The Lindsay Advocate - September 2022

A place to grow Development is coming, but how much farmland are we prepared to lose?

Zellers in Lindsay: 10 years after it closed Vanishing tradespeople: How a decades-old decision helped cause today's struggle

Kawartha Lakes’ Premier News Magazine * September 2022

MIKE GALLAGHER BUSINESS MANAGER

JOE REDSHAW PRESIDENT

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The Advocate is published monthly & distributed through diverse businesses & locations throughout Kawartha Lakes, North Durham & southern Haliburton County.

We are a proud member of the Lindsay & District, Fenelon Falls & Bobcaygeon Chambers of Commerce.

Publisher: Roderick Benns

our vision

September 2022 * Vol. 5 * Issue 53

The Advocate cares about the social wellness of our community & 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 & many of our stories reflect the society we work to build each day.

Associate Editor: Nancy Payne Contributing Editor: Trevor Hutchinson Contributing Writers: Lisa Hart Nancy Payne Denise Waldron David Rapaport Ian McKechnie Ginny Colling Trevor Hutchinson Roderick Benns Art Direction + Design: Barton Creative Co. Christina Dedes Photographers: Sienna Frost Web Developer: Kimberly Durrant Published By Fireside Publishing House Printed By Cofax Printing Cover Image: A man stands on a 100-acre farm south of Lindsay by Sienna Frost Please send advertising & editorial inquiries to Roderick Benns at: The Lindsay Advocate 1 Russel Street E. Lindsay ON, K9V 1Z7

kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com

(705) 341 - 1496

PRIVACY POLICY: The Lindsay Advocate is independently owned & operated. The opinions expressed herein are the views of the contributors & do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine. Photos, text & art work contained in The Lindsay Advocate are copyrighted & may not be published, broadcast or rewritten without the express permission of the Publisher.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, & without notice. The Publisher has made every effort to ensure information contained herein was accurate at press time. The Publisher does not assume & hereby disclaims any liability to any party for damage, loss, or disruption caused by errors or omissions.

14 feature

Looking back 10 years ago to the closure of Lindsay’s Zellers

20 cover

Are we losing too much farmland as the city continues to attract developers?

26 feature

Tradespeople shortage traced back to the axing of such classes for students in the 90s

every issue Letters to the Editor 4 * UpFront 6 * Benns’ Belief 9 Lunch With 31 * Cool Tips for a Hot Planet 39 Just in Time 42 * The Affordable Kitchen 44 * Trevor’s Take 46 To advertise in the Advocate please contact us by telephone at (705) 341-1496 or by email at kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com

“Like locks of hair, letters encapsulate some essential element of the personality of whoever holds the pen.”

- Charlotte Gray

Peterborough vs. Lindsay for bus transportation I have just checked how many GO buses run from Peterborough to Oshawa and then on to Toronto — 14 each day, which is 98 trips per week.

This is in contrast to three buses per week from Lindsay to Oshawa and Toronto (TOK bus line.) This is intolerable. Ninety-eight vs. three. At least the daily service should be reinstated for Lindsay.

– Dr Michael Moreton, Lindsay

Lindsay lost small-town feel after amalgamation In reply to last month’s spotlight letter, Lindsay lost its smalltown status the moment amalgamation created the City of Kawartha Lakes and Lindsay, and other places like Fenelon Falls and Bobcaygeon became hubs for that city.

The enforcement of the laws of the land are for the protection of everyone’s freedoms, and those who chose to ignore them need to understand they are infringing on the freedoms of others. That is unacceptable extremism.

Within the city there are still many smaller communities that draw people to live there that have that quieter lifestyle, but Lindsay is no longer a town and therefore should be acting more like the hub of city life.

Many new homes and businesses are being and built in Kawartha Lakes that our city council should be addressing.

Why not plan more business opportunities for the east side of Lindsay and take some of the weight of traffic from the west side where people complain about the vehicle tie-ups.

And ORVs running on city streets only add more to the congestion as they are not approved roadworthy vehicles, hence their name: offroad vehicles.

As for the tax base, while I grew up in this area, I have also paid hefty taxes in the GTA and also to the province and government of Canada that also supports Kawartha Lakes in its way.

