It was a night to remember for everyone affiliated with the Haliburton County Huskies as the fledgling organization battled to a 2-1 victory Thursday over the Trenton Golden Hawks, securing their spot in the ‘Elite Eight’ of the OJHL playoffs.

The win was enough to take the hometown team past the Golden Hawks in a best of three series. After dropping game one 5-2 on enemy territory, the Dogs rallied back in game two putting together a 3-2 win on home ice.

There was a tense atmosphere inside Duncan McDonald Memorial Community Gardens, with a crowd of more than 750 people on hand to cheer on the Golden Hawks.

After a nervy opening couple of minutes, the Huskies quickly got into their stride, opening the scoring through Christian Stevens with 5:22 played. Patrick Saini and defenceman Isaac Sooklal assisted on the play.

The Golden Hawks peppered the Huskies goal during the opening frame, but Christian Cicigoi stood tall, making 12 saves.

The Huskies had chances to extend their lead in the second, going 0-3 on the powerplay. The team killed a penalty of their own late in the period, after Lucas Stevenson was sent to the box for tripping.

The Dogs found themselves a man down again early in the third, Oliver Tarr handed a two-minute minor for slashing. The defence stood resolute and Cicigoi made a few important stops to maintain the Huskies’ lead.

There was pandemonium just a few minutes later after Noah Van Vliet got on the end of a Saini pass to double the Dogs’ lead. While Golden Hawks blueliner Tanner McEachearn bridged the gap at the mid-way point of the period, scoring on the powerplay, the Huskies held on for a famous win.

They will now take on the Cobourg Cougars in a best-of-five series to determine the winner of the East Division. Having finished above Cobourg in the regular season standings, the Huskies will get home advantage, meaning three games at S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena. Game one will take place Sunday, April 17. Puck drop is slated for 2 p.m.

During the regular season, the Huskies definitely had the Cougars number. Across eight games, the hometown team recorded five wins, a tie and two losses.

A win in the East Division finals would see the Huskies cross over for a best-of-five series with the South Division’s Toronto Jr. Canadiens or North York Rangers.

Municipalities celebrate Earth Day all week long

By

Mike Baker

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April 14, 2022

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While not a traditional holiday, Earth Day is quickly becoming one of the most celebrated observances in Haliburton County.

Held annually on April 22, the event gives people the opportunity to learn about, and act on, ways to help restore nature and celebrate our environment. John Watson, environmental manager with Dysart et al, says all four lower-tier municipalities will be partnering with the County and local library this year on a week-long virtual educational campaign.

Through their social media channels, Algonquin Highlands, Dysart et al, Minden Hills, Highlands East, the County and the library will share ways everyone can help conserve and protect forests, energy, biodiversity, resources and water. They will highlight environmental conservation tips, supported by book recommendations, that will help to deepen the understanding and impact of our actions on the planet.

The event will run from April 18 to 23.

“While Earth Day itself has been a thing for over 50 years, I feel over time, and especially recently, it’s been getting more attention. People have become more educated about climate change and the implications that brings and are starting to stand up and take action,” Watson said.

Touching on the biodiversity theme, Watson added there will be information on how to plant native species of flowers, plants and trees and the benefits they can each bring.

Waste management is another focus, with Watson offering advice on how to avoid wish-cycling.

“We want to make sure people are putting the correct items into their recycling bins, so there will be information on that. We’re also promoting the new Haliburton County Waste Wizard mobile app, which will help residents understand what items are considered recyclable,” Watson said.

Community events

On April 23, the Gooderham Community Action Group is hosting a community clean-up from 10 a.m. to noon. Participants will be meeting at the Robert McCausland Community Centre.

Environment Haliburton! is also getting in on the action, hosting a virtual presentation on human health and the climate emergency. Led by Dr. Samantha Green of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, the seminar will address why she feels the climate emergency is the single biggest threat to human health. The event begins at 8 p.m. Those interested in registering can do so at environmenthaliburton.org.

