The Lindsay Advocate - April 2021

BENNS’ BELIEF: POLITICAL CONFESSIONS | NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR LONG-TERM CARE | TENNIS LOVE IN FENELON FALLS

THE LINDSAY ADVOCATE WINNER – MEDIA EXCELLENCE

Hungry in Kawartha Lakes WHY DO WE STILL HAVE FOOD BANKS?

Father-son team volunteers for Meals on Wheels

APRIL 2021

THE LINDSAY ADVOCATE KAWARTHA LAKES’ FINEST MAGAZINE

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More writers than any other media outlet in Kawartha Lakes. We keep you informed!

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100 per cent local and independent journalism, led by our award-winning team.

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Our mission is to support the social and economic wellness of our city.

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We’re the whole package! The only media outlet in Kawartha Lakes that is an online news platform, a glossy, monthly magazine, and a twice-monthly podcast.

LOVE YOUR ADVOCATE? Go online to lindsayadvocate.ca and choose Support Us in the top right corner.

Or email kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com or call 705-341-1496

April 2021 • Vol 4 • Issue 36

PUBLISHED BY

Fireside Publishing House, a proudly Canadian company.

The Lindsay Advocate is published monthly and distributed to a wide variety of businesses and locations within Kawartha Lakes, North Durham and southern Haliburton County. We are a proud member of the Lindsay and District, Fenelon Falls and Bobcaygeon Chamber of Commerce.

TEAM ADVOCATE

CONTENTS KAWARTHA LAKES’ FINEST MAGAZINE

FEATURES

EDITORIAL

Publisher: Roderick Benns Associate Editor: Nancy Payne Contributing Editor: Trevor Hutchinson Research, Strategy & Development: Joli Scheidler-Benns Contributing Writers: Jessica Topfer, Sharon Robbins,

Geoff Coleman, Barbara Doyle, Roderick Benns, Kirk Winter, Jamie Morris, Ian McKechnie, Trevor Hutchinson Web Developer: Kimberley Durrant LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND TO

kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com ADVERTISING & MARKETING

Advertising/Editorial inquiries: Roderick Benns

705-341-1496

CREATIVE

Graphic Design: Barton Creative Co. Photography: Sienna Frost, Erin Burrell On the Cover: Neil Couch in Lindsay.

Photo: Sienna Frost

Visit www.lindsayadvocate.ca for many more stories FOLLOW US ON

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The Lindsay Advocate @lindsayadvocate Roderick Benns @roderickbenns

cf /The Lindsay Advocate PRINTING

Printed by Maracle Inc. OUR PRIVACY POLICY The Lindsay Advocate is independently owned and operated. The opinions expressed herein are the views of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine. Photos, text, and art work contained in The Lindsay Advocate are copyrighted and may not be published, broadcast, or rewritten without the express permission of the Publisher. Liability for incorrectly displayed advertising is limited to publishing corrections or advertising credit for subsequent issues. The Publisher reserves the right to reject, revise, cancel, omit, discontinue or even decline to print advertising without reason or liability, and without notice. The Publisher has made every effort to ensure information contained herein was accurate at press time. The Publisher does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for damage, loss, or disruption caused by errors or omissions.

13 10 Editorial: Federal budget

wishlist.

21 22 Olde Gaol Museum needs city support.

24 Hope Lee retires from

11 Opinion: Professor Elaine Power says food banks do not address adequate income.

city’s housing department.

13 Cover Story:

IN EVERY ISSUE

Hungry in Kawartha Lakes.

Governments have failed to counter rising inequality and food bank use.

19 LONG-TERM CARE Time for national standards.

21 MEALS ON WHEELS

Father-son team find fulfillment in helping others.

4 Letters to the Editor 6 UpFront 9 Benns’ Belief 32 The Local Kitchen 33 Crossword 35 Friends & Neighbours 36 Just in Time 38 Trevor’s Take

Our Vision

We care about the social wellness of our community and our country. Our vision includes strong public enterprises mixed with healthy small businesses to serve our communities’ needs. We put human values ahead of economic values and many of our stories reflect the society we work to build each day. ~ Roderick and Joli

Advertising Sales: Contact us at 705-341-1496 • kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com

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DSAY

AD O C V

Advocate fan enjoys articles, letters

Your magazine is so informative, nicely presented, good quality stock, enjoyable to read.

“Business Upfront” in your magazine led me to Lori Mitchell, acupuncturist, on page seven and I booked her immediately. Keep up the good work — the letters to the editor were especially interesting.

Carol Orr, Lindsay

Our lives are richer for volunteer efforts

How nice to see the photo of my friend Valmay Barkey on the front page of the March edition of The Lindsay Advocate, celebrating the efforts of many of the women volunteers in our community. I have had the privilege of serving with Valmay as well as several of the other women referenced in your article and can readily attest to the level of care and commitment of these fine citizens. Kawartha Lakes is blessed with so many organizations dedicated to preserving our heritage, culture, and way of life — and even essential services related to health care, education, housing, and feeding the hungry.

Our lives, and those within our community, are truly richer for these efforts and it is important that they not be taken for granted. As your article references, “Volunteering gives Valmay Barkey profound satisfaction.” Indeed, we should be profoundly grateful for the shining example set by all these volunteers. And this fine article serves as an excellent and timely reminder!

Mark Doble, Lindsay

We don’t need Highway 413

Using the pandemic for political cover, the Ford government is fast-tracking a new Highway 413, cutting through 55 km of prime farmlands, conservation land, waterways and protected areas. The corresponding urban sprawl will destroy some of Ontario’s most productive farmland.

There has been no formal agricultural impacts assessment of the proposed highway and the government wants to avoid a full environmental assessment, opting for a streamlined (faster, less thorough) version. Based on an expert panel report which concluded that the highway

was “not the best way to address the region’s changing transportation needs,” the $6 billion project was cancelled in 2018.

Why should residents of Kawartha Lakes care?

1. Food security. As domestic food production is decreased by destroying farmland, we become more dependent upon expensive imported food.

2. The highway cost will be borne by taxpayers.

3. If protections can be waived to expedite projects elsewhere, the same shortcuts could bring irreversible environmental, economic and social effects to Kawartha Lakes as well.

4. Agriculture, food processing, tourism and recreational industries are being put at risk, endangering jobs and billions in economic activity.

5. Increased traffic will produce more greenhouse gases putting climate goals at risk.

Development in Ontario must benefit the majority of Ontarians and enhance quality of life. A government that claims to be “for the people” probably isn’t. Actions speak more loudly than words.

Elizabeth Turner, Concerned Citizens of Haliburton County

Climate change: Difference between denial and skepticism

Let’s begin by enlightening Barry Snider (letter to the editor, Advocate March edition) to the fact that there is a difference between denialism and skepticism.

We all know that the climate is changing and can accept the probability that CO2 emissions play a part in the process. But the question remains, to what extent?

Snider asserts, “the forcing that far outweighs all others ... is our carbon emissions” (not to be confused with CO2 emissions). But how can we be so certain? From all the forcings Snider enumerates, let’s just take one example: clouds. Dr. Chris Fairall, lead investigator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s ATOMIC project quips about cloud science, “Cloud science is not rocket science ... It’s much, much harder than that.” A new study published in Science Advances states, “Cloud feedbacks and cloudaerosol interactions are the most likely contributors to the high values and increased range of sensitivity in (climate modelling results) CMIP6.” Given that 70 per cent of the globe is covered by clouds at any given time, it’s no surprise they play an integral role in regulating the climate. The challenge is to figure out which types of cloud will increase, and which

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decrease, and what the net effect will be on cooling or warming as the climate changes. Is all of this just a part of the “silly argument,” as Snider suggests?

Carl Sweetman, Lindsay

Connecting to a GO bus should be simple task

Sadly, once upon a time there was a local transit advisory group that solved many transportation problems.

But the mindset of council and staff at the time said no.