Strong and Free Our democracy exists as the ultimate form of freedom — freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom of religion, freedom of the press and freedom of peaceful assembly. Freedom is only freedom when your personal choices do not infringe on the freedoms of others, a very delicate balance. Some individuals have a perception of freedom that could easily lead us down the path of chaos and anarchy.

Every Canadian can advance their issues by using the existing avenues available.

How many countries exist where individuals don’t have the right to vote, run for office, speak publicly, have freedom of the press and the right to peaceful protests?

They are recognized as authoritarian countries, where individuals have no freedoms.

The infrastructure in this city does need to be addressed. But please, the change in small-town status changed years ago with amalgamation.

We, as Canadians, need to unite and work together to stay strong and free. If we are not careful, we could be a mirror image of what we are seeing south of our border: a democracy in peril, a loss of freedoms.

– H. Green, Kawartha Lakes

– M. Maynard, Lindsay

The Advocate welcomes your letters. We do not publish anonymous letters unless it’s a matter of public importance and/or someone risks harm by writing us. We publish under strict guidelines & only if we can verify the person’s identity. Simply email kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com. Keep your letters to 200 words or less.

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Distrust in government because of mandates In his latest Benns’ Belief (“So many left behind — now we reap what we have sown,” August Advocate) Roderick says inequality is the reason for most of our problems.

In my circles, it is a distrust of governments that has grown due to policies such as lockdowns, carbon taxes, inflation and vaccine mandates.

By “inequality,” does Roderick mean “inequality of outcome” or “inequality of opportunity”?

Everyone is born unequal with respect to any characteristic or socio-economic circumstance you may wish to consider.

“You can’t choose your parents” is an unfortunate fact. It is possible, however, to make the best of your circumstances by the choices and efforts we each make. Life strategies differ from one person to the next.

Self-reliance is the one that requires hard work to leverage your God-given assets to make a good life for yourself.

Another is to leverage others through social and political lobbying to receive supports from the broader taxpaying communities.

I chose the former in an era (I was born in 1951) when it was still a choice with a high probability for success.

I agree with Roderick’s statement that today’s “working class Canadians have grown up worse off than their parents.” Where we disagree is the root cause of this problem.

– Gene Balfour, Fenelon Falls

The ethics of health care One recent letter writer to the Advocate used the term “ethics” in regard to freedom and health care.

I am pleased to offer clarification on what ethics in health care means and write as a health care provider with more than 40 years experience. I am also a bioethicist.

One foundational principle in health care is autonomy. Respect for patient autonomy is manifested in consent.

No one is ever forced to undergo a health care intervention against their choice; and this includes everything from chemotherapy and surgery to routine immunizations.

If you don’t consent, with the assumption you have the capacity to decide, you don’t get it.

Full stop.

But health care workers are in a different category than regular members of the public. We have a fiduciary covenant to uphold. This means we put the welfare of our patient over and above our own.

It’s non-negotiable; practitioners favour their patient’s interests.

Health care professionals are held to higher standards and the fiduciary responsibility is just one of the duties we are duty-bound to adhere to.

Now to immunization.

No health care practitioner is forced to be immunized but such a choice has consequences.

We are free to choose but the consequences are not ours to make. They are set by others. This is not a freedom issue for those in patient care.

There are a number of legitimate reasons for a professional to step away from practice for a period of time and this recent immunization issue may constitute one of them.

The foundational ethics and principles of health care have not changed and in a functional society we rely on experts in public health to provide their guidance for the greater good.

– F. Stuart Kinsinger DC, MA ACCRAC Peer Review Chair PROBE faculty (Ethics & Boundaries) Fenelon Falls

Love for The Advocate I just wanted to reach out and say how much I love your magazine.

I just recently had the chance to look at it for the first time since moving to the region and I love it.

Well done!

– Tegan Osmond, Sunderland

While patients are free to do whatever they choose, those of us who have expertise and use it in direct contact with the public, have a professional responsibility to protect the patients we see.

There is nothing more important in nurturing trustworthinessbetween the public and the professions.

