Decisions, such as whether or not Minden Hills will have an organics program, remain up in the air as council continues to go through its first Strong Mayors budget.

Councillors discussed their 2026 financial plan for a third time Jan. 8. Prior to Christmas, the staff budget prepared with mayor Bob Carter was tabled. Another meeting was held Jan. 6 and it factored into last week’s regular council meeting as well.

Councillors have proposed a number of amendments to the mayor’s budget. Carter has the right to veto. If he does so, he has to inform councillors in writing with his rationale. After that, council can override him with a two-thirds majority vote. The final day of the process will be Feb. 3.

To date, council is sitting on a 5.29 per cent levy increase. However, factoring in one per cent growth, it is a 4.29 per cent tax rate increase.

Coun. Tammy McKelvey, who has led the majority of council’s discussions, said if that is where council lands, she can live with it.

She pointed out an 11 per cent increase in OPP policing billing “was a terrible hit to us, but it wasn’t our decision.” She laid the blame on the province.

She said with an OPP increase of 1.82 per cent on the levy, the township was really looking at collecting 3.47 per cent from taxpayers. While she said it would be nice to get to zero, that was not realistic. “I’m quite happy with what’s happened here. I can live with it and defend it.”

But it may not be the final budget, with power potentially shifting to Carter. In his budget, he proposed an organics program for the Scotch Line landfill that four councillors (McKelvey, Ivan Ingram, Bob Sisson and Shirley Johannessen) want removed. It would cost a total of $39,000.

Manager of waste facilities, Chelsea Cosh, told council the program would help save space in the landfill. She said studies have shown 30-40 per cent of household waste is comprised of organic material. “So, having a program would allow us to divert that material from the landfill and make use of a successful organics program.” She said it would require three waste containers (Moloks).

Carter tipped his hand that he might veto this council amendment, commenting, “there is a demand from a certain segment of the public that wants to see this type of environmental leadership.”

McKelvey said it’s a program she would support, but not for the 2026 budget. “We’ve got a lot happening up there … a new transfer station. I personally would like to wait until next year.”

In addition to amending the mayor’s budget to cut some items (a bulldozer at $150,000; a pickup truck at $120,000; and not hiring an additional roads labourer, for example), there were suggested additions. These included putting $50,000 towards a project for the old fire hall downtown.

Some decisions appear to have been made, though, such as dismantling the existing lights from the Riverwalk and investigating other lighting options.

When it comes to roads, the township is looking at doing work on Blairhampton, Nichols, Salerno Lake, Irondale, Sedgewick, and Francis.

It took Dysart et al council just 11 minutes last week to support the township’s 2026 budget, with mayor Murray Fearrey saying, “this is pretty well a stand-pat budget,” with little-to-no money set aside to expand services this year.

A second draft of the budget was tabled during a Jan. 9 special meeting, with elected officials happy with a 4.98 per cent increase to property taxes. This is down from 5.83 per cent, proposed in the first draft of the budget in December. Treasurer Brayden Robinson noted staff had found more savings in recent weeks, reducing the required tax levy increase by $111,529.

As a result, residential ratepayers can expect to pay an additional $17.54 per $100,000 of their property’s assessed value. That equates to a median increase of $40.17 on the year for non-waterfront taxpayers and $71.04 for those with seasonal residences.

“We’ve not done anything to lessen the services of the municipality, but we’ve had to cut some projects that would be nice to do, especially roads, because if we did them, we’d just have to borrow the money,” Fearrey said.

“We’re going to provide the same services that we did last year – we’ll get some of the roads done that need to be done in town here, one out on Wenona Lake, and we’ve got the [three] bridges, which are huge,” he added.

The township is slated to spend $3.8 million replacing the Redstone Brook and Barry’s Bay bridges and Head Lake Park footbridge this year. A further $1.5 million is being spent resurfacing a dozen roads in the community, including the entirety of the Halbiem Crescent subdivision and portions of Fred Jones Road, Wenona Lake Road, Meadowview Road, Industrial Park Road, Eastern Avenue, Pine Avenue, Humber Avenue, Dome Street, Harmony Road and Mink Road.

The township’s operating expenses – things they have to pay for year-over-year that council has little control over, according to Fearrey – are up more than $1 million in 2026, climbing to $17.76 million. Taxpayers will pay approximately $14 million of that, with 76 per cent borne by those with residential properties.

Robinson noted commercial properties would pay an additional $26.01 per $100k of assessment, with industrial owners paying an extra $30.14 per $100k.

In his report to council, Robinson broke down the savings from the December meeting – expected costs for a final cover at the West Guilford and Kennisis landfills, initially projected at $429,243, have come in at $252,743 – a reduction of $176,500. Landfill haulage costs yielded a $46,638 reduction, with another $51,689 saved on the bridges due to a revised repayment plan.

Building and bylaw staff are now projecting an increase of $5,000 in STR revenues – welcome news after council learned last month that program uptake hasn’t been as successful as initially projected. The township expected to have 500 STR properties as of the start of 2026, but staff have only registered 250270, leading to a $110,000 decrease in anticipated revenues.

The biggest increase across the whole budget, Robinson confirmed, was OPP costs, which are up 11 per cent ($244,993). This is a big jump from recent years, with police carrying a 0.5 per cent increase in 2023, 1.4 per cent in 2024 and 3.6 per cent in 2025.

Tightening belts

Fearrey reiterated how difficult it was toeing the line with this budget.

