The debate around the County’s shoreline protection bylaw is intensifying as the municipality prepares to put the current draft up for public discussion.

County council completed a review of the bylaw Nov. 23, with the municipality planning a public meeting later this winter and enforcement starting in April. Cottage, environmental and building associations alike are examining the bylaw, with outcry from some groups about the current draft.

The proposed rules aim to curtail shoreline degradation and thus preserve lake health by limiting development within 30 metres of shorelines. But the Haliburton County Home Builders Association (HCHBA) is asking for changes and said the setback goes too far.

“We feel some of the items required for the site alteration plan are excessive and, in the end, it could negatively affect local businesses,” spokesperson Aaron Galbraith said. “We just want to work with them to get to a common ground.”

The Coalition of Haliburton Property Owners Associations (CHA) has driven the concern around shoreline health. It has pointed to research about shorelines needing 75 per cent naturalization to maintain water quality and help prevent algae blooms. A CHA assessment of 60 local lakes found only 47-48 per cent of their shorelines were natural.

Galbraith said the HCHBA wants the bylaw delayed until after the pandemic, to allow a proper public meeting instead of an online one. But Environment Haliburton! vice-president Terry Moore said they want to see it finalized as soon as possible due to the pandemic creating a “building frenzy” on shorelines.

“That is translating into a lot of development pressure that is doing so much damaging stuff,” Moore said.

Galbraith responded that many in the landscaping sector such as him build responsibly.

“Unfortunately, in any trade, there are going to be people that try to skirt around the rules. But a lot of us follow the rules and we’re actually helping our lake systems by securing our shorelines,” he said.

The County is also opening discussion on mandating shoreline renaturalization, which is not in the current draft. CHA chair Paul MacInnes said his organization is concerned adding that would slow the process too much.

“If the bylaw is passed, we should all work together to convince property owners to voluntarily renaturalize our shorelines,” MacInnes said. “With 10 suspected algae blooms reported this year, more and more people realize that we need to act urgently.”

Galbraith said the HCHBA would like the requirement and it makes sense by the CHA’s own report.

“They want to achieve 75 per cent (naturalized shoreline),” Galbraith said. “There’s no way to attain that without making past offenders remediate their properties.”

The HCHBA has begun advertising on the issue. They claimed a landowner could need to spend $10,000 for project approval with no guarantee of success, which Galbraith said was based on a talk with a local professional surveyor. The HCHBA also estimated it could cost $750,000 per year to implement the bylaw. In the first draft of its 2021 budget, the County projects a $115,000 cost for two staff to enforce the bylaw. Galbraith said the HCHBA feels it will take more.

In a Facebook post, Moore said the HCHBA’s points are “extreme exaggerations” adding heat to an already polarized debate.

“With healthy lakes being so essential to a healthy, sustainable future for the members of your association, why is the HCHBA focused exclusively on drumming up opposition to a bylaw aimed at preserving that future?” Moore asked.

Galbraith said the HCHBA wants to find a solution which works for the environment, property owners and local businesses.

“We are not ‘exclusively trying to drum up opposition’,” Galbraith said. “We are simply trying to ensure that all lakefront property owners in Haliburton County are aware of the proposed bylaw and the possible impacts.”

Dysart council agreed to pause any major road projects within Haliburton village until it makes decisions on future sewer line expansion.

Staff presented its proposed slate of road resurfacing projects for 2021 at a special budget meeting Jan. 11. The slate is not finalized but featured more than 30 kilometres of roads receiving surface treatment for $1.5 million in total.

Included in the list were several roads within Haliburton village, including parts of Highland Street, Mountain Street, Park Street and Pine Avenue.

But Coun. John Smith said such work should be delayed, given the possibility of future sewer line work.

“The ghost of my dad is going to say, ‘my God, don’t resurface those roads and then go out in a year or two and tear it up,’” Smith said. “People will think we got nothing but money.”

Dysart’s service delivery review presented last September proposed long-term planning on the sewer system and an expanded line. Council has yet to make any decisions on the idea.

Mayor Andrea Roberts said regular maintenance could continue in the meantime.

“We’re still patching, we’re still fixing potholes,” Roberts said. “But we really should have a full investigation into the sewer.”

Council directed staff to adjust the project list to remove roads within the village that could be in included in a sewer expansion.

More funding for roads

Council also agreed to put more dollars into the road budget to contract prep work for resurfacing projects.

Council agreed to a figure – potentially in the $50,000-$100,000 range, based on staff recommendation – for more brushing and ditching, a needed step in some areas to convert roads from gravel to hardtop.

Smith questioned staff’s struggles to get planned brushing and ditching done in-house at areas like Kennisis Lake Road.

“We have all sorts of good intentions to get this work done, but it all boils down to limitations,” director of public works Rob Camelon said. “We only have so many people.”

Council asked staff to bring back an exact figure they would like to contract some of the workload.

On the night of Dec. 9, 2020, two masked suspects entered the Haliburton Highland Pharmacy on Highland Street. Brandishing a firearm, they demanded, and received, narcotics.

They then fled the scene. The OPP Tactics and Rescue Unit, Canine, Emergency Response Unit and Forensic Identification Services all swarmed the site.

Dysart et al Mayor Andrea Roberts happened to be driving by and saw the large police presence. She knew something was up.