This was during Mayor Rick McGee’s time. The short version was that Lindsay Transit would put a bus on to meet GO at Hwy. 35 & 115. This required permission from the Minister of Transportation to cross the municipal boundary by 500 metres. We were assured that it was a simple process; the City of Kawartha Lakes said it was not interested. We also offered route maps to cover most towns and hamlets twice a week with transit, with help from Community Care. The City of Kawartha Lakes also said no to this. The reason given was people would be on the bus too long. These trials would have been paid for by gas tax dollars, not from the city. As all of this fell apart Fleming College put their own student bus on to connect Lindsay to Peterborough. I still feel that connecting to GO is a simple task.

Mark Lowell, Burnt River former transit advisory member

Accept change; don’t fear it

“Cancel culture, cancel culture, cancel culture” ... we keep hearing it over and over in diatribes about how it’s “taking over” common sense. I get it; there’s always fear inherent in change. It’s a natural part of the human condition but ... we used to hang in trees too — literally.

There was a time when we never cooked what we ate, there was a time before writing, there was a time before cities, there was a time when we drove horse and buggy, then we drove cars and now it appears we will likely soon drive electric vehicles almost exclusively in the near future, if something else more exciting doesn’t come along. Change. Change is also literally a part of the human condition ... so yes, we can respond with fear, frustration, anger, hate — or perhaps, just maybe we could instead have understanding that change is inevitable, change is what makes us better. And for some things that we have

been dragging around for so long isn’t it about time for change? I don’t fear it; I welcome it. I don’t have so much self-importance to think that my childhood, however wonderful, is the one and only perfect model of what the world should be. I still have my childhood memories; they haven’t been stolen from me. But I for one intend to be looked back upon as someone who accepted the challenges of change honestly, not someone who lived in the past. Change is good.

Scott Hodge, Lindsay

It’s all politics

Your magazine has become very politically motivated.

Your “Our Vision” paragraph states “We care about the social wellness of our community and our country.

Our vision includes strong public enterprises mixed with healthy small businesses to serve our communities’ needs. We put human values ahead of economic values and many of our stories reflect the society we work to build each day.”

Does this also encompass political wellness, which does seem to be the platform of this magazine? Especially a Liberal Party platform. Almost every time I have had this magazine in the past, it includes many anti-Conservative half-truths that seem to show a disdain for any other political party except the Liberal Party.

I am not a party faithful person. I am an independent thinker. I read all the party platforms and I read about the persons seeking any leadership roles in our community, our province, and our country. Plato said, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

Heather Green-Leddy, Kawartha Lakes The Advocate does not align itself with any political party.

Columnists have their own independent views, which they are free to express but which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the organization as a whole.

We regret that the Advocate’s feature story in the March edition inadvertently referred to one interviewee by last name only. We extend our sincere apologies to dedicated volunteer Valmay Barkey. A corrected version is available online.

We want your letters! Send us your thoughts to be featured on this page.

The Lindsay Advocate welcomes your Letters to the Editor. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity or length. Simply email kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com. Please keep your letters to 200 words or less.

www.lindsayadvocate.ca

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Quantify Numbers that matter

Hungry: Food Insecurity in Canada

65% 60%

of food insecure Canadian households report having job income. of Canadian households reliant on social assistance are food insecure.

Source: Food Insecurity Policy Research

Denmark gets it right on elder care

Elder care in Denmark starts with generous spending — more than 2.2 per cent of GDP. Each municipality in Denmark has senior citizen councils where the rights of the elderly are front and centre. Improvements are made every three years wherever they are needed, based on data collected.

Older people stay in their homes as long as possible with regular house calls from health professionals, paid for by the state. Most aspects of elder care, such as senior centres, adapted transportation and meals-on-wheels programs are also paid for the by the state. Nursing homes are mostly public and council-run.

UPFRONT Perry departs Health Team for role with Métis Nation of Ontario

Mike Perry, long-time executive director of the Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team, will leave the organization in the coming weeks to take on a new opportunity with the Métis Nation of Ontario.

The new position is as Lead — Government Law and Constitution with the Métis Nation of Ontario, said Perry.

A historic 2019 agreement set a new government-togovernment relationship between Canada and the Métis Nation of Ontario.

There is now recognition that Métis Nation of Ontario-recognized communities have the right of self-government.

Dr. Peter Anderson, president of the Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team, wished Perry well, saying the organization is “grateful for the expertise that Mike has brought to his position” over the past 10 years.

“The medical community and local health care have benefited greatly from his guidance, energy and skills. We wish him all the very best.”

Perry called it a “rare honour” to be able to help improve health care in the area. “I have worked with — and learned from — so many extraordinary professionals and community members over the past decade,” Perry said.

During Perry’s tenure as executive director, nurse practitioners were brought to smaller communities such as Omemee, Woodville, Bobcaygeon and Fenelon Falls, and new family doctors were also recruited to Kawartha Lakes. A health clinic was opened in Little Britain and a new team of mental-health workers was established.

There was also enhanced care for transgender patients and a push for “same or next day” appointments for patients.

“I am very excited about this new opportunity to serve and return to legal work and build again — especially being Métis myself,” Perry said.

Perry will continue to live in Lindsay and said he will be as active as ever in the local community including volunteering to help with COVID vaccinations.

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Business UPFRONT

Passion for Italian food Mother-daughter at the heart of Che Figata team launches online in Bobcaygeon clothing boutique

Emma Scully shows off some items from her new online boutique.

As its website will tell you, Che Figata is an Italian phrase meaning “that’s awesome!”

Since Bobcaygeon’s new Italian restaurant opened last November, though, there are many Kawartha Robert Mangoni with his Lakes residents who haven’t had daughter, Alessia Mangoni, the opportunity yet to discover the at Che Figata in Bobcaygeon business for themselves.

Roberto Mangoni, a former Toronto resident, has had a cottage in the area since 2015 but once the pandemic struck, he — like so many others — decided to leave the crowded city behind and relocate to a smaller town.

While not a trained chef, the self-taught Mangoni has had a passion for cooking since he was just eight years old.

He travelled for two years in Italy to eat and experience the Italian pizza and pasta industry before opening his own restaurant here.

Mangoni says he wants to give the community and its visitors “an experience of modern Italian cuisine with the use of top ingredients.”

As for Mangoni’s favourite menu items, he found it difficult to choose but eventually settled on fried polenta, arugula and endive salad, sausage and rapini pizza, spaghetti carbonara and the homemade tiramisu — something from all four menu categories. To learn more visit chefigata.ca

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Bonita Clothing & Co., an online and independently owned women’s clothing boutique based in Downeyville, has launched.

Emma Scully and her mother Lori Scully are the team behind Bonita Clothing & Co. The business is “powered by women,” says Emma, given that besides her and her mother, the models used in their social media posts are all female family and friends.

The business name is inspired by Emma’s late Aunt Bonnie, “who shared a love for dressing up.” Bonnie’s birth name was Bonita, which means “pretty” in both Spanish and Portuguese. The boutique was created in her memory, so the name was fitting, says Emma.

“Bonnie was beautiful, independent, fun-loving and successful. She was fashionable and always kept up to the latest trends,” says Emma.

“She generally gifted family and friends with trendy clothing pieces or accessories tailored to their personalities. She inspired women of all ages.”

Much like her Aunt Bonnie, Emma says she has hand-selected these all-new pieces for others to enjoy.

While the Scullys are starting out 100 per cent online, they don’t discount the possibility of a physical location one day. Visit bonitaclothingandco.com and follow the business on Instagram and Facebook @bonitaclothingandco.

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BENNS’ BELIEF RODERICK BENNS Publisher

Political confessions

I grew up in a family that voted Conservative, if they voted at all, because that’s how my grandparents had voted. Most political scientists believe voting through familial patterns is the norm and how we politically wire ourselves, often for life.

I was eight when I watched the federal election of 1979, when Joe Clark beat Pierre Trudeau in what was certainly an upset. Brian Mulroney was prime minister when I was in high school and his prolific agenda was thrilling for a young man with political aspirations. Free Nelson Mandela! Clean up our environment! Free trade! (I’m still happy with the first two.)

