With COVID-19, and unknown future finances, Minden Hills Coun. Bob Carter wants the township to take a “very careful, sober” look at what to do with its $900,000-plus budget surplus from last year.

CAO-treasurer Lorrie Blanchard tabled a report to the May 14 committee-of-the-whole meeting, outlining the unspent funds. On May 28, she said money might be needed for refurbishment at the township office since it is moving the building, bylaw and planning department upstairs, and the clerks department downstairs.

Director of public works, Travis Wilson, also came cap-in-hand. He said with possible stimulus money coming from the provincial and federal governments post-pandemic, the township should complete its asset management plan. That way, he said they would be ready with reports on the condition of infrastructure, need, rationalization, and costs, for shove-lready projects for possible funding.

He said both Scotch Line and Blairhampton roads would be perfect candidates.

“Both of those roads are pretty much our busiest roads outside of the village of Minden, and are such large-scale projects that they usually never make it to a draft budget,” Wilson said. “They are discussed then included as a general note in the budget reports. They never actually end up being budgeted for.”

He said other road work could include Wigamog, Tom Bolton, Bacon and Russell roads.

Coun. Pam Sayne asked about boat ramps, saying some are in pretty bad condition, particularly one on Gull Lake she said is eating away at the edges of the road.

Carter supported the main recommendation of parking the money is capital reserves for now. He said when it came to a list of projects, “if we’re going to be looking at applying that money to these types of projects, I really think we should do almost like a new budget and determine what moneys we are going to have, and what projects should go into that budget.”

He added, “I think with COVID, things are very much still in the air. We don’t know what the financial health of the total area is going to be over this next little while. Money might be better spent or utilized by reducing taxes or whatever. I guess all I am saying is there are so many unknowns.”

Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary’s (WWS’) 11th hour intervention may have saved Minden’s downtown pigeons.

After learning the birds could be headed to death row, WWS emailed Minden Hills councillors on the eve of their May 28 meeting, founder and director Monika Melichar confirmed.

The correspondence was enough to convince councillors to shelve any culling plans for now.

Informed about the decision after the meeting, Melichar said, “I’m really happy they are considering alternative, more humane, methods. Euthanizing gives you a quick result, but ultimately it is going to back fire. What happens with any wildlife species is you create a void and others will fill it.”

There were three options on the table at the meeting. Two involved euthanizing the pigeons. The price would have been $50 per visit for a weekly service, for 30 weeks, ($1,500) and a $1,500 contingency for equipment and or birth control feed.

In the end, council opted to advise the property owner of a derelict building on Water Street to board up windows where pigeons are roosting; tell the public via social media and signs not to feed the pigeons, and investigate options with the WWS.

Coun. Pam Sayne said, “there was an offer from the wildlife reserve and I think we should consult with them before we need to take any action, financial, on this. Certainly, the first option of dealing with where they’re nesting is important. We need to address that and with the owner as well.”

Deputy Mayor Lisa Schell agreed. “Rather than just going out and killing them, I wouldn’t mind trying some different options and hopefully they (WWS) can help us out. So, financially it would be beneficial but also beneficial to the pigeons if we maybe just educate people right now, and ask that they not be fed and we board up that building where they seem to be roosting.”

Coun. Jennifer Hughey said councillors had received a couple of emails from people concerned about a possible cull so “trying to investigate some of these other things is a good idea.”

Melichar said the key is to remove shelter and food.

“I will gladly speak with them and work with them to find a solution,” she said.

Coun. Jean Neville said she’s a pigeon fancier.

“I don’t totally agree with annihilating them so boarding up the buildings where they are nesting and advising people not to feed and looking at other options, I’m much more comfortable with that.”

Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MP Jamie Schmale hosted a virtual town hall to highlight his party’s plan to speed up the process of improving connectivity.

The Conservative Party has released a call to action on rural internet access called Connect Canada, a series of recommendations for the federal government to improve connectivity across the country. Schmale invited his constituency May 20 to discuss the plan and field questions about rural internet access.

Calgary-Nose Hill MP and Shadow Minister for Industry and Economic Development, Michelle Rempel Garner as well as Cypress Hills-Grasslands MP Jeremy Patzer attended.

Rempel Garner highlighted the government’s commitment to connect 95 per cent of Canadians to high-speed internet by 2026, and all Canadians by 2030. Instead, she said her party hopes to achieve that by the end of next year.

“We believe there are structural reforms that are needed,” Rempel Garner said.

The call to action includes 14 recommendations, including developing a Canadian Broadband Strategy, alleviating short-term bandwidth shortages, improving telecom reporting and transparency, giving municipalities the funding to build and own the infrastructure, and more. The party has started a working group to get feedback on their ideas.

“While investment is important and is going to be a key component of any strategy, it’s not the be-all and end-all,” Rempel Garner said. “We need a framework in which investment actually delivers results.”

Other recommendations include creating local connectivity infrastructure funds people could pay into for their region, limiting regional price differences for national providers to 10 per cent and simplifying the language in Internet Service Providers (ISP) contracts to be more easily understood.

Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) communications director Lisa Severson was also in attendance to provide an update to the organization’s governmentbacked project, a $213-million initiative to address dead zones and improve mobile broadband through eastern Ontario.

The organization released a request for proposals to build new infrastructure April 20. Severson said they hope to begin construction in Spring 2021.

“In many areas of Eastern Ontario, there is zero cell coverage at all, which in today’s times is absolutely unacceptable,” Severson said. When asked about how to get urban people to care more about this issue given their connectivity tends to be stronger, Rempel Garner said COVID-19 has helped bridge that divide.

“It (internet access) has become a bit of a barrier to equality of opportunity not only in rural Canada, but urban Canada as well,” Rempel Garner said. “This has been a wake-up call for urban Canada.”

Rempel Garner said an expedited plan is necessary.

“It needs to be done in a very short period of time because if we don’t, we’re going to see even more of a divide between rural and urban Canada, and frankly, poor and rich Canada.”