Algonquin Highlands council has deferred a decision over a proposed 60-metre cell tower slated for Oxtongue Lake, calling on Rogers – the company behind the project – to attend a future meeting to address concerns that have been levelled against a public consultation process the company initiated in February.

The tower, slated for installation at 4539 Hwy. 60, is the latest proposal as part of the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) Cell Gap Project. Addressing council March 16, planner Sean O’Callaghan said the project adhered to municipal policy and recommended its approval.

He noted the township had received numerous letters of objection from residents in the area, with complaints centering on the proposed tower’s location – in the middle of a dense residential area and popular tourism destination.

Jim Sale, speaking on behalf of the Oxtongue Lake Association (OLA), admitted service improvements are needed in the area, but asked that Rogers consider finding a different location.

“People live and/or visit our community in order to enjoy the beautiful natural surroundings year-round… it’s important to us that if another tower is required to service our area, that you do everything you can to ensure the tower is in a location that is hidden from view so that it does not disturb the natural beauty of the area,” Sale wrote in a letter to council.

“We are most concerned about the views from Ragged Falls, Oxtongue Lake, and the Oxtongue River and you have selected a location that is smack dab in the middle of all three. As the proposed tower is at a high point, and 60-metres tall, there is a high probability it will be visible from pretty much everywhere in our community,” he added.

In response, Eric Belchamber, representing Rogers, noted towers are required “where people live, work and play” to be effective. He said Rogers has specific criteria it must meet under the Cell Gap Project guidelines, with individual towers forming part of a wider system designed to improve connectivity for 99 per cent of rural residents across eastern Ontario.

O’Callaghan noted Rogers doesn’t consider aesthetics when narrowing down locations for its towers.

Coun. Sabrina Richards said she was concerned this application didn’t adhere to the township’s existing cell tower policy.

“It says towers should be located one kilometre from the nearest residential unit… there are nine surrounding residences within a 500-metre radius [of this proposed site],” Richards said. “Our policy also states [towers] should be camouflaged or designed to blend in and fit with the context of the surrounding area. There’s nothing in the application discussing that.”

O’Callaghan noted the policy does encourage towers to be located outside residential areas where possible but doesn’t outlaw them. He added that camouflaged towers such as monopine units aren’t feasible for this project due to their smaller size, which reduces service area.

Mayor Liz Danielsen said she had spoken with representatives from the OLA who expressed concern over the way the public consultation process was handled. O’Callaghan noted there were approximately 20 people at a virtual meeting held by Rogers Feb. 7.

“It was deemed not to be as consultative as folks were looking for, and was more informative,” Danielsen said, noting that in her role on the EORN board she would be advocating for better communication practices moving forward.

She suggested that council require Rogers to attend a future meeting to address these concerns before the project is approved, which was passed unanimously.

Moving forward, Coun. Lisa Barry feels the township should take on a more active role in assisting companies with finding appropriate locations for cell towers.

“We could identify areas where they would instantly receive pre-approval. There is an understanding that we’re going to need more towers, but they need to be in respectable places,” she said. “We need to find a way to meet people’s needs for services without impacting [our natural areas].”

The Coalition of Haliburton Property Owners Associations (CHA) says it has hired the top aquatic ecosystems expert in Ontario to re-evaluate lake health monitoring in Haliburton County.

CHA chair Paul MacInnes said he met with lake health expert Dr. Norman Yan about a year ago, and Yan told him, “all of our lake health monitoring systems are more than 40 years old, and so much has changed in the last 40 years. Maybe we really need to do something about that. Maybe we need to re-evaluate how we monitor lake health.”

Some of the variables since testing began in the 1980s include climate change, invasive species, calcium decline and loss of grazers.

MacInnes said following his meeting with Dr. Yan, the CHA, “realized we couldn’t wait for somebody else to do something about that.” They raised $21,000 to hire Hutchinson Environmental, a firm that studies inland waters, with a mandate to rethink lake health monitoring. Their findings will be presented at a CHA event May 6 at Sir Sam’s Ski/Ride.

MacInnes said lake association members will be advised as to what they should be monitoring, and in order of priority, as well as the cost in time and money. He added that new technologies, and where to store data, will also be discussed.

