now to prepare for this.”

She reiterated that with planning for possible temporary closures the past 18 months, they’ve had different options mapped out to deal with increased volumes at the single site and things such as the need for additional parking.

“Work has already started to modify the space.”

Plummer shared some information on the layout of the new emergency department. For example, she said they are working on a space for people who have traditionally come in who do not have a local family physician for things that are not deemed an immediate emergency. She said it will allow them to be “fast-tracked,” with a separate waiting room for emergency patients.

She added they have made room for two additional stretcher spaces from a pre-existing storage room, and another space for minor traumas.

Minden site

Plummer said they are focused on the transition plan for June 1 at Haliburton but in the background are still thinking about what could potentially be done at the Minden site. She had no further details.

She also addressed air ambulance coverage and the helipad in Minden. She said they will still be calling for ORNGE to take patients out of the County to other hospitals. She said they would also continue to maintain the Minden helipad “at least for now.”

She said it may be used as a rendezvous point, but that County helipads are sometimes used by OPP and the military.

Plummer repeated the HHHS rationale that, “this was an operational decision. If this was a decision that we thought we didn’t need to make, or we thought could be delayed, we would have delayed it. We couldn’t. It just wasn’t feasible. It’s not feasible for us to continue with two emergency departments. This is not something we wanted to do. It’s not a decision that was made lightly by any means. We needed to make sure we were making the right decision to preserve health services in this community.”

She said she and HHHS board chair David O’Brien live in the County and the decision affects them, and their families, too.

O’Brien added, “if we continue to operate both sites, and one had to close due to staffing shortages, both would close because there’s not enough doctors a