Roberts said in her opinion, drug-related crime in Haliburton County “has most definitely gone up.” She also thinks thieves are becoming more brazen. She said people with drug problems are not new to the County, but what is disturbing is the organized crime element she is now witnessing.

“It’s disconcerting. I have not seen that type of thing in Haliburton County before,” she said.

Haliburton Highlands OPP detachment commander, Liane Spong, said when it comes to drug-related theft, “It’s about availability. It’s about quick cash. It’s about feeding that addiction. It’s all very interrelated. We try to tackle it with a multifaceted approach and hit it all.”

Downtown Haliburton businesses have seen their fair share of break-ins over the past few years. But thieves have been busy across the Highlands, police say.

While the Dec. 9 incident was clearly related to drugs, OPP statistics indicate that in nearly every major drug bust they made in Haliburton County in 2020, they also seized stolen items from businesses or residences.

On Nov. 1, 2019, they had their first big breakthrough after months of investigations, busting a major theft and drug ring.

“We were able to have our teams go out and execute a number of warrants and a number of arrests, seized drugs, recovered skid steers, trailers, boats, snowmobiles etcetera,” Spong said.

Looking at the seized property summary for Haliburton County for 2020, police recovered 251 items, valued at $76,000 as of Nov. 29, 2020. In 2019, by contrast, they seized 118 items worth $39,000.

Different perceptions about problem

Luke Schell is president of the Haliburton Business Improvement Association (BIA). He said with all of the break-ins over the past three years, it appears to him that only one – at the pharmacy before Christmas – was definitely drug-related.

“He went in with a gun and demanded drugs … that’s a pretty easy one,” Schell said. As for the others, “how do we know that they’re not using it (stolen items or cash) to buy food for their family? I don’t think we can just jump to the conclusion that it has to do with drugs.”

He added while an armed robbery in the downtown is naturally “concerning … I don’t think that it is something that is going to happen a whole bunch of times in Haliburton.”

A long-time resident, he doesn’t think the drug problem has gotten any worse over the years, with the possible exception of opioid use.

“And how the opioid crisis got started is debatable but appears to have been started by drug companies and doctors by mistake. And now they’re trying to shut that down but once that wheel gets rolling, it’s hard to stop. It’s pretty addictive stuff.”

Schell said the fact he doesn’t think the problem has gotten any worse does not mean that there isn’t a drug problem in Haliburton County. However, “I don’t think the drug problem we have in Haliburton County is any worse than many, many other towns such as ours. I’m not going to vilify Haliburton County as being the drug capital of Ontario. I quite honestly feel that most retail business people around here feel like we’re in one of the safest communities going. That’s how I feel about it. I’m not worried about the lady who just came in the store here pulling a gun on me.”

Minden Hills councillor, Jennifer Hughey, who witnessed a drug bust on the street she lives on in November 2020, said she can see a link between residential property crime and drugs. She said last summer, at the end of the driveway of a suspected drug house, there was a yard sale and “when you see seven bicycles lined up, you realize that the people who live in that house, there’s no need for all of those bicycles. Those bicycles have probably been stolen and were used to buy drugs, or the money made from selling them are probably going to be used to buy drugs.”

Alex Smith emailed The Highlander in January of 2020 saying his Dysart et al cottage has been broken into five times over the past several years. He said he filed police reports and had spoken to Roberts. He’s pretty sure it has to do with drugs.

“The community needs to come together to solve the problem,” he said.

Plan in the works

Warden Liz Danielsen told The Highlander that drug problems were not part of the purview of Haliburton County Council and that she had no internal knowledge about the depth of a problem that might exist within the county.

“Do we have a drug problem in Haliburton? I’d say there might be some issues but I don’t know the extent of that for sure,” she said. “And saying that there is a problem is rather subjective. Some might think there’s a huge problem while others might not, or that the police and agencies involved have things in hand. I’m sure they are all working very hard to keep problems at a minimum as best they can.”

Danielsen said policing is the mandate of the lower tier municipalities, and that the four mayors form the membership of the CPAC group. Having said that, she noted that the County has assumed responsibility, on behalf of its partner municipalities, to develop a Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan, as directed by the province.

She said that it isn’t likely that the County would play a role in any police board yet to be established adding however that, “once developed, the plan will provide a better opportunity for police to work with all of the agencies involved. When the [plan] is completed issues like drug problems in a rural community like ours will be better dealt with by a roundtable of the appropriate people.”

Downtown Haliburton business break-ins

• May 30, 2018 – The Source – Halco Electronics was the target of a break and enter. Culprits made off with cellphones and other high-value items worth $10,000.

• July 2-3, 2018 – The 4Cs Lily Ann Thrift Shop was broken into. Thieves took some jewelry and caused extensive damage.

• Oct. 22, 2019 – Parkside Laundry in Haliburton was broken into. Cash stolen and $15,000 in damages.

• Dec. 26, 2019 – Kozy Korner targeted with front door glass smashed and tip jar stolen. Thousands of dollars in damage.

• Dec. 29, 2019 – Parkside Laundry broken into again. Someone tried to steal from the change machine.

• Dec. 9, 2020 – Armed robbery for narcotics at Haliburton Highland Pharmacy.