“It would have been nice if we could have done some other things – adding a grader or fixing some of our other issues, but we’re just going to have to fix things as we go. That’s just what we have to do right now if we’re going to be at all reasonable to taxpayers.

“I don’t want to leave the next council with a bigger mess than we inherited, so there are some things we need to do [and pay for]… it would have been nice not to have a tax increase, but that day has gone, I’m afraid, for a long time,” he said.

The mayor again targeted the provincial and federal governments, saying municipalities need additional sources of revenues to cover costs – especially in the wake of recent provincial governments downloading costs, for things such as social housing, to the local level.

Deputy mayor Walt McKechnie and councillors Barry Boice, Pat Casey and Tammy Donaldson took turns complimenting Fearrey, Robinson and department heads for delivering a trimmed budget – the first since Ontario premier Doug Ford mandated mayors in most municipalities take control of the process.

Fearrey said despite the additional responsibility, which he said he doesn’t like, he still worked alongside council to ensure they felt a part of proceedings.

“To me, it was the same process. There’s only one way to do a budget and that’s with the department heads, staff and council. This didn’t change anything for me, I didn’t think it needed to happen, but it did. It might work in Toronto, but isn’t needed in these rural municipalities,” Fearrey said.

Under the new process, Robinson said there is no formal approval mechanism required for the budget, with the process now considered complete.

Finding more ways to celebrate the community’s heritage, history and identity are core themes of a proposed five-year update to the Dysart et al cultural plan, says Erin Lynch, chair of the township’s cultural resources committee (CRC).

She told The Highlander during a recent interview that she hopes to have the new document ratified by council and officially adopted by spring.

A refreshed plan was presented to council in December. Work has been completed by County-based consultant Heather Reid, who was hired last summer to bring the township’s existing plan, adopted in 2012, up to date.

“The original plan was intended to be a 10-year plan, it was never meant as a final document. We’ve seen a lot of changes in our community in recent years – whether it’s the influx of people who have moved up here, we’ve certainly seen an increase in diversity. So, we have to respond to all of that,” Lynch said.

Reid spent months consulting with the public, Lynch said. A targeted survey to local cultural groups drew 59 responses, with a community meeting at the Haliburton School of Art + Design (HSAD) in November providing further opportunity for residents to weigh in.

Keeping with the theme of the original plan, Reid expanded on the document’s four original goals – seeing the municipality take a more active role in cultural planning and development; taking steps to build and promote a strong and dynamic cultural sector; finding ways to expand cultural and economic development; and supporting projects that boost local heritage and identity.

Through the first pillar, Reid said one of the main objectives of the update is to improve lines of communication between council and the cultural resources committee, clarifying for community groups how the relationship works so they know who to approach with concerns.

“We also want to educate the community about the CRC and their role, enhancing connections with the hamlets and thinking about policies that make sense for cultural initiatives as this area changes and evolves,” Reid said.

Given the changing dynamics of the local population, Reid said there’s also a need to expand on cultural offerings. She pointed to events like the Diwali in Haliburton, hosted by Dance Happens Here Haliburton in November, as a perfect example of something new locals can enjoy.

Reid said there’s also a desire to strengthen connections with “community linchpins” like HSAD and CanoeFM, while also finding new ways to improve youth engagement and improve the downtown.

On cultural and economic development, Reid said something as simple as utilizing existing GIS infrastructure to populate a virtual map showcasing Dysart’s many cultural offerings could go a long way to improving awareness of local events and businesses.

Diving deeper on heritage and identity, Reid said the CRC has supported two important historical projects in recent years – the installation of informative panels at the Eagle Lake beach telling the story of how the hamlet became the rhubarb capital of Ontario, and something similar for Glebe Park celebrating the area’s Indigenous history.

“There so much potential for more historical research to be done – some of the topics outlined by the community include logging, Indigenous people, hockey, aggregates, hunting, the Molou Theatre, the lodges of Lake Kashagawigamog, forestry, fishing,” Reid said. “This is where we can see an opportunity for so many different groups in our community to get involved and capture these stories.”

Mayor Murray Fearrey said he doesn’t think the township has done a good enough job of celebrating the community’s history.

“We have pieces here and there, but no coordinated effort to fill in the big picture. I think that’s something we could focus on, for sure,” Fearrey said.

Lynch said the CRC will meet Feb. 12, where it’s expected a recommendation will be made for council to support the update. The file will be discussed again by council before being adopted.

The Haliburton Highlands OPP has made its first drug bust of the new year, taking approximately $7,000 worth of fentanyl and cocaine out of the local illicit drug supply.

Officers from the detachment’s community street crime unit raided a residence on Parkside Street in Minden Jan. 6. According to police, they seized 63.5 grams of fentanyl, nine grams of cocaine, $195 in cash and two shotgun shells.

Two people were arrested at the site and subsequently charged – 69-yearold Vallinda Davis and 46-year-old Jamie Madill, both of Minden. They are facing two counts of possession of a schedule one substance for the purpose of trafficking and possession of proceeds of property obtained by crime under $5,000.

The two have been released and are scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Minden at a later date.

Cst. Rob Adams, with the Highlands detachment, says police are looking for any information about the trafficking of illicit substances in Haliburton County. Anyone with information can contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122, or by contacting Kawartha/Haliburton Crimestoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477. Tipsters may be eligible to receive a cash reward up to $2,000.