As we head further into spring, Watson said the local municipalities would be offering more programming centring on environmental preservation.

“We’ll be doing some litter cleanups, and then a lot of things around minimizing illegal dumping,” Watson said. “In Dysart, we’re moving ahead with our FoodCycler pilot project for indoor composting, and a food waste reduction initiative that we’ve been working on with some Fleming College students, so there’s lots of exciting things going on.

“There’s lots of different ways that we can be looking after different issues in our community, both to make it more beautiful but also to minimize our impact on the environment.”

HHOA launches 50/50 draw

By

Lisa Gervais

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April 14, 2022

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The Haliburton Highlands Outdoors Association (HHOA) is holding its inaugural 50/50 draw starting April 15.

HHOA president Dan Smith said proceeds from the draws will support the fish hatchery on Gelert Road in Haliburton.

The hatchery is responsible for the annual stocking of area lakes, walleye spawning rehabilitation programs and other HHOA activities that benefit the region’s outdoors community, Smith said.

“Due to cutbacks in funding, and the effects of COVID, the HHOA is seeking other fundraising avenues, Smith added.

“The 50/50 draw provides an opportunity to raise funds for the hatchery, while giving the community a chance to help support the hatchery and win some money.”

The draws start tomorrow (April 15). Go to bigcatch5050.ca. to buy tickets. Fifty per cent of the proceeds from each monthly draw will go to one lucky winner. The other 50 per cent will be used to support HHOA activities.

Smith said HHOA’s mission is to help residents and visitors to the Haliburton Highlands enjoy angling opportunities while practicing good conservation. Since 1998, the HHOA has raised and stocked more than 700,000 fish in local lakes. For more information on the HHOA visit: hhoa.on.ca/news

HCSA applauds staff after ‘challenging’ winter

By

Sam Gillett

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April 14, 2022

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Haliburton County Snowmobile Association (HCSA) president John Enright said he’s proud of grooming staff and volunteers for persevering despite a “very, very challenging winter.”

Enright said three significant thaws combined with rain made grooming operations difficult.

“Every time we’d get a trail base set up, we’d get set back,” he said.

However, at many points throughout the season, such as the last week of February, the trail network saw crisp conditions for snowmobiling under blue skies.

The HCSA employs grooming staff each year but this season the association struggled to fill the roster.

“I’m so proud of the team for what they delivered with not too much snow and the shortage of people we had,” Enright said.

Haliburton’s popular trail network, which helped distinguish the club as Ontario’s snowmobile club of the year in 2021, is also maintained by dedicated volunteers.

“Volunteers are the lifeblood of snowmobiling in Ontario, not just Haliburton County,” Enright said. He added that they’ve seen an increase in volunteers throughout the past two years.

“We’ve worked really hard at growing our volunteer base through our online volunteer registry,” he said.

Enright added that landowners are the “real heroes” of snowmobiling in the Highlands. Without access to trails over private land, the club wouldn’t have a trail network, he said.

School board facing bus driver shortages

By

Mike Baker

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April 14, 2022

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TLDSB superintendent Tim Ellis said several bus companies are struggling to find drivers to cover school trips and extracurricular activities, especially in rural communities like Haliburton County.

Local trustee Gary Brohman raised the issue during an April 12 meeting, saying he had heard from a handful of parents concerned about the bussing situation. He asked Ellis what plans the school board had to help alleviate the issue.

Ellis said since the hiring of bus drivers falls outside of TLDSB jurisdiction, there wasn’t much the board could do.

“The driver shortage, initially due to COVID, was very apparent at the beginning of the year and it continues to be a challenge. Finding reliable bus drivers has been very difficult for our providers,” Ellis said. “They’re doing the best they can to keep the drivers they have, keep their routes running and supporting our activities both during and after school as best they can.”

Superintendent Kim Williams said teachers and coaches have been trying to find rides for students. This has, on occasion, seen parents drafted in to drive.