Legislation and education needed

During a delegation to a Highlands East council meeting last week, MacInnes said CHA’s three goals for 2023 are: the implementation of a shoreline preservation bylaw; standardization of the septic re-inspection programs, and upgrading to level 4 inspections in all municipalities; and a short-term rental bylaw that acts to prevent hydraulic overload.

Hydraulic overload occurs when a septic tank receives too much water at one time, causing the wastewater to back-up. For example, renters could be using too much water all at once, exceeding the septic tank capacity.

The CHA partnered with Trent University, Watersheds Canada, and Canadian Wildlife Federation on the Love Your Lake program. They evaluated more than 1,000 km of shoreline on 60 lakes, or 13,484 properties. MacInnes said they found, on average, less than half of the shoreline was natural and less than 10 per cent of lakes met the 75 per cent natural shoreline criteria for lake health.

They followed with a robust shoreline education campaign, but MacInnes said they have found “education is not enough. Destruction continues.” Showing three photos of clear-cuts, MacInnes said a constant turnover of buyers, and new owners acting before the CHA can get to them, is a problem.

“We need local government to act now before it’s too late,” MacInnes added.

MacInnes said “our lakes are already suffering, and the suffering will increase. Education is not enough by itself. We need to legislate. We need to get faster.”

Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) is going to apply to the province for a CT scan machine for the County.

CAO and president, Carolyn Plummer, told The Highlander March 21 that a feasibility study for the diagnostic imaging tool, “has concluded with positive results. We are ready to proceed with an application to the Ministry of Health.”

Plummer said HHHS is grateful to the community for its “overwhelmingly positive” response to news of the study. Without any kind of formal public call for backing, she said they received more than 100 letters of support in just over a week and a half.

“Community members have shared how important it would be for them to have access to a CT scan machine and the potential it has to transform their healthcare experience in the County,” she added.

HHHS will continue to collect letters of support for its application. Plummer said they can be emailed to Michel Henry at mhenry@hhhs.ca

“Given the transportation challenges faced by so many in our community, HHHS knows that being able to have a scanner within the County would be of great benefit for our patients,” the head of the hospital services said.

She added that thanks to their integration with the diagnostic imaging department at Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay, scans can be read by a radiologist off-site, with the results communicated back to physicians in the County, so they can take action with their patients.

“This is similar to how our X-ray, ultrasound, and bone density scans happen now; it is common practice at many small hospitals across the province, and is common practice at many larger hospitals after-hours,” she added.

Plummer said, “It’s no small matter to be able to offer scans close to home.”

Foundation and County behind HHHS ask

Director of emergency services for the County of Haliburton, Tim Waite, at a Jan. 11 meeting of council, said EMS services transported 357 people out of the County for CT scans in 2021, a 55 per cent increase over 2020.

When ambulances are out of the County for these transfers, they are gone for hours at a time, often with one of HHHS nurses, and they can receive calls for service in other communities, which decreases the number of ambulances that are available for 911 response in Haliburton County and therefore increases the time it takes to respond to emergency calls, Plummer said.

Another factor, she noted, was recruitment efforts to attract new physicians and healthcare professionals to Haliburton County. “We hear time and time again that new physicians are trained with the expectation that they will have easy access to CT scan equipment for diagnostic purposes, as it has become a standard of care. Having a CT scan machine in the County would support these recruitment efforts, as well as the retention of current physicians and nurses in our community.”

HHHS Foundation executive director Melanie Klodt Wong said the foundation is there to support the needs of the hospitals, and healthcare in the County. “It’s extremely apparent to us that this is important to residents and visitors in Haliburton County, and HHHS has identified CT as a priority, so, of course, we’re supportive.”

She acknowledged it is “a big ask,” using estimates of $2.5 to $3 million “but we’re still working on the numbers.”

She said they have started to pre-plan, such as figuring out how much money they would have to raise, and how they might go about it.

Klodt Wong added pre-planning will continue, “so that once it is approved, we can hit the ground running. Until we get that approval, we’ll be here, and we’ll be cheering them on and hoping for the best…”

She said the foundation is already receiving support for the project, from the public and community groups, as “they see the need. This is something we want. And it is going to cost a lot of money.”

