Just minutes after being sworn in as Dysart et al’s new mayor, Murray Fearrey said he was confident the community’s housing issue “will get solved” during this new term.

Fearrey has returned to the big seat on council, replacing Andrea Roberts, after four years away. He previously served as mayor in Dysart et al for more than 40 years.

Walt McKechnie will serve as deputy mayor, after three terms as ward 5 representative. Also back is Tammy Donaldson, serving ward 3, and Nancy Wood-Roberts, who will represent ward 2.

There are three fresh faces on council this term – Pat Casey in ward 1, Carm Sawyer in ward 4 and Barry Boice in ward 5.

Pastor Bev Hicks from Northland Faith Church was on hand for the invocation, offering a piece of advice to the community’s newly-elected representatives.

“We’ve all lived long enough to know it’s impossible to make everyone happy. You can’t walk the middle of the road… I’ll never forget a statement Murray told me when I moved up here. He said if everybody is happy, we must be doing something wrong,” Hicks said. “Criticism is a part of life. It’s how we handle the criticism that’s important.

Addressing the rest of council, Fearrey said there are many issues that require attention over the next four years.

“It doesn’t matter where you look, we’ve got trouble. Whether it’s staffing shortages; we’ve got several projects that have been started but not yet finalized; we desperately need recreation facilities; and we’ve got a huge issue with health care. If you don’t have health care, it’s hard to attract people to come here,” he said.

Fearrey feels council needs to adopt a new vision, mapping out a plan for where Dysart should be 20 years from now. He said there are many areas in the township that need to be improved, including the downtown.

“I’ve always felt the town of Haliburton is the focal point of this municipality. When people come here and the town doesn’t look good, doesn’t have any character, there’s grass on the sidewalks and the curbs are torn to pieces. I don’t think that creates an image people want to see. I’m not proud to see it that way,” he said.

“We have a lot of work to do. We’ve got a lot of people hurting in our community. I’m confident we’ve got the people here to move us forward. We just have to take our time and make decisions that are good for all of us.”

“Together we can certainly do great things,” said Dave Burton after he was sworn in as Highlands East mayor Nov. 15.

Burton, entering his fifth term on council, laid out his priorities for a “term of action.” He said he’s intent on seeing the township’s strategic plan updated, creating a trails master plan and even building a new municipal office “that will meet today’s needs and put staff under one roof.” He added that “multiple municipal buildings will then become vacant and they could be available to convert into housing units. This is a project that will benefit Highlands East immensely.”

The new council, meeting in-person for the first time since 2020, also nominated coun. Cec Ryall as deputy mayor.

“For a guy like me who normally has a lot to say, I’m actually speechless and I thank you a ton,” Ryall said.

Councillors also had the chance to speak on their priorities for the term ahead.

Coun. Cam McKenzie said he was keen to “get back on track with an updated strategic plan” and focus on bolstering the ranks of the township’s fire halls. “Fire services need personnel,” he said. “Equipment and facilities do not respond to emergencies.”

Coun. Ruth Strong said, “I will do my very best to represent ward 4 to the best of my abilities.”

Burton and the rest of council also welcomed first-time ward 2 councillor Angela Lewis.

“I look forward to working with you and hearing your thoughts and opinions,” Ryall said.

Lewis said she looks forward to, “collaborating with council, mayor Dave Burton and all the officials in the municipality.”

Highlands East’s first regular meeting of council is scheduled for Nov. 22.

New Minden Hills mayor Bob Carter said “no white knight, no ninja turtle, no Marvel superhero” is coming from the outside to solve Minden Hills’ problems.

Speaking at council’s inaugural meeting Nov. 15, Carter said, “we need to be our own heroes and do it ourselves.”

However, he added “and we seven people on council cannot do this alone.” He was referring to himself, deputy mayor Lisa Schell, councillor-at-large Tammy McKelvey, ward one councillors Ivan Ingram and Shirley Johannessen, ward two coun. Pam Sayne and ward three coun. Bob Sisson.

He asked for the community’s support, and time, by getting involved on boards, committees and task forces. He said those bodies had been decimated by COVID, but vowed, “we will return with more robust, focused and supported committees that will expand the ability of council to deal with the many critical issues.”

Carter said some of those challenges include recovering from COVID, and growth in the face of a housing shortage impacting low to average income families and seniors. He referenced a shortage of workers to staff businesses and service sectors. The new mayor also commented on climate change, “that stresses our infrastructure and we must lead the way in dealing with this inevitable reality.” He also spoke to a global health care system that is “strained and threatened” in rural and urban areas.

Carter said the township’s infrastructure needs an infusion of capital before drastic degradation. He also worries that provincial and federal spending during COVID will result in cuts as they strive to balance their books. He said it will lead to continued downloading onto municipal government, squeezing resources.

Faced with that, Carter said the council needed to be creative and courageous as it identifies its most pressing priorities.

“We will determine which issues we can handle by ourselves, and which issues we will address by working with other municipalities, the County and other levels of government. And we will address these challenges while providing effective, efficient and responsible government.”

Carter vowed to use resources wisely and operate as transparently as possible.

“We may not please everybody with every decision but we will make decisions that are best for our community.”

Deputy mayor Lisa Schell, starting her fifth term, said when she first started out, mentor Peter Oyler told her, “we need to make decisions for the many, not for the few. It’s something I’ve taken with me for the past 16 years. It’s vital we all think that way.”

