A quiet evening wasn’t on the cards for Mike and Cheryl Waller – or another resident on Loon Lake – this past Monday (Oct. 6) after a small section of brush along the waterfront ignited and quickly spread across five acres of forest.

The Wallers, who live across the lake from the blaze on Victor Neimi Lane, had just sat down on their deck to enjoy some time outside when Cheryl spotted a red glow across the bay.

“At first it looked like brake lights, but then I said ‘something strange is going on here’,” Cheryl told The Highlander.

Mike raced back to the house to grab his binoculars, but in the minute-or-so he was gone the little red flicker had exploded outwards. Mike called the fire in to the Dysart Fire Department at around 7:45 p.m.

The fire hall, located behind A.J. LaRue Arena, is always busy on Mondays – training night for the local department’s volunteers. Because many were already on-site, Fire Chief Dan Chumbley said 16 firefighters responded – they were on-scene approximately 12 kilometres away within 15 minutes. Six firefighters also arrived from the Highlands East department.

Mike said he was amazed by the quick response. By the time the first truck arrived, the fire had spread to more greenery surrounding a cottage, creating a horseshoe-like appearance across approximately five acres of land.

“I’m really surprised it didn’t get the house, that shocked me. The way it was spreading and how quickly the flames were moving, I thought for sure it was in trouble,” Mike said.

Chumbley said high winds quickly moved the fire past the home, causing superficial damage only. Once on-scene, firefighters worked to push the fire up the hill and away from the lake and other neighbouring properties. The fire was deemed under control late evening, when firefighters were pulled off for safety reasons.

They returned Tuesday morning and extinguished what was left. Chumbley said site clean-up would continue through the week.

In the aftermath, Mike said he’s happy he and his wife decided to go outside when they did.

“If we weren’t out there, we probably wouldn’t have noticed it and the whole area might have been engulfed before anybody else saw it,” Mike said. “It was really quick to spread – it was just like how you see it in the movies, but for it to happen in real life and to see how unpredictable the flames could be, it was an amazing thing to see.”

Cheryl reserved special praise for the responding firefighters, saying the situation “would definitely have been a lot worse” without their quick intervention.

“They were there all night pumping and were back again in the morning… it was amazing work,” she said.

Told they would have to come up with more than $30 million over 10 years to reduce homelessness in the Highlands, County councillors told City of Kawartha Lakes housing staff, and the consultant hired to do a ‘deeply affordable and supportive housing strategy,’ the buck stopped with them.

The County politicians did not approve the strategy and related asks during their Sept. 24 meeting. They want a more detailed look at financials before any action is taken.

After the presentation by Jesse Donaldson, of HelpSeeker Technologies, deputy warden Liz Danielsen commented, “at the risk of being a bit cheeky, I would say this is a deeply unaffordable project to put forward to us, and with an extremely tight timeline given how we would lay out financing for this project.”

In her report, Donaldson said the County would have to come up with the money for an estimated 86 mixed housing units, as well as rent supplements and prevention supports.

Donaldson did stress throughout her report that the County and its four lower-tier municipalities would have to leverage federal and provincial dollars to meet project goals, as well as potential private sector partners.

She said she spent a week in the County and CKL, finding rents to be higher than she would have thought, and acknowledging an affordability crisis.

Donaldson added the cost of inaction would be high. Countywide, she estimated there would be 309 homeless in 10 years, up from 113, if the status quo remained.

She presented three possible models: inaction, stabilization or reduction, focusing on reduction. In Haliburton, it would mean lowering the homeless number to 25 by 2037, down from 143. She added the cost of homelessness is high for emergency services and supportive housing.

Coun. Murray Fearrey said it was a “big problem” requiring getting at the “root cause.

“The big governments have to step up … they have to put the interest rate down so it’s almost zero. We can’t do this. We are going to create a whole other level of poverty by putting taxation up so high that people can’t stay in their modest homes.”

Danielsen added the community needs all types of housing, not just affordable. She said she could not agree to the strategy without seeing the financial projections first, particularly for the County, and the impact on ratepayers. She added she would want to know more about things such as water and sewer capacity in Minden and Haliburton.

CAO Gary Dyke agreed that auxiliary costs for supporting infrastructure were missing from the report.

Coun. Bob Carter added while the federal and provincial governments may chip in, “there is only one taxpayer, whether it’s the feds, province, or municipality. It’s all coming out of the same pocketbook.”

He added there are already 1,400 people on the housing waitlist so this is just part of a bigger picture.

Coun. Cec Ryall said he thought it would be key to attract private sector partners, and Danielsen said they needed to look at prefabricated and tiny homes.

Council accepted the report as information only, requesting financial modeling in 2026.

Former Peterborough-Kawartha Member of Parliament Maryam Monsef told a roomful of County residents Oct. 7 they need to find their ‘why’ before running for political office.

The two-term Liberal MP joined former Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MP Barry Devolin, who won four elections for the Conservatives between 2004 and 2015, at Lloyd Watson Community Centre in Wilberforce, offering a peek behind the curtain of what life is like for elected officials.

The event was hosted by the Haliburton Highlands Healthy Democracy Project as part of its ‘Voices and Votes’ speaker series, aimed at increasing public participation in next year’s municipal election.