My I.E. Weldon yearbook from senior year was filled with hopeful scrawls from friends for a bright political future. I got involved in the party in Guelph in my early 20s and was selected as a youth delegate to the 1993 PC convention that chose Kim Campbell to be leader (although my vote went to Jean Charest).

When I moved back to Lindsay, I had visions of running for the PC party locally and threw my hat in the ring (at age 25) for the local PC nomination against Lorne Chester. Like Erin O’Toole today, I thought I’d run from the right and then become a red Tory. A chance encounter with a former English teacher derailed that plan, thanks to a real stumper of a question he posed on Russell Street one day. “So why are you running?”

After stuttering my way through an answer, I realized I had no clue. I was in the game for all the wrong reasons. I was in the game for the game, not public service. I withdrew my name shortly after.

I returned to journalism. Started a family. I read widely and kept learning.

Eventually I watched the hollowing-out of the middle class all across Canada.

Globalization, now fully untethered by the very free trade agreements I had once fought for, ran roughshod over working-class people.

My voting pattern changed to Liberal. And NDP. And Green. In other words, I started paying more attention to platforms, candidates and issues each campaign, and less to loyalty or familial tugs of tradition. I unwired myself from voting patterns and rewired myself to think about the country I wanted and how best to get there.

Over the years, I’ve learned things from all parties. From Conservatives, how to value traditions. From Liberals, how to find common ground. From the NDP, how to fight for average people, and from the Greens, how to fight for our planet.

Most of all, I’ve learned we are at our best when we entrench less and listen more, no matter the party’s colours, or “the altars at which we kneel,” to borrow from Sir Wilfrid Laurier. This is the best version of Canada I know.

This is the best community we can be.

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EDITORIAL

Budget wish list All eyes are on Chrystia Freeland now as Canada’s finance minister gets set to table the nation’s first budget in two years. Here are a few things we hope to see.

Basic income: The Liberals’ own grassroots and many MPs are interested in this forward-thinking policy, as are the NDP and Green Party. Time to put faith in an upstream policy — getting to the source of social policy ills, which is often income — that will prevent poverty and poor health.

Pharmacare: Universal pharmacare is the missing piece of Tommy Douglas’s Medicare legacy.

We want everyone to have free access to a common list of drugs.

National childcare: Women have been disproportionately disadvantaged during the pandemic and, more often than men, felt obligated to stay home with children, creating an imbalance in the labour market. Former Conservative and Liberal prime ministers Brian Mulroney and Paul Martin both saw the need for it. It’s time to make it a reality.

Long-term care: No group was more tragically affected by COVID-19 than Canada’s seniors living in long-term care homes. We need national standards of care for provinces to follow and more funding from Ottawa to make it happen.

Affordable Housing: It’s one of Maslow’s foundational needs — a roof over one’s head. Yet too many Canadians — including residents of Kawartha Lakes — do without. More funding and planning, in conjunction with provinces and municipalities, is integral.

Green economy: Grants for electric vehicles are great but we’ll need the infrastructure for charging stations too. We must invest in meaningful, well-paying jobs that serve a green social purpose.

Footing the bill: We can’t responsibly address these social and economic needs without doing a few things simultaneously. That includes overall income tax reform, creating a wealth tax and setting up a sovereign wealth fund — a state-owned investment fund set up for a social purpose.

These policies are within our reach if the political will is there.

LETTER SPOTLIGHT Trevor’s Take should take on more than Conservatives I read with interest your monthly publication and find the local stories informative. I do take issue with Contributing Editor Trevor Hutchinson’s political commentaries. He appears to have an obsessive animus for all things Conservative.

Last month Erin O’Toole was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This month Education Minister Lecce is a magical thinker. Do Conservatives have a monopoly on magical thinking? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s assertion that “budgets balance themselves” must have escaped Hutchinson’s magic exposé. If the SNC-Lavalin or WE scandals or the botched CanSino vaccine deal with China had occurred under a Conservative government, one could assume Hutchinson would have readily shared his condemnation.

He ended with “lots of jurisdictions, including in Canada are doing a better job at COVID than Ontario.” He conveniently omitted that many countries are doing a better job at COVID than Canada. Nothing was reported about the federal government’s failure to implement a national COVID strategy or their created chaos at airports.

Hutchinson’s political commentaries would be far more effective and appealing if they were fair and balanced, instead of his monthly anti-Conservative editorial.

Michael Catling, Cameron

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OPINION

Food banks do not address issue of inadequate income ELAINE POWER Elaine Power is a professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies and Head of the Department of Gender Studies at Queen’s University.

After more than 25 years of research on food insecurity, she has become an advocate for basic income as an effective way to eliminate hunger in Canada.

This year, 2021, marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of Canada’s first food bank. The Edmonton Gleaners Association borrowed the idea from the Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, Ariz., the first food bank in the U.S. The idea of food banks spread quickly across the country. Founders of food banks considered the stopgap measure an emergency response to an economic downturn, one that would end when the economy recovered. As late as 1991, food banks in the Greater Toronto Area met to discuss how they might close.

Right from the start, food banks were seen as a way to reconcile the uncomfortable reality that people go hungry while perfectly edible food is wasted. Food banks seem like a logical, practical solution to two disconcerting problems. For food bank donors and volunteers, it can be very satisfying and reassuring to know that one’s actions provide direct assistance to one’s neighbours.

Unfortunately, as a way to keep Canadians from being hungry, food banks cannot meet the demand. Even before the pandemic struck and millions were thrown out of work, analysis of Statistics Canada data by University of Toronto professor Dr. Valerie Tarasuk shows that more than 4.4 million people in Canada, including 1.2 million children lived in food insecure households, meaning that they don’t have, or worrying about having, enough money for the quality or quantity of food they need. If we think of hunger and food insecurity as a symptom of poverty and inadequate resources, then we

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can see that food banks, while well-intentioned, are the wrong solution to the problem. They do not and cannot address the underlying issue of inadequate income.

Most food bank users, about 65 per cent, have jobs, but their earnings are not enough to keep them out of poverty because of low wages, part-time work and the increasing costs of living. For those on social assistance, the majority are food insecure because the rates are so low. We are asking food banks to do the work that government should be doing to regulate wages and working conditions, ensure good supplies of affordable housing and provide adequate income supports for those who do not have paid employment.

It is striking that about three-quarters of households that are food insecure don’t use food banks. This is for a variety of reasons. Some are practical: inconvenient hours or location, lack of information or special dietary concerns that can’t be met. But others are symbolic. The food we eat tells us who we are and where we belong. It says something profound if we have to eat food that others don’t want. No matter the intentions of food bank staff and volunteers, many clients experience humiliation and shame. It is often hard for those who have never been food insecure to understand this. But food banks help to divide us into those who “have” and those who “have not” and some people would rather go hungry than declare their “have not” status.

Instead of food charity that divides us into “haves” and “have nots,” I have a different vision. I dream of a more just Canada, where we all have an unconditional income floor — or basic income — as a right of citizenship, which enables us to meet basic needs including food and housing. Perhaps we could use food waste and the tremendous volunteer energy bound up in food banks in creative ways that bring us together in community feasts, instead of dividing us.

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Hungry in Kawartha Lakes }} Forty years after the first Canadian food

bank opened its doors, Kawartha Lakes Food Source leader says the root causes of food bank use are still with us

JESSICA TOPFER Writer-at-large

Neil Couch first visited a food bank in 2011.

A particularly challenging divorce that year had left him homeless, living at A Place Called Home.

He’d had a colourful life. After returning from active duty in the Canadian Armed Forces between 1986 and 1994, Couch found himself struggling with PTSD and turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with his anxiety and night terrors. As a master corporal, he was based out of West Germany, and had done tours in Somalia, Cyprus and Afghanistan.

In 2013, Couch was diagnosed with stage four bone cancer. While fighting his own battle against cancer, he lost his wife to aggressive ovarian cancer. This left him as a single father. Between his PTSD and cancer, Couch has been unable to hold down a steady job. He picked up a variety of manual labour positions over the years but was unable to maintain them as his mental and physical health deteriorated.

