U-Links, which does water quality testing for Haliburton County, and the County itself, plan to put pressure on Lakelands Public Health to lift its game when it comes to timely reporting of blue green algae blooms on Highlands lakes.

The topic came up at a Jan. 14 County council meeting when Andrew Gordon, director of U-Links, and Jim Prince, co-chair of U-Links and chair of Woodland & Waterways Eco Watch, updated council on the work they have been doing on their behalf.

Prince said, “we’ve all heard about the threat of (harmful) blue green algae blooms in Haliburton County, but there really isn’t any data.”

He said that around 2020, they believe there were about 11 blooms on Highlands’ lakes. And while a number of lake associations chatted about it, no one was tracking the suspected, or confirmed, events.

He said the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) Peterborough branch is involved. People can make a report to the spills centre, and if staff are available, they come to sample. However, he said they are not always available, especially on weekends and public holidays. Fishing for data Frank Figuli performs a lake depth measurement with a handheld sonar device. Submitted.

“Most of the time when they arrive, the algae bloom has dispersed and they aren’t able to get a good sample.”

Prince said they have sent data to Lakelands Public Health but they “don’t do any reporting or provide public notifications. It’s really different to other places in Ontario and Canada. Muskoka has a really robust reporting program. It alerts citizens about the hazards because your pets could die, you can’t drink the water if there’s an algae bloom near your cottage and you’re drinking water from the lake; and one-third of lakefront properties drink water from the lake.”

Lakelands Public Health said on Jan. 21 “sightings of possible blue green algae blooms are investigated and confirmed by the MECP. Lakelands Public Health’s role is to communicate potential health risks and provide public health guidance. We work with MECP and the County of Haliburton when blooms could impact drinking water, public beaches, recreational water, camps for children, or other at-risk settings, to ensure the health needs of residents are addressed. And we will continue collaborating with the County of Haliburton following recent council discussions on how to best meet resident needs regarding health risks and guidance relating to blue green algae blooms.

‘Fairly good and decent water quality’ for now

The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) issues warnings with advice for the pubic. They also tell the public if they see a bloom that they should contact them and report to MECP. Current alerts for specific Muskoka lakes are posted on the SMDHU website and local municipal news pages.

Call to Lakelands Public Health

Prince said U-Links was willing to step up on the sampling side, which was important for making decisions and having historical data. U-Links is developing simple standard operating procedures for blooms to incorporate into their existing ‘testing the waters’ program. He said the plan is to put test kits in the hands of lake associations and citizen scientists. “It is not rocket science, it’s citizen science and it’s quite easy to do.” Prince said they are working with the MECP in Peterborough on the initiative.

He added they had put a call out to Lakelands Public Health to gauge “their appetite to get involved for reporting and public notifications.”

After the presentation, deputy warden Liz Danielsen commented, “my primary concern is the lack of willingness by Lakelands Public Health to provide information to residents advising them of the dangers associated with that. We’ve run into that a couple of times in Algonquin Highlands.

They basically threw it back at us, ‘it’s your responsibility’ but it is not.” She asked if there was “anything we can do to encourage, kind of push the health unit a little bit to assume their own responsibilities?”

Prince said they are reaching out to new medical officer of health, Dr. Thomas Piggott.

Coun. Cec Ryall is the vice chair of the health unit’s board of directors. He was planning to raise the issue with senior staff at this week’s public health meeting, calling it “a serious issue for our neck of the woods.”

Coun. Bob Carter said it wasn’t a new issue, and it had been raised with the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit in the past. It’s been discussed at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario level.

“I don’t quite understand how we got to this point, so many other health units have taken this as a responsibility….”

Coun. Jennifer Dailloux said the County could step up in a formal way, to stress the need for health unit involvement in issues around lake health. The health unit does do beach testing in the summer. CAO Gary Dyke said he planned to reach out to Piggott as well.

Program expanding to 67 lakes

Meanwhile, Gordon said the benthic biomonitoring program that began in 2019 had left most County lakes in good biological shape. However, he said checking 12 water quality parameters remains important. ‘Testing the waters’ monitors three times a year, including ice-on sampling, including on drawdown lakes.

They started in 2022 with nine lake associations and 20 lakes. By 2025, they had grown to 25 lake associations and 39 lakes. They are hoping to expand the program again, to 30 lake associations and 67 lakes in 2026. U-Links is now talking to associations for Maple-Beech-Cameron; Redstone; Eagle and Moore; Percy; Twelve Mile – Little Boshkung; and Soyers lakes.