Monsef was working in the public sector in Peterborough in 2013 when city council wanted to scale back municipal transit. A proposal was brought forward to eliminate all bus routes on Sundays.

“I was raised by a single mom, lived in the west end of the city, went to school in the north end and didn’t have a car,” Monsef said. “I grew up on the bus.”

She mobilized other transit users and successfully lobbied to have the changes shelved. In 2014, she ran for mayor – only because she didn’t want to see the incumbent run unopposed. While she didn’t win, her campaign served as a springboard for the 2015 federal election.

She sat for two terms and held ministerial positions in rural economic development, international development, democratic institutions, and women and gender equality.

Monsef said her six years in the federal political arena almost broke her, with daily threats and abuse taking a toll.

“At least a third of the people you represent can be angry with you, pretty much all the time. The not-so-great part is the political violence – seeing billboards say crappy things about you, having family read untruths about you because of decisions you made.

“It’s the hardest job you can ever do, it will become all-consuming, but as hard as it is, it’s also the best job ever… but if you don’t have a good enough ‘why’ then you’re going to have a really hard time staying grounded on your worst days,” Monsef said.

Devolin said his interest in politics began as a teenager. At 16, he went to the Netherlands as an exchange student and said the experience made him want to become a diplomat.

He got his start at 24, as campaign manager for Arthur Ward in the 1987 provincial election. He ran for the Reform Party in the 1993 federal election, finishing second in his home riding. Devolin then held several senior political staff positions in the Canadian and Ontario governments, before being elected in 2004.

At the provincial and federal level, Devolin said people are playing a team game, but, with one eye on next October’s municipal election, he said candidates have more freedom at the local level.

“If you’re a bucking bronco, municipal politics might be your thing. You can speak freely and don’t have to toe any party line.”

Devolin said his goal when getting into politics was to do good things for his community and ascend to become Speaker of the House. He achieved both, feeling his most significant contribution was securing $200 million in upgrades for the Trent Severn Waterway in 2008.

He always saw himself as a “turn the temperature down kind of guy” who wanted to find ways to work with people; though, he knew others who thrived in chaos and controversy.

“There’s no single way to do public life. If you’re committed to it and passionate, there are many different roads to success,” Devolin added. “It can be an overwhelming amount of work, but the good kind of work… where you can see the differences you’re making in your community.”

Haliburton’s Kate Campbell is proud of the work she has done to bring the television series Trailbazing Talks with Dini Petty to screens beginning Oct. 13.

“I’m so excited to have this out in the world and to be leading the way with her. It’s a perfect synergy,” Campbell said in a phone interview from Niagara on the Lake Oct. 2.

Campbell was introduced to Petty through a mutual friend in 2018 or 2019. She was keen to meet her as Petty had been a pilot flying out of Buttonville Airport “in the day.” Campbell’s grandmother was also a pilot. Campbell invited Petty to be a part of her short film, Boundless, released in 2021.

“Dini has been a huge source of inspiration to me over the years – not only as a pioneering broadcaster and a pilot, but as a woman unafraid to speak the truth,” said Campbell, who is creator, showrunner and executive producer. She added, “to collaborate with her on Trailblazing Talks is a full-circle moment, and I feel honoured to help carry forward her legacy and bring her voice and presence back to audiences in a new way.”

It’s been intense working on the premiere and the series. She likens it to a masterclass and jokes her brain is fried from the things that she has learned; such as negotiating contracts.

“I had those skills before, but this is like on steroids, which is great. It’s required levelling up. You’re throwing yourself in the fire and going ‘ok, I really want this to happen and I want to learn and grow through this and I believe in it, so how are we going to find solutions to all of the many problems?’ It was a lot of blood, sweat and tears.”

Though only 44, Campbell talks about her legacy, and leaving the world a better place than when she arrived. She thinks the new series contributes to that.

“I created this for an older person to host. I want to see more older women in the mainstream.”

She added the majority of feedback they are getting is that it is comforting for people to have Petty back on television “with the craziness that is going on in the world.”

“Having a woman from their past sharing her perspective in a public way and being visible again makes people feel safe and comfortable.”

She added when they filmed in a St. Catharines studio at night the audience was “captivated by interesting conversation.”

Petty said, “at this point in my life, I am drawn to deeper conversations about resilience, courage, and the true cost of leadership. Trailblazing Talks is about honouring those who dared to lead and reminding us that it is never too late to step forward with purpose”

When the show airs Thanksgiving night, Campbell said they will hold a viewing party.

“It’s the first hour of TV I’ve been a director and show runner of … with more episodes to come.”

Petty had nothing but praise for Campbell.

“Kate is one of the most creative, energetic, brilliant women I’ve met in a long time. She is tireless. She’s been going 24/7 for I don’t know how long on this project. She just doesn’t stop. Meeting Kate has been one of the pieces of good fortune in my life.”

The one-hour television event airs Monday, Oct. 13 at 9 p.m. on The News Forum network and on thenewsforum.ca. It features Tonya Williams, and Olympic gold medalist and Senator Marnie McBean. Channel numbers are different for each TV provider, so the fastest way to find them is by checking your on-screen guide. Featured channels: Bell Satellite: Channel 506; Rogers: Channel 107; Shaw Direct: Channel 253 and Telus: Channel 842