Couch, now 53, is a recipient of Ontario Works.

Each month, after all his bills are paid, he is left with approximately $80 in his account to take care of himself and the two teenaged children who still live at home with him. Stagnant social assistance rates and rapidly rising costs of living make it impossible to cover his family’s essential costs of living.

His need for food bank support “comes and goes,” he says. “It depends on if there is an unexpected expense or higher bill than usual. If I don’t need the help one month then I won’t use them.

There’s always someone out there worse off than me.”

CONT’D ON PAGE 14

NEIL COUCH Photo: Sienna Frost.

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Amelia Boyd, community program coordinator, stocking the fridge at the Lindsay Community Food Market.

Visits to KLFSsupported food banks 2016: 10,686 2017: 9,500 2018: 8,777 2019: 12,141 2020: 12,269 The marked increase in use between 2018 and 2019 was caused by the premature cancellation of the Ontario government’s basic income pilot project, which left many community members suddenly financially insecure.

FOOD BANKS CONT’D FROM PAGE 13

Couch admits that his experience visiting food banks has been mostly good, but that there’s still a stigma. “Sometimes it can feel that people look down on you for using a food bank,” he says. Lately, Neil has been visiting the Lindsay Community Food Market (LCFM), a non-traditional food bank operated by Kawartha Lakes Food Source, when he needs groceries for his family.

The Food Market allows clients to choose their foods as they would be able to at a grocery store. During COVID-19, the LCFM has developed a delivery model since many clients don’t have access to a reliable vehicle. This new approach significantly improves the Food Market’s ability to ensure social distancing to keep volunteers, clients, staff, donors and community members as safe as possible.

“The market is good,” Neil says. “They’re down to earth; there’s no stigma there. I like their delivery service.”

FOOD BANKS A RECENT INVENTION To most Canadians, it may seem as though food banks have always existed. However, food banks are a recent innovation, with the first in the world being established in 1967 in Phoenix, Arizona.

The first Canadian food bank was founded in 1981 in Edmonton, Alta., by the Edmonton Gleaners Association. It was born out of two key realizations. First, hunger was affecting the lives of many people in the community.

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Second, edible food was being wasted in the city. In April 1980, an ad hoc group began investigating the possibility of establishing a food bank to serve citizens in Edmonton’s inner city.

The rise in food banks coincided with the push toward neoliberalism in the 1980s. While Britain’s Margaret Thatcher and the United States’ Ronald Reagan were the key faces of this more extreme form of capitalism, Canada’s Brian Mulroney also fixated on increased deregulation and privatization, and sought broader free trade agreements.

The expansion and entrenchment of globalization meant these policies resulted in a restructuring of the state in size and strength under the assumption that the free market would benefit everyone. In the 1990s, under both Conservative and Liberal governments federally and provincially, the social safety net was reduced to prioritize the creation of a ”good business climate.” However, inequality has only increased.

According to David Macdonald from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, in 1980, the top-paid CEOs in Canada made about 40 times what the average worker did. By 2014, the top Canadian CEOs made 208 times the amount of an average worker. By 2018, a total of 87 Canadian citizens had the equivalent wealth of 12 million people and 20 per cent of the population controlled 68 per cent of the wealth.

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FOOD BANKS AS EMERGENCY Food banks are intended to provide immediate emergency help for people unable to afford sufficient food.

While each individual’s or family’s reasons for using a food bank are complex, there are some common factors that have caused people to rely on what was meant to be a temporary solution.

Heather Kirby, executive director of Kawartha Lakes Food Source, attributes food bank usage “in large part to an inadequate social safety net, precarious employment, unaffordable housing and systemic racism and inequality.”

KLFS, a grassroots non-profit organization, has been working to stock the shelves of food banks and community members in Kawartha Lakes by operating a central distribution centre for the last 18 years. It procures, sorts, stores and distributes food and other household essentials to food banks. This organizational model allows food banks to focus their efforts on providing their clients the best possible experience because KLFS takes care of ensuring they have a consistent quality and quantity of food to give.

CONT’D ON PAGE 16

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The Food Market allows clients to choose their foods as they would be able to at a grocery store.

Retired United Church minister, Rev. Rohan Wijesinghe, remembers the need he saw during his time with Queen Street United Church, from 1997 to 2008. Every year, he says, “there would be eight or nine people who would tap on the church doors for some help.

“I would oblige using monies in the benevolent fund which was at my discretion to spend.”

But in his third year there were 38 people who came for emergency assistance, a number which made him take “serious note of this jump in numbers.”

“I shared my concern with other members of the ministerial association,” says Wijesinghe. “Several other pastors had also noticed a sudden increase of people who were in need of help.”

In response to this sudden increase, Queen Street United Church reached out to the larger community and set up a coalition focused on poverty. It brought together organizations such as Women’s Resources, Canadian Mental Health Association, Community Care, the fire department, local police and A Place Called Home. The coalition and Rotary Club of Lindsay then gave Wijesinghe, Dave Parrott, Peter Milner and Will Gilbert the job of doing research on hunger locally. Their findings demonstrated that poverty was a rapidly growing concern.

Under the leadership of Rotary, Kawartha Lakes Food Source was founded in 2002. Its mission evolved to “Supporting those who feed our hungry.”

Today, there are 14 food banks across Kawartha Lakes. Four are located in Lindsay; the others are in Bobcaygeon, Coboconk, Dunsford, Fenelon Falls, Janetville, Kinmount, Little Britain, Omemee, Pontypool and Woodville.

Ten of these food banks are members of KLFS. Their membership provides

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them with monthly shipments of non-perishables to restock shelves as well as weekly shipments of fresh eggs, milk, protein and produce.

In the face of the adversity he’s experienced, Couch has been resilient. He has been sober for 17 years, crediting his recovery largely to his children, who motivate him to do better and keep going, as well as the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Reach for Recovery Program.

“Everything that I have been through has led me to be who I am now,” he says. “I’m at the point in my recovery that I am able to give back to others.” Couch is actively involved in the Canadian Mental Health Association’s community, with a goal of trying to help others also see the light at the end of the tunnel. He still picks up odd jobs when he is able, and he still visits the food bank from time to time.

Without the support of food banks, Couch says he likely would have lost his kids. “I wouldn’t have been able to provide for them. I would have rather known that they were somewhere that they were well fed. It’s a shame that we need food banks, but they are so helpful to those who do need the service.”

“I couldn’t have survived without them.” ~Jessica Topfer works at Kawartha Lakes Food Source as administration and programs centre manager.

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OPINION

}} Get involved

Time for national standards in long-term care SHARON ROBBINS Sharon Robbins is a former secondary school teacher with an interest in social justice issues and community activism.

This past year has shown us that Kawartha Lakes is not immune to the systemic problems in long-term care, such as staffing shortages, an undervalued workforce and budget cuts. It took a pandemic for our community to take notice of a nationwide crisis that has been coming to a head for decades. This is not a criticism of our dedicated front-line workers or management staff in individual long-term care homes in Kawartha Lakes, but a recognition that various provincial governments have failed to protect our senior citizens.

The result? The majority of Canada’s COVID deaths have been among residents of long-term care homes, a national tragedy that could have been prevented.

During the September 2020 speech from the throne the federal government recognized that a national crisis deserves a national response and pledged to develop “new, national standards for long-term care.” These national standards are urgently needed to address the capacity and quality of long-term care homes, thereby protecting our seniors and ensuring that they have access to the levels of care and support that they deserve.

The Kawartha Lakes Health Coalition is calling on the federal government to develop these standards as soon as possible and to include in those standards the following: 1. That care homes are accountable under a uniform system that guarantee all long-term care homes follow guidelines for patient safety 2. That there is a consistency of well-coordinated care across all long-term care 3. That patients and families are included in formal consultations and engagement processes in health care planning, policy, delivery and evaluation in Canada 4. That a minimum of four hours per day or more of direct care be provided to each patient, with formal recognition of residents’ rights and common essential visitors policies

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The lives of our seniors matter. Long-term care residents are some of our most vulnerable citizens and are often the least able to advocate for themselves.