5

Lindsay Curling Club looks for new members as provincial championships approach

Kawartha Carving competition back after two-year hiatus

The Caygeon Carvers, Buckhorn Carving Club and Bobcaygeon Curling Club are teaming up to showcase the talents of wood carvers from across the Kawartha Region.

Matt English, left, president of the Lindsay Curling Club, with Dave Nigh, right, club manager. Photo: Sienna Frost

The Lindsay Curling Club is hoping to attract more interest in a sport that many would say is as Canadian as hockey.

The club — founded in 1876 — is hosting two provincial championships this year, one in late October and the other starting at the end of November. According to manager of the club, Dave Nigh, teams from across Ontario will compete to become Ontario’s representative at the national championships.

Nigh, who has been a member since 1991, says the club’s membership is normally more than 400 people. This includes women, men, youth (six to 18) associate members (non-playing members) and Special Olympics participants.

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“The last year, due to COVID, our membership dipped slightly to 350 members. We are hoping that those who did not participate last year due to the pandemic will return,” he says.

Nigh says they are hoping that the club “will attract new members who have curled in the past and may want to get back into the sport or those who are interested in learning a new sport.”

The manager says curling is great for all ages, “an enjoyable sport which combines physical fitness with a social aspect.”

To learn more, visit lindsaycurling.com or call 705-324-3851

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The event has been running for more than 40 years although it took a two-year break due to the pandemic.

Lance Reid, chair of the Kawartha Carving Competition, says, “Return participants universally laud the show as extremely well organized with world class judges and great support from the public and business community.”

To Reid’s knowledge, the only other carving competition held this year was one in Kitchener. “As such we are anticipating a lot of entries as carvers can submit any carvings that have not previously been judged. We also anticipate many guests to visit the show.”

There are also raffles, silent auction prizes, and guests can vote on their choice of Best in Show, which is handed out in addition to prizes awarded by judges.

The Sept. 10 event will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Bobcaygeon Curling Club, located at 49 Mansfield St. The $3 entry fee includes a draw ticket.

Kids under 12 are free.

New café is opening soon in downtown Lindsay

Victoria Jessup, left, and Dara Bergeron, right, look forward to serving customers in their new independent café.

Photo: Roderick Benns

It takes a little imagination to see it finished, but Lindsay will soon have a new independent café – Kindred — just a step away from where Boiling Over’s Coffee Vault used to be.

And while Boiling Over was a big loss for anyone who wanted a non-chain café experience, Victoria Jessup and Dara Bergeron aim to fill the caffeine void before the warm weather ends.

The two Lindsay women leased the old Furio Gifts location at 142 Kent St. W. and are transforming it into a modern, comfortable coffee bar with higherend coffees and other specialty drinks, including some food items.

The owners say they envision people coming out with their laptops to work, friends getting together and informal meetings happening. To that end, they’re going to install a wide variety of seating and observe what seems to be needed once they see the business in action.

“We’re going for the consumer who is just not satisfied with a Tim Hortons coffee,” Bergeron says.

New Beginnings builds on its success with new venture

New Beginnings has been on the move, expanding its offerings.

Photo: Belinda Wilson

Established in 2018, New Beginnings Contracting Services continues to grow. The Dunsford-based company recently developed an offshoot.

New Beginnings Building Services Inc. will take the client from the “dream” stage to the finished project, according to owner Tania-Joy Bartlett. The company’s in-house design team, estimators and project managers work with the client to ensure every detail is considered before the first shovel goes into the ground.

“New builds — commercial, residential, cottages and garages — all fall under the scope of services provided by NBBSI,” Bartlett says.

New Beginnings Contracting Services will continue to work in the field of interior and exterior renovations, repairs, additions and the like.

As Bartlett looks to expand the New Beginnings team, she says her hiring is based on an applicant’s ability, eagerness to work and willingness to learn.

New Beginnings can be contacted by calling (705) 344 - 4613 or at newbeginningscontractingservices.org

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SEPTEMBER

The New-Green Libservative Party of Canada

By Roderick Benns Publisher

is STILL for GRILLIN’ A friend of mine confided she often finds it difficult to know which way to vote, since no one party’s platform seems to completely resonate with her. I feel her pain.