“If we cannot access a bus, we’re looking to parent volunteers who have completed all the necessary paperwork [they need] to drive the kids,” Williams said. “Each school handles that differently, but it has worked quite well.”

Williams noted parents are usually compensated for driving, but, again, that is dealt with on a school-by-school basis.

New website coming

Director of Education Wes Hahn was excited to share that a soft internal launch of the board’s new website went off without a hitch earlier this month.

The project, led by Carolynne Bull and the communications department, has been months in the making.

Trustees signed off on the redesign during budget deliberations last year.

“It’s fantastic, very modern,” Hahn said. “We will have lots of great ways of communicating with our communities, not only externally but internally as well.

There’s lots of exciting things happening with the website, and we can’t wait to roll it out.”

The new site is expected to go live later this year.

Schools open to community

Ellis informed the board that schools across the district have been reopened for community rental.

Schools were locked down throughout the pandemic, only open to students and staff. Back in March, after the Ontario government lifted most COVID-19 restrictions, they started to welcome back groups that had typically used school facilities pre-pandemic. Any group wanting to rent space must first apply for a permit. Ellis says there are 76 active permits across TLDSB.

Space is rented on a cost-recovery basis, Ellis notes. For a full breakdown, or to register, visit tldsb.ca/community/ community-use-of-schools. Groups can rent gym space, classrooms and outdoor fields.

OSSLT results

Providing an update on secondary school learning, Williams said the board’s initial results from the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test were encouraging.

“The success rate of participating students was 74.6 per cent,” Williams shared.

The OSSLT will be written again in the spring.

Funding helps cancer retreats work ‘magic’

By

Sam Gillett

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April 14, 2022

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A Haliburton-based cancer retreat centre has brought restorative experiences online thanks to an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant.

At a virtual event celebrating the funding April 9, Abbey Retreat Centre (ARC) executive director Barb Smith-Morrison explained how $30,600 in provincial funding helped create ‘Re-Shaping Our Cancer Stories’, a four-week online cancer retreat.

“It helped us work some magic,” Smith-Morrison said.

Smith-Morrison said ARC’s goal is to “strengthen and restore the body, mind and soul in the midst of a cancer experience.” The online program aimed to do the same from hundreds of kilometres away during COVID-19 restrictions.

In a trial run this winter, three facilitators guided 12 participants in two weekly Zoom meetings over four weeks. By the end of April, the program will have run three times.

The sessions include expressive arts therapy, breathwork, self-care strategies, diet and nutrition seminars and an accompanying series of videos.

Each week focuses on processing a different aspect of a cancer journey. Themes range from “discombobulation,” the uncertainty and whirlwind of emotions associated with a cancer diagnosis, to arrival and freedom when discovering new possibilities and worldviews.

“We honestly didn’t know if it was going to work,” said Fay Wilkinson, an expressive arts practitioner and program facilitator. Group sessions involving drawing, writing, interpretation and body movement are difficult to do online, but Wilkinson said they’ve received positive feedback from attendees.

Retreat participant Janet Auty Carlisle said receiving a cancer diagnosis during COVID-19 “was super lonely and super confusing.” She signed up for the online retreat without knowing what to expect.

She said the program “resonated” with what she needed at the time.

“Walking into this was like walking into a room of women I’ve known for years and having tea,” she said.

Smith-Morrison said ARC hopes to continue offering the online retreats for those who cannot travel to Haliburton or are not well enough to participate in-person. ARC currently has a waitlist of nearly 100 people.

Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott said she was glad to see ARC’s mission continue online. “It’s such a wonderful healing centre to walk into. When that is taken away and isolation occurs it’s a challenge, especially for those living with a cancer diagnosis”

Highlands sees spike in COVID-19 cases

By

Sam Gillett

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April 14, 2022

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Easing restrictions and a new subvariant are to blame for a “surge” in COVID19 cases said Dr. Natalie Bocking, chief medical officer of health for the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge (HKPR) district health unit.

