The City of Kawartha Lakes is seeking community input as it plans for its next decade of work on housing and homelessness in the region.

The city is undertaking online and public consultations to create an update at the midway point of its 10 Year Housing and Homelessness Plan. The plan outlines a broad and strategic direction for addressing housing and homelessness in the area.

Housing Help program supervisor Michelle Corley said the city wants to make a plan that can address a wide range of housing issues.

“The plan is really to drive some of our planning around housing across the whole housing continuum,” Corley said.

The update is mandated by the province and comes five years after the last 10-year housing strategy, started in 2014. That strategy has included goals of increasing the supply of affordable housing, integrating homelessness prevention programs to use resources more effectively and ensuring the long-term viability and affordability of existing social housing.

Corley said the city and county have made good progress on those goals.

“We’ve accomplished a lot, if not most of all of our goals initiated, contained originally within the plan,” Corley said, adding the strategy update will feature new goals. “We’re going to have a lot more outcomes and measurables attached to those goals so we can report back very transparently.”

In 2017, the Kawartha Lakes-Haliburton Housing Corporation assisted 900 households in retaining their housing through homelessness prevention and assisted 32 previously homeless individuals and families in finding housing, according to an annual report on the plan. The plan also looks to set targets on the development of new affordable housing units, such as a three-storey apartment building in Minden Hills slated to be occupied in 2020.

The online survey, going on until the end of February, asks respondents about their details and housing situation while offering a chance for them to provide feedback on any challenges they have faced dealing with any housing problems.

Corley also said the city plans to hold a public consultation in the County of Haliburton about the 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan March 14, 9 a.m. at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 129 Haliburton.

The data from the survey and consultation will be used to help steer the corporation’s plan update and new goals, she said. The plan will also now extend to 2029, according to the survey website.

“We’re going a little deeper into some things. We want to make sure we’re addressing special populations such as Indigenous,” Corley said. “We are going a little bit deeper on the homelessness side, that is a priority of ours.”

The new plan is expected to be delivered in June, Corley said.

The online survey is available at www.kawarthalakes.ca/hhp.

Dysart et al’s Economic Development Committee is planning to press forward to decide on rules around short-term accommodations.

The committee met for the first time in the new term Jan. 23 and decided to make the issue its first priority.

Committee member and Coun. John Smith said Dysart should press ahead on the file and not count on the actions of neighbouring municipalities.

“Many people in this community are looking for us to take a position on short-term rentals,” he said. “Are we going to continue to allow the wild west or are we going to put some limits and constraints on that?”

Committee member Glenn Evans said short-term rentals remain a big concern.

“This did need to be tackled,” Evans said. “It sort of bubbled to the surface on the last committee and then it just bubbled back down again. It never did get the attention that I think it should have gotten.”

Committee member Dennis Casey noted Highlands East was the reason behind that, as the municipality opted to wait for how Highlands East handled the subject. Highlands East ultimately decided against proceeding with a proposed short-term accommodations bylaw for the time being.

Smith pushed for the committee to aim for a summer 2019 timeline to get new rules in place.

“If we just let it lie for many months, another whole year of the wild west that exists today is, from my perspective, unacceptable,” he said.

However, deputy mayor Patrick Kennedy replied with the need for public consultations, such a timeline would not work. He instead suggested the committee have something to put forward by the start of the new year.

Committee chair Walt McKechnie said it would be a great accomplishment if the committee could start moving to address the issue, adding the number of cottage rentals can impact water health.

“It’s something that has to be addressed right away,” he said. “It’s so important to our community. We’re sitting on such a tremendous amount of water.”

Committee considers new strategy

The committee also reviewed the municipality’s economic development strategy, discussing ways to adjust it and narrow down its 16 separate priorities.

Casey said there is a chance to do something different and improve on the poor reputation the municipality has in business.

“Dysart has a bad reputation of not doing their thing well in terms of how business is being helped,” Casey said during the meeting. “I don’t think there’s anybody in this room that will deny that.”

Nobody on the committee denied Casey’s statement.