By mobilizing our community, we can speak for them.

It’s not enough for just one, two, or 10 people to speak out; we need thousands of voices joining together to create a demand so loud that our local politicians will have no choice but to hear it and support it. Applying political pressure does work, especially with a federal government that is open to implementing national standards.

While many may contend that health care is a provincial issue, ultimately the majority of health care funding is federal, allowing the involvement of the national government at this critical time. This is possible by creating independent federal legislation and linking eligibility to receive federal transfer payments to compliance with national standards.

It’s not enough for just one, two, or 10 people to speak out; we need thousands of voices joining together to create a demand so loud that our local politicians will have no choice but to hear it and support it.

How can you help? Start by sending an email to your MP Jamie Schmale, at Jamie.schmale@parl.gc.ca to let him know this issue is important to you. Include the four above points that must be included in national standards for long-term care. Ask him to support this critically important legislative change. Make sure to include your name, address and other contact information so that he can respond.

Join the Kawartha Lakes Health Coalition mailing list by emailing kawarthalakeshealthcoalition@gmail.com.

We will keep you informed about opportunities to assist in person in our community. We need as many people as possible getting the word out that national standards in long-term care are urgently needed.

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KIRK WINTER Municipal Affairs

NOTES FROM CITY HALL Chicken coops pilot project Urban dwellers in Kawartha Lakes who have an interest in raising their own chickens for meat and eggs will soon be getting their opportunity.

Council approved a recommendation from bylaw enforcement staff to rewrite rules that prohibit this activity and implement a two-year trial program that will license 50 different urban sites across the city. At the end of the two-year pilot, bylaw enforcement will compile data and report to the city about the viability of extending and expanding the program.

Aaron Sloan, manager of bylaw enforcement for the city, presented multiple options to council. He recommended a permit fee, and that the city maintain the right to designate where the coops could be placed based on the licensee’s lot size and geographic location.

Paramedic master plan update Consultants Todd MacDonald and John Prno gave council its first look at the 2022–31 master plan, much of which focuses on how to strategically place paramedic stations to provide the best possible response time.

The draft report recommended redeploying the truck from Pontypool to a new station in Oakwood, and extending service in the area from three days a week to five.

The consultants also recommended the city sign a jointservice agreement with Peterborough that will allow Millbrook paramedics to serve Manvers township; replace the Fenelon Falls base and build a new paramedic station in Lindsay, likely on Angeline Street South; add seven more 12-hour shifts in Lindsay; upgrade the base in Coboconk and consider constructing a new base in Omemee.

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Father-son team brings a family connection to volunteering with Meals on Wheels It’s not always easy to carve out family time but a father and son have found a way to do it in a way that even benefits the community.

Corey McIntyre, father, and Luke, son, have become a valuable part of the Meals on Wheels organization after joining nine months ago. “Some of our volunteers had to make a difficult decision to take a break from their volunteer work in the program due to the pandemic,” says Kerri Daley, program manager, Home Support Services for Community Care. “Corey and Luke heard about our need and were quick to offer their help.”

From the start of the pandemic last March to the end of last December, the organization’s volunteers delivered more than 28,000 meals to more than 400 of the most vulnerable people in our community.

As a father, Corey can cite several things his son has learned through his involvement. For starters, Corey says 13-year-old Luke has seen first-hand the impact of volunteerism. “Volunteer work is so important in any community. There are many organizations providing incredibly important services which rely almost completely on volunteers,” Corey says.

And Luke has learned the significance of being a volunteer. “Even at his age my son has come to realize we are fortunate to be living in this community,” Corey says. “He has always been one to step up and help out whenever and wherever it was needed, so volunteering seemed like a natural progression.”

Volunteering for Meals on Wheels has given Luke the chance to hone his organizational skills, since Corey essentially lets his son run the show when they are out on a route. The junior team member navigates where to go next, and ensures that the proper meal components are delivered to the clients, while Dad takes on the role of driver and assembler of meals.

Luke — whose interests extend to cars, Formula 1 racing, hockey and gaming — sums it up by saying, “I like helping the clients, and it’s cool to get to tell my

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GEOFF COLEMAN Writer-at-large

dad what to do.”

The senior McIntyre notes, “The looks on many of the clients’ faces and the positive comments they make when their meals are delivered by someone his age are amazing to both see and hear. We both find it rewarding when we get to the end of the list knowing that everyone was delivered a delicious meal.”

The time commitment is anywhere from an hour to upwards of two hours depending on the route. The father-son team notes it Volunteers Corey and Luke McIntyre. didn’t take long to realize that many clients rely on the program for a nutritious meal each day.

I saw that first-hand when my own 90-year-old neighbour would be waiting, practically with knife and fork in hand, for his Meals on Wheels delivery. He was no cook, and even if he was, getting to the grocery store or figuring out how to arrange a delivery was a near impossibility, and standing by a stove or handling knives was becoming a hazard. However, he was able to live in his own home, independently until the last month of his life, due in part to regular, quality, affordable meal deliveries.

Corey McIntyre has a parting piece of advice. “I would highly recommend getting involved to anyone who has been thinking about it. There is no doubt that for numerous reasons you brighten the days of many people when you help out in this manner. Anyone with a car, a couple of hours on their hands, and some decent organizational skills would be well suited for the role. The father-son time is an added bonus which I treasure.”

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Olde Gaol Museum is integral to local history and tourism and deserves city support BARBARA DOYLE Barbara Doyle is the project coordinator of the Olde Gaol Museum and also manages the day-to-day operations of the museum on a volunteer basis.

For more than 150 years the building at 50 Victoria Ave. N. in Lindsay has been solidly and steadfastly present in the landscape of our architectural community.

Known over time as the Mighty Fortress, its role has been transformed from housing inmates to housing local history, through the efforts of the Victoria County Historical Society, which operates it as the Olde Gaol Museum.

It’s a critical piece of our historical landscape — and it needs the city’s help through regular and sustained funding. Fortunately, the city has been supportive of the Olde Gaol Museum and we work closely with city staff to maintain what we have.

The museum is one of Lindsay’s major tourist attractions. For every $1 invested in heritage sites, tourists spend $3.70 at other local businesses. A vibrant arts and culture scene also attracts new residents and businesses to the area, which results in community growth, prosperity and jobs.

Most municipalities fund their museums for core operations including staffing, recognizing the positive returns for the local economy as well as supporting the moral and ethical premise of preserving local history.

The museum isn’t a dusty old vault filled with junk no one cares about; it’s the outer frame that houses the archival heartbeats of thousands of individuals, telling the stories of who they were, what they cared about and the contributions they made to creating the city that we enjoy today.

Growing up in Lindsay, I remember being frightened of the rumours of a large guillotine behind those giant courtyard walls and the prisoners housed there. Now I know that it was a gallows, constructed for the murderers sentenced to hang, with the last in 1924. I know lots of jail history but I also know about local artists,

The Olde Gaol Museum.

creators, authors, service groups, businesses, schools, churches and military service men and women, the founding fathers and community heroes, because of my time volunteering at the museum.

Since 2018, I have worked with an incredible team of volunteers and contract staffers to move the museum forward on its evolutionary path to becoming an engaging community space. The museum has shifted from emphasizing objects to exploring and studying the relationships, identities and unique communities of the city through a lens of ethics, moralities and politics. In a nutshell, telling the untold stories but also the “why” of why you should or could care about them. Exhibit development and planning is a long process, whether displays are developed on-site or are travelling or digital ones, and the museum runs a three-to-five year curatorial plan that maps out different exhibits and the resources needed to accomplish that plan, both human and financial. You see the results of that work when you visit the museum.