They are also looking for another control lake; to supplement the one they use on Stocking Lake in Haliburton Forest.

When it comes to trends, Gordon said lakes are becoming a little less clear and more turbid. He said initially people might be alarmed, “but this is actually a good thing because these lakes are recovering from the system level impact of acid rain that turned everything to vinegar back in the 1960s and 1970s, and so this is an absolutely normal biological response that we are seeing here. They are not going to turn into swamps or bogs; at some point that line is going to level out.”

Gordon added this is why long-term data is important. He said aquatic scientists say it takes about 18 years to identify a trend.

The program costs about $105,000 a year, with Haliburton County kicking in about 60 per cent, or $62,500. The 2025 results for the tested lakes will be available soon. Gordon said they have found “fairly good and decent water quality in Haliburton County lakes at the present time and if you keep up with (being cognizant of what to do to shorelines; septic inspections and water quality testing), 50 years down the road, we might actually be able to survive climate change and we’ll have some good water quality.”

Minden Hills mayor Bob Carter’s decision to veto eight of council’s amendments to his Strong Mayors budget has some members of the public calling him power hungry, while others say councillor-atlarge Tammy McKelvey is playing politics in leading the charge against parts of the budget because she is planning to run for mayor in the fall.

Carter had to inform council and the public in writing about any vetoes, and did so Jan. 16.

Council approved more than 25 changes Jan. 6. A number of them were to include charges that were unknown or unavailable at the time of the first draft, while others were to correct errors or omissions. Carter accepted 17 of those.

However, he drew his line in the sand last week on a number of key items, including: wanting to proceed with an organics program for the township ($39,000) as well as a new bulldozer for Scotch Line landfill ($150,000); keeping in a pickup truck for the roads department ($120,000) as well as hiring a roads labourer ($80,000); holding off on riverwalk lighting; not putting $50,000 into the budget to do something at the old fire hall; and not using tax dollars for sidewalk and crosswalk work.

However, his decisions are not final. Council can challenge and override any or all of them with a two-thirds majority vote. That will happen at a Jan. 29 meeting when the budget would be finalized. McKelvey, who led most of the amendments, said on Jan. 19 that she had not yet decided what, if anything, she would challenge.

Carter said his changes would put the tax increase at 4.46 per cent. He told council and the public the financial plan “was developed to meet certain goals for the community. The budget sustained and strove to enhance essential programs and services. The budget continued a robust capital investment program, focusing on infrastructure and put aside 1.5 per cent for future capital needs. The budget included funding for a new community centre in Lochlin and environmental enhancements at Scotch Line waste facility. This was all done while maintaining healthy financial reserves and attempting to keep tax rates affordable.”

McKelvey to run for mayor

While some members of the public are accusing Carter of being power hungry, he told The Highlander on Jan. 19 he didn’t ask for the powers, “but that’s the law of the land, and then the whole budget process becomes a very prescribed set of events where I work with staff, not on my own, and come up with a budget and it goes through many iterations. Staff are really the people on the ground hearing the complaints and seeing the needs so they developed something.”

He said his goal was to make things affordable, and ensure the township’s reserves were healthy while maintaining, or enhancing, services where possible.

The Highlander noted less than half of Ontario’s mayors were using their powers before a sweeping expansion of the system to 170 new communities; and that some mayors, from Newmarket, Tecumseth, Norfolk County and Haldimand County were not using the Act.

Carter conceded a mayor can’t opt out, but can decide to use only certain parts of the power. “The law is the law. I’m trying to do the best for the people of Minden Hills. Although people are putting it on to social media that I’m taking away things that council’s approved with these vetoes, I’m actually, in most cases, adding something back and doing it where the tax rate is lower than what they are proposing.”

McKelvey said she is “totally 1,000 per cent opposed to strong mayors’ powers; not anything to do against our present mayor. I just philosophically disagree with one person being given that power. It’s not democratic.”

The Highlander asked McKelvey point blank if she was planning to run for mayor in the fall.

“Yes, I’m going to run for mayor, but that has nothing to do with what I’m doing right now.”

The Township of Minden Hills says important changes to the Ontario Fire Code that took effect Jan. 1 are aimed at enhancing safety in residential spaces.

Under the updated regulations, all residential occupancies, including homes, apartments and other dwellings that contain a fuel-burning appliance, fireplace, or attached garage must have: a carbon monoxide (CO) alarm adjacent to each sleeping area and a CO alarm on each storey without a sleeping area (on every floor).