He recommended the committee discus how it feels about its business community before adjusting its strategic plan.

“Let’s decide where we’re going and let’s decide what we can do and then put a budget number on it to make the things happen that we want to make happen,” he said.

County council expressed uncertainty over implementing a new transportation system Jan. 23 as it opted to push a decision to budget deliberations.

Council received a final report on a public transportation implementation plan from consultant IBI Group. The report details the methods and costs for the county to create a new public transportation system, which would primarily service Haliburton and Minden but also extend to Dorset and Wilberforce.

In a discussion after the report, Coun. Carol Moffatt said there are a lot of unknowns about proceeding with the project.

“This is a very big and serious topic and a financial hit as well,” she said. “We’d be committing to an unknown, in theory, to build on.”

The presentation from IBI Group highlighted the challenges a new transportation service will face, including an ageing demographic, a sparse population distributed over a large area and dispersed travel patterns which are difficult to service.

A booked, shared ride service was recommended by IBI Group, to be handled by a contractor. The proposed service would run six hours per day, six days per week in a core coverage area around Minden and Haliburton, and three hours per day into Dorset and Wilberforce through Gooderham.

IBI Group senior associate Chris Prentice said the service would have its limitations and require focus to be successful.

“Really got to focus on the area in which the greatest success will occur,” Prentice said. “You really want to walk before you run. You really want to make sure the service is going to be used first before you start adding to it.”

The cost for the county is about $162,000 over a full year of service. This assumes the province provides the maximum gas tax contribution toward the transportation project of $141,654 annually.

County director of planning Charsley White said getting that funding requires a long-term commitment, at least three to five years with an expectation the program would continue beyond that.

“I don’t hear from any member of council that we’re there or anywhere near there,” Warden Liz Danielsen said in reply.

Coun. Andrea Roberts said the county has to be aware the costs could be higher than presented.

“There are lots of variances,” she said. “We know the purpose is a service to the community and so there’s going to be a cost. But I think we need to acknowledge the cost would be much greater than what’s indicated today.”

Roberts also said the Dysart et al council would have to discuss its own DYMO bus should the transportation project go ahead. The implementation plan notes the bus could be repurposed for the new transportation system.

Council voted to receive the report for information.

Danielsen said council would have to look at the structure around the transportation task force and possibly forming a committee on the issue made up of council and the task force members.

“We may want to see how the overall budget stacks up against this and where our priorities are going to be for this year,” she said. “It may be this has to go on a little bit of a slower timeframe.”

County of Haliburton municipalities are calling on the province to give proper consideration of rural and northern municipalities as it undertakes a review of the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF).

As of Jan. 24, all four lower-tier municipal councils have voted to send letters to Minister of Finance Vic Fedeli in regards to the review of the OMPF. Fedeli wrote municipalities Dec. 21 that the province is reviewing the OMPF, the province’s main assistance grant to municipalities, as part of its efforts to reduce its deficit.

County of Haliburton Warden Liz Danielsen said the fund is a significant revenue stream for municipalities.

“The thought of losing all of or any substantial portion of our Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund contributions remains of extreme concern to all municipalities that rely heavily on this source of funding,” Danielsen said in an email. “It can amount to as much as 25 per cent of a small municipality’s revenue stream and that loss would have a significant impact on taxes or levels of service being provided.”

In response to Fedeli, Danielsen wrote a letter dated Jan. 14, with all four lower-tier municipalities voting to support it and draft their own similar letters at their latest regular meetings. The letter notes the county and its municipalities receive a total in excess of $7 million in OMPF funding and it is hoped the renewed program will continue to support rural and northern municipalities.

“We understand the program is not functioning as it was originally intended and we must do our part to address the fiscal challenges we face as a province,” Danielsen wrote. “We respectfully request, however, that rural and northern communities continue to receive transfer funds that reflect our different needs and challenges.”

The review has led to a delay in the details on the allotments each municipality reviews under OMPF. Fideli said in the Dec. 21 letter the amount of deficit incurred by the previous government was unsustainable.