What you don’t see is the collections work and facilities management that takes up the bulk of our financial and human resources. Small community museums like ours have been systemically and chronically underfunded for decades, relying on volunteer labour to keep the doors open. That simply isn’t acceptable or reasonable with today’s legislation of Community Museum Standards

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and non-profit governance requirements. Community Museum Standards are 10 basic categories of governance, including finance, collections standards and interpretation, among other areas. Whether in a hulking Italianate stone fortress from 1863 or a brand-new facility, the cost of proper care, documentation and storage of the collection is the same. We treat the building as our largest artifact, being heritage designated and in need of care and attention to keep it open to the public. Yes, sometimes it needs repairs, and sometimes there are spiders and flies and the odd mouse gets in, just like your own home, but we do the repairs and we kill the spiders and get on with museum business.

It takes six to 10 hours to intake an object, document it, clean it, photograph it and get it ready for storage after it has been recommended for formal acceptance into the museum’s collection by the curatorial committee and approved by the board of directors. This work needs to be done by qualified and trained professionals and the storage requirements are expensive; proper archival boxes can range from $15 to $100 per object, depending on size and type of object.

In 2020, we added 290 items to the nearly 20,000 in the collection. This is the challenging part about museums

that the community doesn’t see; to preserve our history takes financial support and core operational funding for consistent and qualified staff, but this part of the work provides no direct revenue to offset the costs. Simply put, collection management costs money but makes none, even though museums are legislated to do this work in a certain way.

Exhibits and programming need financial support, while door admissions or event ticket prices rarely cover expenses. It’s not “bad business,” but more about keeping history, arts and culture accessible to everyone in the community while also offering it in the style and quality that our community deserves. These project costs are often offset by grants or sponsorships, but these are not typically available for basic operational costs.

Coming through with a base level of funding as a municipality is the direction in which we must move for the long-term sustainability of our museum. We look forward to working with the city in the coming months toward this goal.

Visit the museum online at www.oldegaolmuseum. ca and follow us on social media for reopening updates and virtual exhibits.

Jump In and join the conversation

Have you checked out our online engagement site Jump In? This platform allows residents to have their say on projects and initiatives that impact the community.

Learn

Engage

Find out what projects are taking place across Kawartha Lakes and how they impact you.

Participate in mapping tools, surveys or ask questions directly to project teams!

Follow along

Listen in on important meetings and follow along with each step of the project’s process.

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23

Hope Lee retires }} City’s progressive housing stance a reflection of Lee’s leadership

RODERICK BENNS Publisher It was always a little bit personal for Hope Lee. After 34 years with the city’s housing division, she retires in May. Lee traces her career path back to her childhood, a time when she lived in public housing in Lindsay for several years.

When Lee was living in a single parent family in one of the very units that the city still owns, Zita Devan, founder of A Place Called Home, the city’s homeless shelter, set Lee on the path she’d stay on for more than three decades. Devan helped get Lee a work placement in what was then the Victoria Haliburton Housing Authority in 1986 through a Fleming College program. Lee was hired full time in 1987.

Hope Lee at a Bond Street housing development in Lindsay, 2019.

Photo: City of Kawartha Lakes.

Later, the name changed to Kawartha Lakes Haliburton Housing Corporation when social housing was transferred from the province to municipalities in 2001, part of the significant downloading of responsibilities to municipalities that occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“While some may have seen that transfer in a more negative light, I’ve never felt that way,” Hope tells the Advocate. “It opened up my position to be able to focus not only on the actual housing corporation but local affordable housing and homelessness overall.”

She says she has felt “blessed to have a career I’ve enjoyed and where I can help people.”

Great working relationships and a feeling of support from her director, the Kawartha Lakes Housing board, administration, and councils in both Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton County have made her job easier and more fulfilling.

“I’m proud overall of the progress made in this community when it comes to housing and homelessness.

There are amazing community partners and advocates,” Lee says.

Under Lee’s oversight, Kawartha Lakes has been a progressive leader when it comes to housing. The city, for instance, is one of only 33 municipalities in Canada to attempt to end chronic homelessness through Built for Zero, an initiative to help a core group of leading communities create a template for the rest of the country for ending homelessness.

Lee says she’s proud to have led numerous new developments that have been successfully built or are in the midst of being built.

“I’ve had the pleasure of seeing hundreds of new affordable units be built and occupied — in many cases providing homes to those who hadn’t had a place of their own in quite some time.”

She also cites the redevelopment of the emergency shelter, A Place Called Home, as a big accomplishment

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I CHOOSE HERE KL

WHY I CAME BACK TO CALL KAWARTHA LAKES HOME

“I’ve had the pleasure of seeing hundreds of new affordable units be built and occupied — in many cases providing homes to those who hadn’t had a place of their own in quite some time.”

DARRYL JAMES and calls APCH a “significant partner” to the city and a key resource to those experiencing homelessness in our community.

“It has been rewarding” to work with APCH’s team, she says, to assist in securing some of the funding to help make the redevelopment possible.

After Lee was hired by the city, Devan says she spent years sitting on committees with her, always with the goal of improving social housing and affordable housing in general.

“I have witnessed her grow in knowledge and commitment, always keeping in mind the needs of community and the opportunities available to the city. She will be missed,” says Devan.

As for what’s next on her radar in retirement, Lee says she’s looking forward to more family time and more time to travel. “While COVID will restrict that initially, I’ll enjoy my household family and some limited travel either at our trailer or in our motorhome.”

When she thinks back to her journey from childhood until now, Lee says she feels fortunate to have been able to give back to her community.

“I was born in Lindsay and had a place to call home because there was safe and affordable housing made available to us. How lucky was I to be given the opportunity to work for the same organization that assisted us in more difficult times, and (then) manage and increase housing opportunities for others?”

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I grew up in Lindsay, but I always thought I was destined to live in a big city. My wife Robyn and I had each travelled the world before we met in Toronto.

However, that changed in 2014 as we welcomed our second child and unexpectedly had to move. The Strumbellas’ tour schedule was ramping up. We knew that Lindsay was more affordable and closer to family, so we made the move. Robyn travelled to Toronto for work three days a week while I toured with the band. We reconnected with friends and got involved in the community. The air was fresher, family was closer, and the community was vibrant. We’re proud to call Lindsay home and I love being involved in the community as an artist!

Community news and stories FIND US AT:

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25

Tennis Love

}} Fenelon Falls Tennis Club

a popular pandemic-friendly sports option

GEOFF COLEMAN Writer-at-large

Play safe

Fenelon Falls Tennis Club.

With a new rink, a curling club, nearby golf courses, a popular multi-use trail and every kind of aquatic-based recreation known to humans at their doorstep, Fenelon Falls residents have many ways to spend their leisure time. That might explain why, through no fault of its own, the Fenelon Falls Tennis Club flies under the recreational radar.

Ham Keillor-Faulkner says when he tells locals he is president of the club they are often surprised — as in, surprised there is a tennis club in town. Keillor-Faulkner says with its newly resurfaced courts, and a reasonable membership price, the club offers excellent value for anyone looking for COVID-compliant exercise.

Tucked away at the end of Eva Street and adjacent to the southwest corner of the Fenelon Falls Secondary School track and football field, the tennis club is easy to miss.

In fact, it is easy to go to the community centre and never see the courts, even though they are just a couple of hundred metres away.

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It is hard to think of a sport that is more suited to the current times than singles tennis.

Club president Ham Keillor-Faulkner reports a 25 per cent increase in membership last year, something he attributes at least in part to COVID-19, in the same way that boat and ATV sales increased.

The club kept track of members as part of its contact tracing protocol, and found that over the six months, an average of 10 players hit the courts each day.

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The club is on Trillium Lakelands District School Board property. Built 42 years ago, it exists due to a unique partnership where the board pays taxes and the water bill (the water supply for the football field is under the clubhouse), and the tennis club takes care of the power bill and building maintenance.

The cooperation extends to court time as well, with students using the courts as part of their healthy active living classes, and for tennis team practices.

Even if the organization does keep a low profile, 102 people still call the club home. Membership is split almost equally between seasonal and permanent residents, and it is not unheard of for boaters cruising the Trent Severn Waterway to contact the club during the planning stages of their trip to arrange court time.

