The Minden and District Horticultural Society hosted more than 120 gardeners from 17 Ontario horticultural societies to conduct business and talk plants Oct. 19 in Minden.

Long-time member Elinor Kernohan said, “this is only the second time in 45 years the Minden group has hosted this event. The last time was about 25 years ago.”

Delegates from as far away as Cobourg and Port Hope were able to take in the fall colours on their drive north and enjoy a locally-catered lunch.

Society president Connie Walker from Carnarvon said, “volunteers had been working for months to organize this important event for people in the gardening community and our efforts were well received.” Walker singled out Carolyn Perks for her contributions to the success of the event.

In addition to the camaraderie, many came to hear keynote speaker, Paul Zammit. Zammit is a professor of horticulture and environmental studies at Niagara College, and well-known garden expert on CBC Radio One.

He challenged his audience to learn to work with the garden by rethinking what is beautiful.

“People come to gardens for more than just pretty plants. They come to relax, to meditate, to photograph insects, and to engage in lifelong learning,” he said.

To support wildlife and the food web that all life requires, he encouraged his audience to stop tidying up their gardens. He asked them to rethink some of their garden practices such as deadheading, bagging leaves, and growing for size and bloom.

“Deadheading your flowers gives you more blooms, but don’t forget your garden also feeds the birds and insects,” he said. He urged his audience to do their best to grow more native plants and avoid invasive species.

He added, “not to worry what the neighbours think and practise chop and drop composting where organic matter is left where it is pruned, rake whole leaves onto garden beds because shredding your leaves kills beneficial caterpillars and other life forms.”

The Minden and District Horticultural Society meets monthly to conduct business and hear from guest speakers. With more than 70 members, the society puts on a well-attended monthly speaker series in the County. Its meetings are open to nonmembers for $5 and new members are welcome. No experience required. The Youth Garden Club organizes fun and educational events for very young gardeners. Volunteers put in most of the plantings in Minden village and along the Riverwalk with support from the Township of Minden Hills. They also redid garden beds at the Minden Legion.

The Haliburton Highlands Health Services Foundation’s ‘Here for You in the Highlands’ campaign ended the way it started Nov. 1 – with another $500,000 from the Cockwell family and Haliburton Forest.

Campaign chair Tayce Wakefield said the Cockwell’s overall $1 million donation had brought the Foundation effort to an end – having raised more than $6.225 million to date.

She lauded other community donors in further announcing they had exceeded their original goal of $4.3 million, for CT, mammography, new ultrasound, picture archiving communications system, and related technologies. She noted it was enough money to also provide for an urgently-needed new x-ray suite.

Malcolm Cockwell, the Forest’s managing director, said, “the importance of the diagnostic imaging campaign’s objectives was clear to our group from the first discussion with HHHS. Increasing the capability and capacity of the hospital is critical to the well-being of our employees, clients, their families, visitors, and all other residents in the region. This resulted in our initial gift at the beginning of this campaign.”

He added, “over the last few months, the generosity of the community has been astounding: large gifts and small gifts together have enabled this immensely positive investment in our local health services. The generosity of the community is such a clear demonstration of the importance of this initiative, that we were motivated to make a second gift.”

Large and small gifts made

Wakefield said they appreciated the donation for taking them “over the top, with the help of the incredible support from over 650 donors.” She thanked the leadership of the volunteer campaign cabinet (Greg Bishop, Kurtis Bishop, David Blodgett, Michael Harrison, Peter Henry, Pat Kennedy, Klara Oyler, Keith Sjögren, Roger Trull and Dale Walker).

Foundation executive director, Melanie Klodt Wong said, in mid-September, Christine Tutssel and Rob Holl announced they would match all gifts to the end of October up to $500,000. “This has inspired more donors and we are pleased to announce that their matching challenge has been fully met.

“It has been such an incredible campaign, with the breadth of support from the community, including the amazing group of volunteers I’ve had the pleasure to work with. Without them, this would not have been possible, and definitely not at the speed at which it was accomplished.”

Haliburton Highlands Health Services CEO Veronica Nelson said, “adding these diagnostic imaging technologies and services is the first step forward in our plans to build capacity in, and expand, healthcare services in the County.

“Our community deserves access to excellent local care. We thank every donor for their support in helping us optimize health and wellbeing in the County.”

She said more than 1,000 patients had already undergone CT scans, and the mammography unit will be installed in January.

HHHS Foundation board chair David Blodgett said with the province requiring the community to fund the majority of capital investments, the Foundation’s core purpose is to work closely with the community to raise the necessary funds to support and enable HHHS to better serve healthcare needs, acute care, long-term care and community services. He said this campaign’s record-breaking success had broadened their donor base. “We look forward to working with all of our donor partners to build on this success as we forge ahead.”

Warden Liz Danielsen said, “improving healthcare locally is an important enabler for community, social and economic development. County council voted to support this campaign ($1 million) because we recognized the benefit of keeping our emergency services close to home and to providing a foundation of broad-based support.”

She added because of the new technology, their EMS teams had improved response times to local emergencies by 28 per cent (CTAS1), “assuring residents that more ambulances are readily available across the County.

The Haliburton Highlands Land Trust is launching an online auction Nov. 17 in hopes of supporting its efforts to secure a sixth property for the conservation organization.

