Halls Lake resident Tim Kegel and wife, Laura, say it’s always been their dream to have a small hobby farm and be as selfsustaining as possible.

The couple are seeking to rezone their sixacre property at 1572 Little Hawk Lake Rd. When they first added animals in 2018, they thought the land was Rural-Exception (RU), which allows hobby farms. They had six to eight pigs per year, though stopped raising in 2023 after learning the property is zoned Shoreline Residential 2.

“Living off the land really appeals to us. We have an apple orchard, some gardens… we don’t have pigs anymore, but we want to raise four or five per year, butcher them in the fall and have the meat for winter,” Kegel said. “We also have about 10 chickens, which gives us way more eggs than we could ever eat, and honeybees.”

He says there were no issues with neighbours until 2023, after he clear cut a half-acre at the rear of his property, closest to the water, and used the leftover stumps to create a berm along his property line.

Kegel claims that after complaints over the berm went nowhere, his neighbours turned their attention to his pigs. Multiple people approached him about the smell in 2023, though he says he wasn’t doing anything differently from when he had no complaints.

After investing about $100,000 getting his hobby farm off the ground, Kegel has gone without his pigs for the past two years. He’s had representatives from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Agribusiness (OMAFRA), Algonquin Highlands township, and environmental consultants look at his operation. All have given him a passing grade, he claims.

He’s submitted environmental impact and nutrient management studies to the township, while also sharing a report from an OMAFRA officer, Jon Harris, who inspected the site in November 2023 after the ministry received complaints from neighbours worried that manure created bythe pigs may seep into Halls Lake.

“The setback from the area [the pigs were kept] to the lake is sufficient to meet any requirements and there are no indications of any impacts to the surface water… no corrective actions are required at this time,” Harris wrote.

Having lived on Halls Lake since 1988, when his family purchased Shalom on the Lake, Kegel said he’s just as concerned about the lake’s long-term health.

“We’re a big part of the community – I grew up on this lake. We’re rebuilding our home (following a 2023 fire) because I plan to live the rest of my life on the lake. I care about it just as much as everyone else.”

With concerns raised over the types of things RU designation allows, Kegel said he’s offered to include exemptions in his application, prohibiting him or any future owner from developing an asphalt plant, quarry, or other non-conforming use.

Kegel also wants to build a secondary residence on the property for his older children and keep shipping containers installed 12 years ago when he bought it – both are prohibited in SR2 zones.

“I think this has all been ludicrously overblown – we haven’t hidden anything. Any time I wanted to do something new or different, I reached out to the township. Because both my, and their, records stated the land is RU, I’ve always been told I can get on with it,” Kegel said. “We’re not directly on the water, we have specialists telling us our hobby farm won’t impact the lake… hopefully common sense prevails.”

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s (AMO) ‘healthy democracy project’ was launched in 2022; after several trends raised concerns about the strength of local democracy.

These trends were evident in Haliburton County, with fewer candidates running for election or re-election, and a corresponding increase in acclamations. Voter turnout was also lower.

AMO’s Petra Wolfbeiss and Henry Khamonde are coming to Minden Hills May 28 to talk about how people can create positive change in the community; discover ways to engage effectively with local municipal governance, and learn how many voices lead to meaningful change.

Wolfbeiss is the director, membership centre for AMO. The told The Highlander, “it’s really important the voices and experience of people across communities are heard and represented on local councils.”

She added AMO created the project to tackle two key objectives: increasing the diversity of council and candidates, and boosting voter turn out.

“We can move these forward by improving people’s understanding of municipal government and the impact is has on our daily lives,” she said.

AMO has developed a toolkit to help elected officials engage with local schools and share the importance of getting involved in community from a young age. “We know that cultivating future leaders also means listening to youth. Families can do their part simply through conversations at the dinner table with younger people,” the AMO representative said.

She added municipal government is closest to the people. “If you look out your window, almost everything you see is impacted by your local municipal council. Roads, trees, parks, housing, the water you drink, all of the planning decisions.”

She encouraged people to learn about municipal government, and understand what councils plan to do and what it means to their community.

“Municipalities are constantly inviting people to provide input and they work hard to provide this information where people will see it. We need to do our part. Connect with your local government, whether it’s signing up for newsletters, following on social media, or meeting with your councillor. If there is a topic you care about, join community groups that share your interest.”

With municipal elections slated for October 2026, Wolfbeiss encourages people to find out about their local candidates. “If they come to your door, have a conversation about what you care about.” She added municipal websites often have information about the local election.

“From then on, it’s mostly about paying attention. Does council need your support to get an important housing project completed? Do they need your help in putting on a great local event?