The ideal political party (for people like us, anyway) would encompass ideas from the platforms of all parties.

I know there are readers of this column who believe I’m the publisher of Pravda. Still others are sure I’m the worst kind of capitalist.

(I must say, it’s always interesting to be defined by someone else.)

Some regular readers may be surprised at my personal views on a variety of policies. Let’s look at a few so you can help me decide how to vote next time. Your letters are welcome!

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Inequality: This is a topic I write about a lot. I believe we need to reform our economic system to even the playing field; I especially believe corporations should pay their fair share. Answer: I must be NDP.

Military: I believe in a much stronger, more rapid-response and robust military than we have right now. Procurement of new equipment has been a joke for decades. We should have a bigger economic and military footprint in the Arctic, too. Answer: I must be Conservative.

Child Care: Of course we should have a national child-care program.

It’s a policy that improves lives, especially women’s lives and that’s good for all of society. I must be Liberal.

Cancel culture: Not a fan. It’s gone too far as we rightly push for more social justice. I must be Conservative.

Basic Income: I happen to think a basic income would unlock the potential of Canadians, just as retired Tory Senator Hugh Segal believes. A basic income has been supported by most of the parties except the Conservatives, but the Green Party’s “guaranteed livable income” has been the most consistent. Answer: I must be Green.

Pharmacare: The missing piece from the vision of Tommy Douglas — a complete health-care system that includes both pharmacare and dentalcare. Yes, we should get behind this. Despite recent Liberal conversions to the cause, this is an NDP vision. Answer: I must be NDP. That’s just six issues. See my dilemma?

That’s not even counting the other choice challenge in our electoral system, which is that we must vote for a local representative to get the prime minister we want.

Or, put another away, if we like our local representative that doesn’t necessarily mean we like the PM we end up with.

So apart from starting the NewGreen Libservative Party of Canada, I guess I will continue to do what I’ve done for many years now — decide which issues are connecting with me the most come each election and do my best to vote accordingly.

9

Letham’s Legacy As Mayor Andy Letham finishes up his second and final term as mayor, it’s time to take stock of his years in the top municipal chair.

High on our list were the downtown revitalizations that happened in Lindsay, Fenelon Falls and Bobcaygeon. These important facelifts and hidden infrastructure replacements were much needed.

Would we have preferred to see something bolder, especially in the largest centre, Lindsay? Absolutely.

There was a missed opportunity to do something more pedestrian and patio friendly, to create a more walkable downtown.

Instead, the mayor and council chose to go by the limited feedback received at public sessions. We believe sometimes leadership means just deciding on a vision for the good of the community, not relying exclusively on limited public engagement.

All that being said, the downtowns look attractive, and the Bobcaygeon beach project will be an amazing addition to that village.

One of Letham’s most important legacies will be the fact that when he took office the city had no longterm financial plan. Councils just moved from one budget to the next, buffeted by whatever economic winds were then blowing. Letham and council are to be congratulated on establishing a fiscal anchor.

Another key decision made in his first term was reducing the size of council from 17 to 9. There were salary savings but we’re not sure if expecting councillors to represent ever more constituents is the right move for democracy.

Letham was a friend of the arts community and was responsible for shepherding the cultural master plan forward, a sector growing in importance.

As well, the mayor has been a stable presence, staying calm in divisive debates but standing firm when needed. In short, his steadfast, practical dedication to the city has been a beacon at times when the waters grew turbulent.

We wish Mayor Letham well in his future endeavours.

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‘Lunch With’ piece on Aaron Young appreciated Regarding your “Lunch with” column featuring Aaron Young in your last edition, we’re kind of new to the area, having moved up from Durham (Pickering, Port Perry then Whitby).

I met Aaron Young via 100 Men of Kawartha Lakes and through the Pie Eyed Monk. I consider him a friend.

I am not sure where the controversial part comes in but I can say, from my own personal experience, that people who take charge and get things done are often perceived as pushy or assertive — because they are. But they get things done!

Thanks for this Roderick Benns, and cheers to the Advocate for really lifting up the curtain on Kawartha Lakes and allowing us newbies in.

– Brad Campkin, Fenelon Falls

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Tackling Climate Change: If not now, when? If not us, who?