Sound financial management over the years allowed the club to pay cash for court resurfacing two seasons ago, made all the more impressive when given that membership fees are just $100 for a whole season. The club also has an on-site tennis pro who teaches everyone from kids

to seniors. The instructor also holds a summer camp.

Tournaments run throughout the May-to-November playing season, and clinics are held each Sunday.

Juniper Isle resident Sal Zagorski has been a member since 2010. He says the courts are in great shape, and is a big fan of the lights that allow night play.

“All the pros that have worked for the club are very well qualified, but what makes the club are the members … a great, friendly group. I have played in clubs in Toronto as well as Florida and this club may be smaller in membership, but it’s a lot more personal and friendlier,” says Zagorski.

The social traditions of the sport are not forgotten in a normal year either, with open houses and barbecues running alongside men’s, women’s, and mixed league play.

Drop-ins are welcomed too.

To get more information or to join the club, visit fenelonfallstennisclub.com. Fill in the membership form and pay online. Or contact Ham at hammer5913@ gmail.com.

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Community Foundation launches loan for agricultural innovators The Community Foundation of Kawartha Lakes in partnership with Business Community Development Corporation, has announced a new loan program geared to support local rural agricultural innovators and entrepreneurs in search of new ways to grow, produce, manufacture or distribute good food — from farm to table.

Agriculture is a leading economic driver in Kawartha Lakes, so a thriving rural economy based on agriculture, is closely aligned with the founding inspiration of the Community Foundation of Kawartha Lakes, says a media release.

“We are happy to provide funding to assist entrepreneurs in this important business sector. The goal is to ensure we sustain and develop new ideas for innovation and growth in agriculture and help diversify their business models and grow revenues for the future,” explains Vince Killen, executive director, BCDC. The loan program is geared to assist local farmers and entrepreneurs interested in food services, new products and innovations, providing access to funding which otherwise would not be feasible or available. Loans between $10,000 and $25,000 are being offered with flexible repayment terms and competitive interest rates to ensure this critical funding gap is filled.

“It’s exciting for the foundation to be able to offer the agri-innovation loan program to help Kawartha Lakes’ farmers diversify and innovate. We’re looking for applications from people who have a solid business plan but need some capital to get the idea moving forward,” said Harry Stoddart, Community Foundation secretary.

Loan proposals are limited only by the applicant’s imagination. They must be innovative in nature and be supported by a sound business plan or an intriguing idea with achievable goals and expectations.

If you have a great idea and want to consider a loan application or you want to learn more about the foundation and its philanthropy, contact Margaret Cunningham at 705.731.9775 or email info@kawarthafoundation.ca.

For foundation information, visit www.kawarthafoundation.ca. ~Lindsay Advocate

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Extendicare to expand with new provincial investment

MPP Laurie Scott, Councillor Pat Dunn, MP Jamie Schmale, Deputy Mayor Patrick O’Reilly, and Nancy Rooney, Administrator at Extendicare Kawartha Lakes.

The Ontario government is expanding Extendicare in Lindsay, one of 80 long-term care homes province-wide to see more money.

According to a media release, these spaces are part of the government’s promised delivery of 30,000 long-term care spaces over 10 years.

Extendicare Lindsay is being allocated 96 new spaces and 64 upgraded spaces, or a total of 160 beds that are either new or upgraded.

The investment will also help eliminate three and four bed ward rooms.

“This is exciting news for Kawartha Lakes,” said Laurie Scott, MPP for Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock in the media release. “Not only will this expansion help address hallway health care, it will also assist the growing number of people needing long-term care over the next decade. Today’s announcement will help ensure we have safe, modern spaces ready for them.”

Nancy Rooney, Extendicare’s administrator, said the announcement “means that we can move forward with our plan to add capacity at Extendicare Kawartha Lakes and take action to address the home’s long-standing waitlist for new admissions throughout the Kawartha region. This new project will offer an additional 96 seniors in our community with the care they need, in new care spaces constructed to modern design standards, resulting in increased resident privacy and quality of life.”

Criteria for selecting the projects included upgrading older homes in response to lessons learned around improved infection prevention and control measures, particularly the elimination of three- and fourbed rooms; adding spaces to areas where there is high need; and to better address the specialized care needs of residents. ~Lindsay Advocate

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31

The Local with Kitchen

Diane Reesor

proudly

Order online for free delivery or pick up.

PRESENTED BY Roasted carrot soup One of Diane’s daughters had a very picky friend and carrots were among the few foods she would eat. So, Diane researched and got creative about preparing carrots in exciting ways.

countrycupboardhealthfood.com

Diane starts with caramelized roasted carrots to make her famous carrot soup.

Health Foods

The carrot soup was a much-requested dish served at Sweet Bottoms, a popular downtown coffee shop in Fenelon Falls. People who didn’t like carrots would ask for it. The recipe used at the coffee shop calls for cumin, but for these pictures Diane has used sumac to subtly flavour the soup. You can change the flavour of this soup with spices such as ginger, savoury or curry according to your taste.

3 pounds carrots 3 tablespoons butter 4 tablespoons brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1 litre vegetable broth 1 can of evaporated milk Salt and pepper to taste A few dashes of Tabasco

Fill a 9”x11” baking dish with whole, raw carrots with the top and tips removed. Dot with butter and brown sugar. Cover with foil and roast at 350° until tender and slightly glazed (about 60 minutes).

Pour any juices from carrots into soup pot. Add cumin. Chop carrots and add to pot. Add vegetable broth and bring to boil. Puree until smooth. Add evaporated milk, andsalt and pepper to taste. Add dashes of Tabasco sauce to finish.

Diane suggests keeping evaporated milk stocked in your pantry for soups.

What creative dish do you make with carrots?

Let us know at kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com.

Story and photos by Sharon Walker

Bulk Foods Alternative Foods 9 May Street, Fenelon Falls • 705-887-6644 Mon. to Wed. 9 am to 5 pm • Thurs. & Fri. 9 am to 8 pm Sat. 10 am to 5 pm • Sun. 11 am to 4 pm

You're Da Bomb!

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Extra: Abbr. www.lindsayadvocate.ca

35 "Well, whoop-di-___"

33

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34

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FRIENDS & NEIGHBOURS

Nate Copeland

}} Becoming his true self

JAMIE MORRIS Writer-at-large

To bring his body into alignment with his gender Nate Copeland is an amateur actor, parent, early identity, for the past two years Nate has been receiving childhood educator, member of Cambridge United testosterone injections. Soon he will have “top surgery” Church and a sci-fi fanatic. He’s also a transgender man.

— removal of some breast tissue and contouring of the “When I started at the theatre I wasn’t out as transchest. gender,” he told Denis Grignon on a recent episode of He’s had support from the theatre family, from GenThe Advocate Podcast. “The theatre family are the peoder Journeys in Peterborough, from friends and most ple who backed me. It was a safe place to explore my family, from his church, from Authentic Self Counselling identity.”

I wondered what it had been like to Services in Oshawa. grow up and transition in what is, after But he’s also encountered those all, a small town. In a long telephone who lack understanding. His Lindsay conversation, Nate generously shared doctor didn’t feel equipped to provide his story. “I’ve always, on some level, hormone therapy, and Nate had to go known I was transgender. I just didn’t to Oshawa. Some in his extended family have the words.” aren’t accepting. There are co-workers As a child he was, Nate says, “a who feel he shouldn’t be working with bit tomboyish.” He hated dresses and kids — that it will “confuse” them.

And he’s experienced transphobia chose unisex gear; as an adolescent he in some stores and in day-to-day enborrowed his dad’s muscle shirts. At 10 counters. Nate likes tradition and smallhe knew he was different from the girls town life, but he understands why some around him, and at one point decided of his LGBTQ+ friends have chosen to to discuss it with his parents but lost leave. his nerve.

So, how can we support people who At 17 Nate made a conscious decision to follow a traditional route. are transgender? “People try to overHe dated, then married; at 30 he gave complicate being transgender. It’s the Nate Copeland birth to a daughter. He completed a result of a hormone imbalance in the university degree and an early childwomb that results in some wrong body hood education program, and became supervisor of a parts,” Nate says, adding that transgender people are just childcare centre. “I checked all the boxes,” he says. people, and there’s as much diversity within the transIt was the birth of his daughter that led to a crisis. gender population as there is in the general population.