“It’s also really important to provide input that is constructive and respectful. It’s ok to disagree – because different opinions can result in stronger decisionmaking. But we have to put civility back into civil discourse. Remind yourself that at the end of the day, everyone just wants the best outcome for the community.

“So those are some of the key things: build your understanding, get involved, and respect difference.”

Wolfbeiss stressed that diverse opinions and diverse councils make for competent councils. “People with different life experiences bring unique insights to the conversation. It helps councils to understand the impact of their decisions on different people across the community. They can make better, more informed decisions. Everyone in a community matters. And this needs to be understood and reflected in discussions and decisions at council.”

Register by May 23

The event is hosted by the Township of Minden Hills, and supported by Aging Together as Community, the Haliburton Highlands Healthy Democracy Project/Haliburton County Community Cooperative and Telling Our Stories Speakers Series.

Minden Hills Coun. Pam Sayne said the event is “to encourage people to run, to vote; and to get engaged with our community. I think this is going to be a very important activity.”

Bonnie Roe of ATAC said, “at our strategic planning meeting, we discussed our need to engage with the municipalities and County on healthy aging as a whole, about what we do, garner their support, and focus on community action. I also asked Coun. Sayne to speak at our LGBTQ+ luncheon on diversity, equity and inclusion, or did she have any connections at OMA? We decided the topic was worthy of a larger meeting and they had this ‘health democracy project’.

Engaging in democracy is May 28, 6-8 p.m. at the Minden Community Centre, 55 Parkside Dr., Minden. Light refreshments will be provided. Register by May 23 at Eventbrite or agingtogetherhc@gmail.com

The Haliburton Kawartha Northumberland Peterborough health unit (HKNP) is seeking provincial money to advance an “innovative” youth substance use prevention program that it recently launched in Peterborough and plans to expand to Haliburton County.

Dr. Thomas Piggott, HKNP medical officer of health, said the initiative is centred on the Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM), which challenges people who have, work, or interact with kids daily to find different ways of engaging and educating on key issues.

Peterborough Public Health (PPH) began investigating IPM in 2019, before it merged with the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge district health unit (HKPR). Work was paused through the pandemic but picked up again in 2023. A launch event was held in Peterborough April 29.

Piggott feels the program is an “absolute need” rather than “nice-to-have,” given concerning trends in youth behaviour in Peterborough in recent years. The city has the highest rate in Ontario for Cannabisrelated emergency department visits and ranks sixth for self-reported underage drinking. Tobacco use among students in grades 7 to 12 is also above the provincial average.

“If we can find new ways to wrap our communities’ arms around children and really support them, we can send kids on a different trajectory than what we’re seeing for a lot of people now,” Piggott said.

The program is being led locally by health unit staffers Lora Keitel and Martha Faulkner, with about a dozen organizations actively coordinating, including the John Howard Society, United Way, the YMCA, the OPP, and Canadian Mental Health Association.

The team is also working with Planet Youth, an Icelandic-based firm that helps with start-up.

Planet Youth advocates for a 10-step approach. The first phase is all planning, focusing on identifying partners, finding funding sources, and pre-data collection. Faulker said staff has been working on that since last fall and will soon by ready to move onto community participation and engagement.

“We know adolescence is a critical stage in healthy development. Youth are more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors, and experiment with substances for a variety of reasons – social inclusion and belonging, poor mental health, challenges coping with life stress, and just wanting to enjoy something,” Keitel said, noting most of the supports currently in place for struggling youth is reactive, rather than preventative.

“We’re never going to treat our way out of the mental health and substance use crisis we’re in. We need to realign our focus and work to incorporate harm reduction for us to make impactful change in our communities,” she added.

The health unit has identified two secondary schools it will work with initially – Holy Cross and Kenner in Peterborough. Keitel said it’s important youth learn to adopt healthy behaviours in the four areas they spend most of their time – at school, socializing with friends, at home with family, and leisure time.

Faulkner noted there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, with staff to tailor its efforts to individual people and larger situations on a case-by-case basis.

She attended a Planet Youth conference in Iceland in March, where she spoke to people from communities in the U.S., Spain, Romania and South Africa who have adopted IPM.

“All of them have seen a decrease in substance use harms and an increase in overall wellbeing,” Faulkner said.

Faulkner said there will be regular check-ins with parents and youth, as well as community surveys to help form the program’s future direction. She told the HKNP board during a recent meeting there is an intent to expand the program to Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton and Northumberland counties.

Piggott warned it’s not the kind of program to deliver immediate results.

“This work will take years to decades to see the real benefits of, because the challenges we’re seeing today have been decades in the making,” he said.