“When we saw a lifting of provincial measures of COVID-19, many public health professionals and community members reminded everyone the pandemic wasn’t over. If we forgot that, COVID-19 is here to remind us,” she said at an April 6 media information session.

The health unit reported 15 lab-confirmed active cases of COVID-19 within Haliburton County April 12 and 229 active cases throughout the HKPR region. Until April 11, only those in high-risk living areas or individuals deemed high-risk were eligible for testing. The majority of COVID-19 infections in Haliburton County are no longer recorded.

Local physician Dr. Nell Thomas said she’s diagnosing one to two patients a day with COVID-19, and Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) CAO Carolyn Plummer said the health care system has seen a slight increase in cases among staff.

“This latest wave of COVID-19 is certainly concerning, and we are monitoring the situation closely,” Plummer said.

She added that protective measures such as screening for symptoms and mandatory masking continue to be in place at HHHS locations until at least April 27 when the remaining rules are set to be lifted.

“The safety and wellbeing of our patients, residents, and clients, as well as our staff, physicians, and volunteers will continue to be our top priority,” she said.

Bocking said she is “fully expecting” an increase in hospital admissions as a new subvariant of COVID-19, BA.2, becomes the dominant strain.

Haliburton County has seen five hospitalizations due to COVID-19 since the beginning of 2022.

In the majority of cases since December, COVID-19 infection resulted in mild illness manageable without medical care. Bocking said despite a lack of provincial mandates, masking, vaccination, staying home when sick, avoiding or limiting social gatherings and handwashing still help prevent infection.

Health unit releasing case count by township

The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) has issued an interim order compelling the health unit to offer COVID19 statistics by lower-tier townships.

Previously, it published COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, likely cases and deaths on a county-by-county basis.

“That information is basically useless to the consumer,” said Northumberland resident Randy Fallis, who issued a request under the Freedom of Information Act for the information in April 2020.

Fallis said lower-tier infection information paints a more accurate picture of COVID19 risk.

According to an IPC report, a month after submitting his request, the health unit denied it, claiming it was not obligated to create new records.

An IPC interim order signed Feb. 18, 2022, after nearly two years of mediation, directs the health unit to re-process Fallis’ request and issue township-specific reporting data.

While the decision is not final, the IPC urged the health unit to “proactively” publish the more detailed data. The IPC’s investigation found the health unit able to produce the records “without unreasonable interference with its operations.”

Bill Eekhof, of the HKPR health unit, said the IPC ruling coincided with an ongoing review of the unit’s COVID-19 reporting methods, which began in 2022.

“As such, the Health Unit decided to incorporate the release of case counts by lower-tier municipality into the updated COVID-19 Dashboard,” he said.

Healthy communities ‘rooted in local business success’

By

Lisa Gervais

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April 14, 2022

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Into his second week as the Haliburton Highlands Chamber of Commerce executive director, Robert Gaudette said his number one priority is talking to members.

“I don’t want to make the mistake of coming in and thinking that I know anything,” Gaudette said. “I want to hear their experiences. I want to know what their unique needs are and what challenges or successes they’ve had.”

He added there is no point in establishing an approach that does not match members’ needs, so he will be gathering data and information to set a firm foundation moving forward. Gaudette said that will apply to advocacy, group buying power, and accessing programs and funding opportunities.

He started his career in the mid-1990s as an entrepreneur in the technology world.

It was a chance to “became immersed in business and how it worked and learn all aspects from operations to marketing.” He would go on to become a partner in a tech firm and “learned the rollercoaster ride of what it’s like to be a business owner.”

Fast forward 20 years and living in Toronto with his wife, the two navigated her cancer diagnosis. She is fine today but Gaudette realized he needed a more stable career with benefits. He got into marketing and non-profits and social enterprises as well as employment services. At one time he looked after a café and a 5,000 sq. ft. carpentry training centre. His most recent job was with the John Howard Society in skills development. He’s been on working groups and tables and is on the boards of the Workplace Development Board and Literacy Ontario Centre South.