A fatal house fire in Ingoldsby remains under investigation, according to Minden Hills fire Chief Shain Duda.

Haliburton Highlands OPP also said that they were still looking into the blaze that began just before midnight Nov. 4. The probe is in conjunction with OPP Forensic Identification Services, the Office of the Fire Marshall and the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario.

Duda, on Nov. 14, confirmed the structure fire was at 1322 Kashagawigamog Lake Rd. He said three people got out of the building okay. Two went to hospital with smoke inhalation but have since been released.

He added, “one person did fall deceased in the fire.” The victim’s name has not been released.

Duda said the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office was still working to determine the cause, a difficult task since the building was so far gone. “There’s not much evidence, we kind of know where the fire started, it’s just how.”

He noted the building had working smoke alarms, which alerted the occupants to the fire.

The Minden Hills fire chief said he was first on scene.

“It was a hot fire…flames were partially through the roof into the windows. By the time my fire apparatus got on scene, the flames had bypassed the living room and were entering the kitchen part of the building.”

He said Minden Hills had 12 firefighters on scene and Dysart et al came to help. He said they pumped water from the lake rather than a tanker shuttle.

“The firefighters did an amazing job. They worked really hard for the manpower that we had. I really wanted to thank them. Same with the police, ambulance and hydro who attended. They helped out immaculately.”

OPP added on Nov. 10 that emergency services responded just before midnight Nov. 4, including members of the Haliburton Highlands detachment of the OPP, Minden Hills and Dysart fire, and Haliburton EMS. OPP and the Coroner’s office did not have an update as of press time Nov. 16.

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say it has “paused” any structural changes to command at the Haliburton Highlands detachment until a new police services board is established.

County council, at a Nov. 9 meeting, said there were rumours the detachment would have its management consolidated with the City of Kawartha Lakes OPP, essentially making Haliburton Highlands OPP a satellite, but that had been dispatched for now.

Mayors of Algonquin Highlands, Dysart et al, Highlands East and Minden Hills, as well as the township’s CAOs, met with OPP brass, including central region chief superintendent Dwight Peer, Nov. 2. The meeting was called to address the issue of possibly removing the detachment commander from the Highlands, and replacing that position with a manager answering to the Lindsay-based OPP detachment commander.

After going into closed session at the County meeting, County warden Liz Danielsen emerged to say after hearing “consistent rumblings” about command consolidation, mayors Carol Moffatt, Andrea Roberts, Dave Burton and Brent Devolin feared, “a serious impact on the services provided in Haliburton County should that take place.” She said the County brokered the meeting with OPP to get clarification.

During the council meeting, councillors passed a resolution that would see the matter discussed at each township, since they are invoiced by the OPP for services, not the County, before the end of the year, with each rejecting any such move and letting the OPP know

However, Danielsen said the mayors came away from the Nov. 2 meeting hopeful no consolidation of command will occur.

“The chief superintendent assured those present the consolidation of command was not finalized, in fact only an option being discussed as a possible means to achieve efficiencies. The chief superintendent assured us the proposal would not proceed if local municipalities were opposed to the concept,” she said.

However, Peer made no such assurance when approached by The Highlander. A spokesperson for Peer told the paper on Nov. 14, that one of the mayors’ concerns was they are awaiting a response from the province on their OPP detachment board submission. When the province mandated community safety and wellbeing plans, the County was told it needed a local police services board.

“While staying committed to improving staffing levels at the detachment, we have paused any structural changes to command at the detachment until the dedicated Haliburton Highlands OPP Detachment Board is established,” the spokesperson said.

“Central Region Command and Haliburton Highlands Detachment staff are committed to working collaboratively with the local OPP Detachment Board, once established, and the municipalities it represents to make the best possible decisions regarding public safety and policing services within Haliburton County and its municipalities,” the spokesperson added.

Gosia Puzio, a media relations officer with the OPP, further said, “the OPP continuously evaluates its operations to seek efficiencies in support of public safety. Our focus remains the delivery of the best possible service to the community, and we will explore all avenues to do so, which includes command consolidations. Any proposed changes would not reduce frontline policing service.”

 ‘Unacceptable’ says Moffatt

At the Nov. 9 meeting, Devolin said the County had been stung in the past with rumours leading to “fait accomplis”, such as a controversial increase in OPP billing in 2014. He said with the newly-adopted community safety and well-being plan and a planned police services board locally, the rumblings surprised municipal councillors and staff. He said he was pleased the County was able to broker a meeting on behalf of the townships.

He panned the lack of community engagement. He said the townships are “paying the tab” and if major changes are being considered, “they need to dialogue with us.” He is eager for a police services board “so this sort of thing never happens again.”

However, he thought the meeting was “productive … I think we got some guarantees that if the community doesn’t want this, that won’t be the case.”

Coun. Carol Moffatt agreed. “The way this unfolded was really unfortunate. There was no ahead-of-the-game consultation but a series of events that got ahead of themselves with no details whatsoever.”

She said the change would have impacted the services, “especially in the face of the growth that we’re seeing.” The 2021 Census put County growth at 14 per cent.

“Suggesting moving the detachment commander position and replacing it with a manager is absolutely unacceptable and I think is an insult to our community. A lot of people have worked very, very hard for the establishment and retention of police services in Haliburton County and our growth requires more policing services, more robust policing relationships, not less.”