“This is why we’re making every effort to restore fiscal balance to the province,” he said. “While we will be operating within a smaller funding envelope, we want to work with you to return the program to what it was initially intended to do – support the Northern and rural municipalities that need it most.”

At the Algonquin Highlands council meeting Jan. 17, treasurer Tammy McKelvey said the delay in the OMPF allotment is affecting budgeting.

“We would normally know about this funding in November, so it has a huge impact,” McKelvey said. “It makes it difficult to move forward with budget.”

Algonquin Highlands Mayor Carol Moffatt said there is some confidence rural municipalities will be safe but they will have to see.

“We’ll wait with bated breath,” she said during the Jan. 17 meeting. “The timing is critical to get the letters in while the review is undertaken.”

Highlands East council re-affirmed it does not intend to proceed with a short-term accommodation bylaw in response to a delegation opposing council action on the topic.

Cottager Ryan Bailey spoke to council during its Jan. 16 meeting. Bailey is opposed to council opting against proceeding with a short-term accommodations committee Dec. 6. The committee’s draft mandate was to guide council on the issue.

Deputy Mayor Cec Ryall said he had looked into many of the questions Bailey asked and found it was better to postpone the establishment of a bylaw.

“We have challenges with other bylaws at this point in time we need to address. Once those bylaws are addressed standalone and enforced effectively … I think at that point in time we’d be in a much better position to sit down and look at a bylaw for short-term accommodations,” Ryall said.

“Me as a voter in council would definitely not support the establishment of a short-term accommodation bylaw at this point,” he added.

In a statement Dec. 6, council said the majority of the 18 applicants for the committee had conflict-of-interest concerns and council would not proceed.

“Council as a whole feel that we need more information before we are in a position to decide what short-term accommodation approach best suits the Municipality of Highlands East,” the statement said.

However, Bailey said council should have communicated its intentions regarding the draft bylaw better.

“There’s been no closure,” Bailey said. “If you’re done with this, why not put out a more fulsome statement saying that?”

The draft bylaw was shelved by council at its Sept. 5 meeting, following a public meeting Aug. 29 in which the majority of speakers criticized the bylaw. Council voted to shelve it to gather more information and have staff prepare a draft terms of reference for a revised short-term accommodation task group.

In an email, chief administrative officer Shannon Hunter confirmed the bylaw was still shelved and addressed a previous June 2019 target to start licencing for short-term accommodation.

“Council is not considering passing a short-term accommodations licencing bylaw or amending the zoning bylaw at this time, therefore the June 2019 date is invalid,” Hunter said.

Bailey said council needs to take responsibility for its work on short-term accommodations since 2016.

“Council needs to take ownership of the sequence of events,” he said. “It caused lots of frustration and confusion and lack of trust.”

Challenge on conflict of interest

Bailey, who applied for the committee, also questioned the municipality’s assertion that the majority of applicants would be disallowed under conflict of interest legislation.

He argued a bylaw would affect electors in a common way and that any such conflict is insignificant enough to be unlikely to influence a member’s decisions, which are both exclusions under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.

Hunter responded during the meeting that a legal opinion was received by the municipal solicitor.

“Your reference to those sections of conflict of interest are incorrect,” she said.

Highlands East firefighters stood shore-bound as citizens and EMS gathered around a snowmobiler injured on the ice of Benoir Lake Jan. 12.

The firefighting service remains shore only and lacks ice rescue training, according to Highlands East acting fire
chief Chris Baughman. This is despite the municipality receiving approximately $18,562 in 2017 from a GoFundMe campaign to get ice rescue training in the wake of the death of cottager Bob Bell, who died after his snowmobile went through the ice on Dark Lake.

Baughman confirmed his department was on the scene Jan. 12 and said they would have taken the risk to intervene had EMS not arrived at the same time.

“At the time we didn’t feel it necessary to put any more people on the ice. We are shore-based only but with the fire service we will risk, not necessarily safety, but will extend the amount of risk we will take if necessary,” he said.