He acknowledged the issues of housing and transportation in Haliburton County but believes one way to tackle those barriers is to upscale the local workforce.

“You really want to upscale your community and have a nice local economy where talent doesn’t have to leave to have a career,” he said.

In the short-term, it’s about coordinating with local training providers, making sure employers are aware of the existing programs that are available to them, including government initiatives. He mentioned that SIRCH, Fleming College and the John Howard Society are doing good things. He believes he has a lot to offer from the tech side to help businesses with digital and online spaces.

The chamber is also hoping to revive its awards this year. Gaudette said front-line workers got a lot of recognition during COVID but businesses owners – who had to pivot, take out loans, cover for staff shortages, and figure out changing public health policy – did not.

“I’m a real believer that healthy communities are rooted in local business success. It creates opportunities, employment opportunities, and supports the local economy. If we don’t take care of that, that facet of the community, I think it leads to a lot of social issues.”

In welcoming Gaudette, chamber president Mark Bell said, “I am delighted to have Robert take on this important role, his broad experience and local knowledge will help us accelerate the implementation of the new strategic plan developed by the board of directors. Also, I’d like to thank Amanda Conn, our outgoing executive director, for her contribution as she moves to a new opportunity”.

AH defers Bear Lake Road plowing to lawyers

By

Mike Baker

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April 14, 2022

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A long-standing disagreement between Algonquin Highlands and residents along Bear Lake Road is no closer to being resolved after the municipality again refused to sanction snow removal on the municipal laneway during the winter.

The issue was last discussed in October 2021, when Doug Middlebrook and Kathleen Hedley, representing the newly formed Bear Lake Winter Maintenance Association, informed council that as many as 40 families that live on the road year-round were having trouble accessing their properties after the municipality closed a nearby parking area last year.

The road, assumed by the township in the early 1970s, isn’t maintained during the winter. According to Adam Thorn, public works supervisor with Algonquin Highlands, Bear Lake Road, in its current condition, is not suitable for winter clearing due to its steep hills, tight turns and poor condition.

“It’s a safety concern. One of the inclines in particular… If a vehicle was to take off on you, you would miss the curve at the bottom of the hill. There’s no safe zone or runoff where you can slow a vehicle down,” Thorn said. “This is a big concern in the winter with icy conditions.”

The resident group has requested that council allow them to hire a contractor to clear the road during the winter. Thorn said this could cause some liability issues for the township, especially if there is an accident.

While talks between the two sides are ongoing, mayor Carol Moffatt informed council that she and CAO Angie Bird received a letter April 4 from the association stating they “fully intend to plow the road next winter regardless of what council decides”.

Council sought advice from their legal representative, and discussed the issue during a closed session April 7. Not completely closing the book on the matter, council elected to defer the issue pending further discussions with municipal lawyers.

“There is a part of me that wants to say ‘sure, go ahead’, but there are so many problems and so many things to overcome that I just don’t think we’re anywhere near ready to make a decision,” said deputy mayor Liz Danielsen.

‘We should be part of the solution’

Coun. Jennifer Dailloux said she’d like to see Algonquin Highlands be more proactive when it comes to helping to clean up eyesores from local lakes, voicing her support for a proposed Kawagama Lake Cottagers Association initiative to remove abandoned docks from area waterways.

The initiative, brought to council April 7, included a request that the municipality waive all landfill fees for any debris collected on clean-up days. A similar request made by the Halls and Hawk Lakes Property Owners Association in July 2018 was denied by the previous council.

While Dailloux liked the idea, Moffatt had her reservations.

“One of my concerns is being able to provide equitable access to everyone. Would this just be for lake associations, or are we going to waive fees for the disposal of docks for everybody?” Moffatt said.

“In theory it’s a good idea. But I remain skeptical over the application… I think people would take advantage of this.”

Staff were directed to see if there are any similar programs happening in other communities and, if so, find out how they’re working. A report with a recommendation will be coming back to council at a later date.