Above all, he’d like to see a welcoming, inclusive “When a child is born, you can’t help but feel emotions,” community. That means educating ourselves. he says, “including all the emotions I’d been suppressing.”

Check out library resources, contact PFLAG (a local Two years later, his mental health spiralling, Nate support group), drop into the Pride picnic this summer. came out to his husband. They stayed together trying And it’s imperative to include children in the discussion to make it work, but Nate’s discontentment had grown.

“I needed to feel whole.” He moved out with his daughand make gender diversity part of the school curriculum. ter in an amicable separation and the two parents share “The more children know, the better equipped and custody. the safer they are.”

www.lindsayadvocate.ca

35

JUST IN TIME

I.E. Weldon Secondary School at 50 One of the most famous stories in human history involves the people of ancient Israel crossing the River Jordan and entering the Promised Land (in today’s Middle East). Originally recorded in the Hebrew Bible, this story was alluded to by the writer of “The New Jerusalem” — an address given at Lindsay Collegiate & Vocational Institute on June 8, 1971.

This address (which resides today in the collection of the Victoria County Historical Society), likens students at overcrowded LCVI to the ancient Israelites crossing a

IAN McKECHNIE Writer-at-large

went on to teach mathematics at Weldon. A rotation of four classes for part of the student population occurred from 8:10 a.m. through 2:30 p.m.; another four were in session from 11:15 a.m. through 5:25 p.m. Upper-year students were kept to regular hours. Logistical challenges involved in busing out-oftown students meant that those who were saddled with the later timetable lived in Lindsay proper, and sometimes got home after dark. (“Two kind teachers, Mrs. Murray and Mrs. Jung, stayed behind and coached

I.E. Weldon Secondary School. Photo: Erin Burrell.

river and entering the promised land, the New Jerusalem, “a city set on a hill” — that is, the newly completed I.E. Weldon Secondary School, which in 2021 marks its 50th anniversary.

The imagery invoked in that address was apt, for conditions at LCVI were not ideal by the late 1960s, when the student population outgrew the aged structure and had many decision makers looking at the feasibility of constructing a second high school elsewhere in Lindsay.

As anyone who attended LCVI during that time can attest, the rhythm of school life was unusual to say the least. “When I first went to LCVI to teach in 1968, we were running three shifts,” recalls Doug Brenner, who

us in sports,” remembers one of my aunts, who was enrolled at LCVI during those hectic years.)

Described by the astutely observant reporter Ford Moynes as “modernistic almost to the extreme,” and officially opened on Nov. 30, 1971, the new building was named in honour of Isaac Ernest Weldon (18731962), a philanthropically-minded Lindsay lawyer who believed strongly in the value of public education.

The student population in 1971-72 consisted of some 740 students, with a staff of just under 50 — a far cry from the ratio of 1,800 students to 100-plus staff at LCVI only a few years before. “It was a real relief when the new school opened,” Brenner observes.

36

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For Barb Abercrombie, née Gill, who spent Grade 12 at Weldon in that first year, moving to a new school was a very liberating experience. “We felt very free,” she says of the fresh start that erstwhile LCVI students had in Weldon’s spacious new corridors, classrooms and cafeteria. “I got to know a whole new group of kids.” By the time Abercrombie was in Grade 13, she and her fellow students had — like their counterparts at LCVI — exclusive access to a common room. Here, in addition to socializing over games of euchre, they followed the progress of the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union with rapt attention.

Jack Staples, Weldon’s mild-mannered principal from 1971 through 1975, wrote in his inaugural yearbook address that “A new school begins without traditions. Some of the things we shall do this year will become traditional in the I.E. Weldon School.” One of those traditions, which immediately set Weldon apart from LCVI, involved the graduation ceremony.

“Graduation was always held in June, (unlike LCVI’s October ceremony) right from the beginning,” says Brenner. In some years, the Described by the astutely ceremony was held in the cooler observant reporter Ford environs of the Ops Community Moynes as “modernistic Centre. “We moved chairs and out to Ops and stacked them almost to the extreme,” tables in the arena,” Brenner recalls. and officially opened on Another tradition that got Nov. 30, 1971, the new underway in that opening school building was named in year was Antics. Featuring music honour of Isaac Ernest from Anne of Green Gables, comedic routines and gymnastics demonWeldon (1873-1962), strations, the 1972 production set a philanthropicallythe stage for a much-loved tradition. minded Lindsay lawyer Originally staged in February, Antics has for the past several years taken who believed strongly place in April — a month this proud in the value of public LCVI graduate will forever associate education. with Weldon.

Why? Four and five years ago this month, respectively, I had the wonderful opportunity to work as a historical consultant with Weldon’s talented dramatic arts and creative writing students on a series of theatrical productions staged during the centenary of the First World War, and the sesquicentennial of Canadian Confederation. Many pleasant hours were spent in rehearsal with these brilliant young people and their teachers as we collaborated to bring local history to life.

Said the editorial team of the school’s yearbook in 1972, “I.E. Weldon has started a tradition whereby school becomes not just a building down the road where you learn, but where action and participation are linked with spirit to make it a place to enjoy.” Such was the feeling I got in my brief encounters with Weldon’s indomitable spirit in 2016 and ’17 — a spirit that has sustained it for half a century and will surely carry it forward for another 50 years.

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TREVOR’S TAKE TREVOR HUTCHINSON Contributing Editor

50/50

Our finish line is in sight

A year ago in this space I wrote the following sentence, at the start of the first lockdown in Ontario: “So when we get through this — and we will get through this — I think we should communally celebrate on a scale that we never have before.”

That celebration might have to wait a little bit longer, but the finish line is in sight. Whatever challenging times lie ahead we can finally start to see better times ahead after this annus horribilis. As I write this, many experts are predicting a third wave of COVID-19 in Ontario. But help is on the way. For sure we will have to heal and learn from the loss of life, the effect on our kids and the economic effects of the virus. But things will get better.

Will summer 2021 be as good as summer 2019? Sadly, it will not. Will this summer be better than the summer of 2020? The answer to that question, if we can just maintain certain prescribed public health measures, is most definitely yes.

We will have many issues to debate. Many have criticized the Ford government’s lack of preparation for the second wave in long-term care despite access to boatloads of federal aid. This is fair comment. What is not fair comment, regardless of the ideological visions of the governing party, is blaming how we treat our seniors on one political party. Canada has had the highest percentage of deaths in long-term care as a proportion of population of any other country in the OECD — the world’s high-income economies.

The spark was COVID, but the fuel that made that fire burn so horribly is decades of bad policy choices made by governments of all political stripes.

The problem — and the solution — is on all of us.

But on this and several other issues, I remain hopeful for the future. The state of long-term care, and what we should do about it, is showing up in national polls as a significant issue. Many banks are starting to predict a consumer-led economic recovery, thanks in part to federal programs that kept many of us afloat this last year. I also derive hope from the fact that by and large we came together and took actions to help each other.

Personally, this year was incredibly hard on the kids in our family. But through our own resilience and with the help of the amazing teachers and support workers in our public education system, we will get past this too.

But it’s science, though, that gives me the most hope. Having multiple vaccines for a disease unknown to humans 15 months ago is something to celebrate. The technology behind these vaccines will change medicine forever.

We allowed science to lead us. And enough of us came together to solve a problem. It’s almost like this painful ordeal was all just preparation to help us tackle climate change next.

38

RAFFLE St. Paul’s Anglican Church Is Offering A Series of

Online 50/50 Draws

1st Draw: April 30, 9:00pm This Draw Covers March 8 – April 30, 2021

Tickets: $3.00 Each Or 2 For $5.00 Starting March 8th Visit

www.st-pauls-lindsay.ca

SOLUTION

to this month’s crossword, page 33 You're Da Bomb!

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By Barbara Olson © ClassiCanadian Crosswords

www.lindsayadvocate.ca

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