A CT scanner falls under diagnostic imaging and Klodt Wong said they also want to ensure other tools, such as X-rays and ultrasounds, continue to be replaced.

The County has thrown its support behind a CT scan machine.

At that Jan. 11 County of Haliburton meeting, Coun. Walt McKechnie said, “it’s a priority for a lot of people, especially those getting older. This is something we should be taking a hold of and trying to help get these machines in our hospitals. It just makes so much sense.”

• ** UPDATE DECLARED OVER AS OF MARCH 27**

On March 20, HHHS declared a COVID-19 outbreak in the in-patient department of the Haliburton Hospital. There were five confirmed patient cases and two staff cases. The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit was informed.

As a result, all COVID-positive patients and those who may have been exposed have been isolated. The department is closed to further admissions, and visitors restricted to those receiving end-of-life care. Volunteers continue to be restricted.

HHHS will continue to maintain measure, including full Personal Protective Equipment and mandatory masking, vaccination, and active screening for symptoms of COVID-19. Enhanced cleaning will be conducted in the t and staff continue to monitor themselves for symptoms.

Services in the Emergency Department remain unaffected and community
members in need of emergency care should not hesitate to seek assistance.

The Aging Together as Community – Haliburton Highlands project has been bolstered by a $22,500 New Horizons for Seniors Grant, co-leads Bonnie Roe and David Buwalda say.

During a March 4 gathering at the West Guilford Community Centre, with 42 attendees in-person and virtual, the two said the funds will cover costs around marketing, event planning, website development, evaluation and more. The grant is available for one year starting this March.

The group held its inaugural meeting Jan. 28.

This time around, Roe and Buwalda said participants were asked to consider what would be possible to achieve one year from now. “We put our heads together to imagine the lives of seniors changed, in any way, as a result of our efforts.” They said the outcome was some strong, connected ideas.

“Each table group shared a similar idea of building a central ‘hub’ for seniors’ information and networking. Many groups emphasized how seniors’ content would be more available in local media a year from now – and perhaps it is our group writing it. There was strong support for devising a resource to help seniors help other seniors in the community,” Roe and Buwalda said.

So far, they have come up with aims for how they will support seniors; activities to move forward and advice to help them on their way.

For example, one aim is to provide a platform for seniors to share resources, hire help, and learn about programs. To that end, Roe’s working group has put together a list of seniors’ resources that will be accessible and shareable. They want to keep that list updated.

They hope to establish a well-informed lobby group, with a seminar series on aging-well topics. Working groups will continue to share their findings, too. This could lead to presentations to councils or bringing politicians to meetings.

Another aim is to share information on alternative housing models, such as Oakview Lodge’s co-living arrangement.

They want to build a website. It is also about building relationships with other groups.

Buwalda said, “it is a community project to become a place to inform and support seniors and people who are interested in supporting seniors, and people who have a reason to care across the County.

“It is not something that has a long-term kind of organizational approach. It is not like, ‘in five years, we’re going to do this’. It is really assets-based, what do we have in the community? Who’s in the community that’s bringing people together? It’s almost like a community of practice, where people who have a reason to be interested get to come and share. In doing so, we get to really try and address some of the ageism that we have found. Some of the issues just persist around long-term care and care in general for seniors.”

Roe acknowledged there are supports, such as Community Support Services, and CARP, but they are limited.

“One of the things we wanted to do from the very beginning was to look at, what could we do differently? How could we address the culture of aging, to make it more positive? And one where age or aging is respected within the community?”

She added the project really started in June 2022 with discussions about more people-centred long-term care or aging in place. She said the question became, “what do we need to age in place?” She said that is where the seniors helping seniors idea, for example, came up March 4. “There are a lot of able-bodied individuals, young and old, who can offer support.”

Roe said she has already held discussions with HHHS about things such as painting walls in long-term care homes to make them more colourful. They’ve talked to Extendicare about their eventual expansion in Haliburton.

Buwalda said, “ultimately, it is to allow people to have a place to come together, find ways to talk about aging, and make new connections that they can maybe develop projects around. So, there is no set order. We are a community group offering opportunities to work together.”

To contact the project, email agingtogetherhc@gmail.com or go to their Facebook Group page.

The next meeting is April 14, 1:30-4 p.m., at a location yet to be announced.