By David Rapaport David Rapaport is a member of SCAN — Seniors for Climate Action Now.

I don’t like writing or talking about climate change. I feel like such a “gloom and doomer,” a “David Downer,” a party pooper. But how I feel is not the issue. The issue is how we produce and consume. And how these actions contribute to more carbon emission, more greenhouse gas effect, a warming of the atmosphere and more catastrophic climate events.

We have witnessed and experienced catastrophic climatic events increasingly in the past few years: record temperatures (almost 50 degrees Celsius in Lytton, B.C. in 2021), droughts, floods, more widespread and longer heat waves, the melting of the polar ice caps resulting in higher sea levels and coastal and island flooding.

This threat is truly existential. And it gets worse every year.

Annual average temperatures have steadily increased in Canada in the past 70 years: 1.7 degrees since 1946. According to several studies, temperature increase is much higher in Canada than the global average, concentrated in the northern regions.

It is no great secret that as we emit more carbon into the atmosphere a resulting greenhouse gas effect causes air temperatures to rise. Climate scientists estimate that a rise of two degrees will result in a doomsday scenario that cannot easily be undone.

Climate change also has local ramifications.

According to a 2020 report by the Kawartha Lake Stewards Association there is high probability that in the not-distant future lake water temperature and air will rise, ice free days will increase between 42 and 90 days annually, precipitation will increase by 20 per cent along with more extreme rain events and more mid-winter thaws. Things have gotten worse since their research.

Sadly, we are conscripts to this catastrophe. As we extract and process and consume more carbonbased fuels, we contribute to the greenhouse effect.

If we continue at the same or similar rates the chances that we escape catastrophe unscathed is greatly reduced.

We simply kick the ball further into the future when our children and their children will have far fewer options. Conservatives frequently point out how public debt in the present becomes a burden on future generations. Delaying our action on climate change has far greater consequences for the future.

I despair as I read over the earlier paragraphs. It all seems so boring and scientific and remote. And it is so pessimistic. Yet, it is all an “inconvenient truth.”

Fortunately, it is not too late to act. Think about your children and your grandchildren and the very possible predicaments in their lives.

Question politicians who oppose simple measures like the carbon tax and those who reduce gasoline taxes and make it cheaper to consume carbon. It might be buying votes now but they are risking the health and safety and lives of future generations.

Responsible politicians lead. They do not make false promises and denials to their constituents about real threats to our health and our safety.

Also, challenge those politicians who set carbon reduction targets that they continuously fail to meet.

None of us want to be inconvenienced but what choice do we really have? Our Paris and Glasgow commitments must be met. We might have to seriously examine how we produce and how we consume.

Not much fun — but what is the alternative?

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Colborne Street Gallery to host Mike Palmer photographic series

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‘The Advocate at 50: Portraits of a Community’ The Colborne Street Gallery in Fenelon Falls will feature accomplished photographer Mike Palmer’s work of ‘environmental portraits’ of local Kawartha Lakes residents during the month of September.

As part of the Advocate’s celebration of its 50th edition, the series chronicled a wide range of residents from the city, including a baker, an orderly, a bed and breakfast owner, and a restaurant server, among many others.

The portraits hung in the Kawartha Art Gallery for the month of June. Now, Colborne Street Gallery will be showing Palmer’s work from Sept. 1 to Oct. 2 and the prints will be for sale.

As well, Palmer and Advocate publisher Roderick Benns will take part in a public conversation about the photographer’s work on Sept. 14 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. All are welcome.

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Zellers Daze – Gone but not Forgotten

Ten years ago Lindsay lost what has now become a store steeped in nostalgia

By Lisa Hart

Slogans such as “Where the lowest price is the law,” “Dollar Daze,” and “Shopping anywhere else is pointless,” bring back waves of nostalgia for shoppers of the discount department store Zellers.

Many still harbour fond memories of exclusive brands, ordering from the Club Z catalogue, or breakfast at the Skillet Restaurant.

Around the Kawarthas, chance meetings between former coworkers often include a cheerful “hello” and sometimes a hug, says Phyllis Carpentier.