Spokesperson Sheila Ziman said the Land Trust has “an exciting opportunity” to purchase the Hadlington Reserve in Highlands East.

“It’s a 100-acre, undeveloped property with 3.5 km of natural river shoreline, forests, wetlands and rocky barrens and supports three turtles at-risk species” she said.

Ziman added they had secured $50,000 in federal government funding, and another $50,000 from the private Schad Foundation. They hope to line up support from other grants and foundations but need to raise $75,000 to complete the purchase by the end of the year.

The online auction will go until Dec. 8 and they’ve created a fundraising campaign on CanadaHelps.

“This is an important step forward for conservation in Haliburton County,” Ziman said.

If successful, it would be the Land Trust’s first property in Highlands East.

Ziman said it is a “rare and urgent” opportunity to protect the property, which she described as “100 acres of untouched wilderness identified as a high priority in the Highlands Corridor.”

As part of the Highlands Corridor project, the Land Trust is working with private landowners and donors. Biologist Paul Heaven reviewed properties and prioritized them, preferring large tracts, with speciesat-risk, near other protected areas, such as Crown land, or a provincial park, or another Land Trust property.

Ziman said the Hadlington property came up in Heaven’s research because of Crown Land on three sides.

“When I think of the Highlands Corridor, I think of it like a puzzle and each of our partners in conservation is like a puzzle piece that goes in and connects to the next piece.”

She said this land, if put in place, would connect the three pieces of Crown land to enhance the wildlife corridor. She noted the property is perfect to sequester carbon, which is important to the Land Trust and County.

Ziman said the current owner is moving on and wishes to see the property preserved, offering them first priority for purchase.

The land features pristine forests, 11.5 hectares of wetland, and 3.5 kilometres of shoreline along the Irondale River and the Hadlington Creek. Many uncommon species, such as Eastern Hog-Nosed Snakes, Black Ash, and Lungwort Lichen, can be found there.

This would be the first-ever Land Trust purchase. It’s also never done a fundraising campaign to purchase a property. Ziman said the land is appraised at $270,000. The Land Trust also has to set aside funds to ensure it is protected in perpetuity.

Visit bit.ly/48vQgFF to learn more, make a direct donation, or join the Land Trust’s upcoming fundraising auction. The link for registration is: app.galabid.com/ hhltholidayevent.

The longer negotiations between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) over a new contract stretches on, the more likely there will be a strike, says Doug Ford, president of the local 564 covering Lindsay and Haliburton County.

Approximately 55,000 letter carriers, mail service couriers, postal clerks and mail handlers nationwide have been working without a contract since Dec. 31, 2023, Ford said. Union officials have been in talks with higher ups from the Crown corporation for months, but as of Nov. 6 no deal has been struck.

Canada Post’s latest offer, presented last week, included annual wage increases amounting to 11.5 per cent over the next four years, while also including protections for defined benefit and pension plans for current employees.

Speaking to The Highlander Monday evening, Ford said the offer didn’t address workers’ main concerns.

“When Canada Post publicizes the offers they’ve made, what they focus on is things like wage increases. But they’re not telling the public about what they’re trying to take away,” Ford said. “Canada Post has told the public they wish to get into seven-day delivery to compete with Amazon – CUPW, I don’t think, is disagreeing with that. Where the problem lies is in the language of the contract.”

Ford said, now, all CUPW employees enjoy “predictable” schedules with regular hours during the traditional work week. While there’s an acceptance workers may have to lose weekends, Ford said what’s being proposed goes further than that.

“Today, you might have a Monday to Friday job, but in the new contract you’d be expected to work seven days a week. Possibly four hours some days, and eight to 12 hours other days. These are things the union sees as non-negotiable,” Ford said.

He also expressed concern over a two-tier wage and benefits system Canada Post is trying to include in a fresh deal, meaning new employees would start at a significantly reduced rate. “We want everybody to be equal,” Ford said.

In a statement to CBC Nov. 3, Canada Post said it is “rapidly falling behind in today’s highly competitive, customer-focused parcel delivery market,” and is proposing a seven-day work week as a possible solution.

The Crown corporation has reported losses of $490 million through the first six months of 2024 and $3 billion since 2018.

Ford said of the approximate 100 unionized employees in the region, about 95 per cent voted in favour of a strike mandate. Nationwide, CPUW reported approximately 90 per cent of employees supported a potential strike.

“We’ve given the national executive board the right to bargain on our behalf. But we don’t want to be on strike. That’s not what anybody wants. Most of our members are living paycheck to paycheck. Nobody can really afford to go on strike, especially over the holidays,” said Ford.

The union has to provide 72-hours’ notice before striking – Ford predicts if that were to happen, the first step would be rotational walkouts in major hubs like Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax, and Vancouver. If a full-scale lockout is called, customers in the County would be impacted, he said.

Ford said he’s been with Canada Post since 2007 and has been involved in multiple labour disruptions – the last in 2018, which ran for three days before the federal government mandated the postal workers return to work and sent the issue to binding arbitration.

Ford expects a similar thing would happen again, though retains hope for a negotiated contract.

“That’s what all organized labour people want to see. Unfortunately, history with Canada Post has shown often that just isn’t possible. We’ve had to settle for third party negotiated agreements in the past,” he said.

Since 1965, CPUW has been involved in 19 major labour disputes with their employer.