But the GoFundMe money remains set aside and unspent, Baughman said, because the province does not have a recognized ice-training rescue course.

“As soon as we have the option to use that money for what it was donated, then we would like to do so,” Baughman said. “I can’t change it. I would like to see it sooner rather than later, but without an approved course form the province, I have nothing to back us up as far as training and certification and documentation to prove that we have the training.”

The lack of courses is a result of a 2017 inquest into the deaths of Adam Brunt and Gary Kendall, two firefighters who died during ice-rescue training. The inquest recommended the province halt all regulated and unregulated ice/cold water training exercises in any “swift” currents. The Office of the Fire Marshall and Emergency Management subsequently put ice/cold water rescue programs on hiatus, according to Legislative Assembly of Ontario records.

Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services spokesperson Brent Ross said a curriculum for ice rescue training is under development.

“The Ontario Fire College is developing the curriculum for a revised ice rescue training course, which is can’t change it. I would like to see it sooner rather than later, but without an approved course form the province, I have nothing to back us up as far as training and certification and documentation to prove that we have the training.”

Baughman said he was not personally on scene Jan. 12 and could not provide details on what occurred with the injured person on the ice. County of Haliburton chief/director of community services Tim Waite said regulations prevented him from discussing specifics on a call.

The Highlands East fire department is not the only one lacking ice-rescue training due to the lack of courses. Dysart et al fire chief Mike Iles said it is an issue for all municipalities.

“Until this new course comes out and training begins, all municipalities will struggle with the do’s and don’ts of water rescue,” he said in an email. “Ultimately it comes down to the safety of the firefighter and the job they are performing.”

Highlands East firefighters stood shore-bound as citizens and EMS gathered around a snowmobiler injured on the ice of Benoir Lake Jan. 12.

The firefighting service remains shore only and lacks ice rescue training, according to Highlands East acting fire
chief Chris Baughman. This is despite the municipality receiving approximately $18,562 in 2017 from a GoFundMe campaign to get ice rescue training in the wake of the death of cottager Bob Bell, who died after his snowmobile went through the ice on Dark Lake.

Baughman confirmed his department was on the scene Jan. 12 and said they would have taken the risk to intervene had EMS not arrived at the same time.

“At the time we didn’t feel it necessary to put any more people on the ice. We are shore-based only but with the fire service we will risk, not necessarily safety, but will extend the amount of risk we will take if necessary,” he said.

But the GoFundMe money remains set aside and unspent, Baughman said, because the province does not have a recognized ice-training rescue course.

“As soon as we have the option to use that money for what it was donated, then we would like to do so,” Baughman said. “I can’t change it. I would like to see it sooner rather than later, but without an approved course form the province, I have nothing to back us up as far as training and certification and documentation to prove that we have the training.”

The lack of courses is a result of a 2017 inquest into the deaths of Adam Brunt and Gary Kendall, two firefighters who died during ice-rescue training. The inquest recommended the province halt all regulated and unregulated ice/cold water training exercises in any “swift” currents. The Office of the Fire Marshall and Emergency Management subsequently put ice/cold water rescue programs on hiatus, according to Legislative Assembly of Ontario records.

Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services spokesperson Brent Ross said a curriculum for ice rescue training is under development.

“The Ontario Fire College is developing the curriculum for a revised ice rescue training course, which is can’t change it. I would like to see it sooner rather than later, but without an approved course form the province, I have nothing to back us up as far as training and certification and documentation to prove that we have the training.”

Baughman said he was not personally on scene Jan. 12 and could not provide details on what occurred with the injured person on the ice. County of Haliburton chief/director of community services Tim Waite said regulations prevented him from discussing specifics on a call.

The Highlands East fire department is not the only one lacking ice-rescue training due to the lack of courses. Dysart et al fire chief Mike Iles said it is an issue for all municipalities.

“Until this new course comes out and training begins, all municipalities will struggle with the do’s and don’ts of water rescue,” he said in an email. “Ultimately it comes down to the safety of the firefighter and the job they are performing.”