Ontario Regulation 87/25 (O. Reg. 87/25) made under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997, makes changes to the Ontario Fire Code (O. Reg 213/07) that includes additional carbon monoxide detector requirements.

The Township of Minden Hills fire and building departments are encouraging all residents to review their current CO alarm setup and make necessary updates now that the new requirements are in place.

“The Minden Hills fire department is always available to help you with your CO and smoke alarms. The goal is to ensure that working CO and smoke alarms are in every home across the township,” they said.

“With cooler temperatures and our windows closed, CO risks increase. Follow these tips to stay safe: book an annual inspection of all fuel-burning appliances: furnaces, fireplaces, gas stoves, gas dryers and chimneys; keep vents, intakes and exhaust pipes clear of snow and debris; never idle your car in the garage, even with the door open; only use generators and fuel-powered equipment outside, far from windows, doors, or vents and do not use gas stoves, ovens, BBQs, or camping equipment to heat your home unless the device is designed for indoor use.”

Despite Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) coming to tentative terms on a new contract for mail carriers, local union president Kelly Lawr said it isn’t guaranteed workers will support the deal.

Recently elected as the union lead of Local 564 covering Haliburton County and the Kawartha Lakes, Lawr said it was welcome news when, on Dec. 22, Canada Post and CUPW announced agreements had been formalized for both the urban and RSMC (rural and suburban mail carrier) bargaining units.

Approximately 53,000 of the Crown corporation’s employees had been working without a renewed contract for two years – with collective agreements for rural carriers expiring Dec. 31, 2023, and for urban workers Jan. 31, 2024.

“It was nice to know something had been offered. It feels like we’ve been in limbo for so long,” Lawr told The Highlander in a Jan. 16 interview. “The feeling has been pretty negative, especially since talks stopped in the fall and [Canada Post] walked away from the table. So, this is a step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of mixed feelings on the offer itself and he language that’s being used.

“It is being recommended by national that we vote ‘yes’ for this new contract, but it’s hard to have a full opinion right now because we still don’t have the full collective agreement. We’re still waiting to go over a lot of the details,” she added.

In a notice to all CUPW members, the union’s lead negotiators Lana Smidt and Francois Senneville said they had secured enough improvements from Canada Post’s most recent offer, made in October, to recommend approving a deal.

The contract is for five years, backdated to the expiry of the most recent RSMC contract and running until Jan. 31, 2029. It includes a 6.5 per cent increase in year one – which equates to an additional 1.5 per cent with workers receiving a five per cent raise last January under the terms of a bridge contract – and a three per cent hike in year two, with raises in years three, four and five being tied to inflation.

Canada Post says the deal also maintains employees’ defined benefit pensions, enhances health benefits and offers improved income replacement for injury-on-duty leave and ups the number of personal days per year from seven to 13. There will also be more job security for rural carriers, the crown corporation states.

Notably, Lawr said, the contract includes details for Canada Post adjusting its operating model to support weekend parcel delivery and will transition salaried staff to hourly pay. She’s unsure, though, how that will unfold.

Before any deal can be ratified, it must be supported by at least 50 per cent of workers. During voting on a previous offer in October, 43,370 of 53,614 active CUPW members cast a ballot, with 68.5 per cent of urban workers and 69.4 per cent of rural employees turning it down.

Lawr said workers have been asking for a three-to-four per cent pay increase in years three, four and five of the contracts, rather than have it tied to inflation.

“A lot of us just want this to be over, but we have to hold strong on some things,” she said.

The local, comprised of about 100 workers, will be meeting later this month, with Lawr hoping they’ll have more details to share with members. CUPW said it hoped to finalize all existing items by Jan. 16 so that frameworks can be issued to each local.

Smidt and Senneville confirmed there will be no strike or lockout activities during the ratification vote period.

The Haliburton ATV Association made a $10,000 donation to the Minden Community Food Centre Jan. 14, proceeds raised during the group’s 2025 riding season.

Group director, Joel Bocknek, said the association hosted several guided rides across the County last year, raising money through donations and sales of mapbooks and trail passes.

“In this period of escalating living expenses and soaring food costs, too many people within our local community have become dependent on using the Minden Community Food Centre,” Bocknek said.

“Our donation will assist them in meeting the needs of the community.” Food bank manager, Jean Munroe, said the money will directly support the purchase of nutritious food for local families.

“We are grateful for this remarkable gift… the Haliburton ATV Association’s support will have an immediate impact on families who rely on us,” she said.

“Partnerships like this remind us that we’re working toward the same goal – making sure everyone in Minden feels supported.” The facility supports more than 320 families per month.