“Sometimes I’m amazed that we can carry on a conversation as if it were only yesterday when we last saw each other.”

Carpentier started and ended her 20 years with Zellers at the Lindsay location. She appreciates the opportunity her years with the company provided her to collect life-long friends from both the staff and customers.

Memories carry a strong sense of family for many who worked for the chain, as proven by the continued activity of Facebook groups like If You Ever Worked at Zellers. Even as Lindsay now reaches the 10-year anniversary of the closing of their store, several groups of local residents still gather to share coffee or lunch.

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Where it all began Zellers was established in London, Ontario in 1931 before it was bought by Hudson’s Bay Company in 1978. At the chain’s peak in 1999, there were 350 Zellers stores across Canada. (Currently there are 406 Walmarts in Canada.)

It was mainly pressure from Walmart that pushed Zellers to the point of no return, starting in about 1994, as the New York Times notes, when the U.S. retailing giant entered the Canadian market by buying up about 100 Woolco locations.

Walmart had a more formidable supply chain, given it served the U.S. market, so it could be more competitive on price and get a larger variety of options.

Back in Lindsay, the threat of Walmart felt like nothing more than a distant rumour for staff and customers during the early 1990s. The store’s highvolume sales provided, perhaps a false sense of security even while a lack of sufficient floor space provided constant challenges.

Zellers in Lindsay appeared at least on a local level to be well positioned to compete when it completed what would be its final major store renovation in 1998. The renovation was quickly followed by the addition of a major home fashions department and new photo lab. The photo lab became an instant success enjoying three upgrades in equipment and becoming a source of recognition and pride at a district level.

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In the thick of the fight to survive in the retail market, one district manager told senior floor staff at the Lindsay Zellers that they had higher standards for the store than head office.

Gail Leuty vividly remembers the day a trailer load of pool noodles arrived at the store instead of the order of twelve or so boxes she was expecting.

To this day she still cannot believe the manager was not more upset and is quite certain it cost more to transfer the extra stock to other stores than Zellers made from the sale of them. While Leuty and some of her former co-workers can laugh about it now, it was difficult to see the humour in the situation at the time.

After 32 years with Zellers, Braniff knows about facing challenges, but sometimes a career in retail requires a good sense of humour. He recalls a challenge presented during inventory, back when the store still carried live pets. How does a staff member go about counting different sized fish swimming in an aquarium?

Braniff jokingly suggested cutting a small, medium and large hole in a piece of cardboard to place in the aquarium and counting the fish as they swam through the holes.

Removing the giant letters as the store closed 10 years ago.

Photo courtesy of Trent Valley Archives.

Sense of family Rob Braniff, a familiar face at the Lindsay location for many years, believes that sense of family comes from the retailer’s roots. “Many of the Zellers began as downtown stores. As the company followed what was the trend back then and moved into the malls, their staff brought with them that close-knit culture of a small store.” Such small store practices as management handing out birthday cards to their staff survived into the early 1990s in Lindsay.

From Christmas 1942 until the 1990s, Zellers circulated a staff newsletter called the Zellers Forum. Along with business updates, the newsletter featured personnel news, staff stories, photos and store events.

“Zellers always had something to celebrate, whether it was a toy launch, celebrity visit or a staff milestone,” says Shelley Collins, who started as a co-op student and put in 32 years with the company. But in keeping with that close-knit culture, all those celebrations were not strictly business-related.

“There was such great camaraderie,” says Donna Hess. “But there were, of course, challenges.”

In 2007, the store’s Janice Robinson dressed up to promote the launch of a limited-edition KISS guitar, exclusive to Zellers.

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Helen O'Neill was just one of the Lindsay staff members who raced around the sales floor to promote Moonwalk. Zellers became a national partner for the Cystic Fibrosis Moonwalk in 1986.

The store’s Rob Braniff poses with actor Jeanne Cooper from The Young and the Restless during her visit to the Lindsay store. Cooper's co-star Eric Braedon appeared in Zellers commercials during the late 1990s.

In 2002 a wedding shower for Erin Bradley took place in the staff lunch room.

Donna Moore shoves a pie in the face of a store manager during a fundraiser.

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Photos from the private collections of store staff members (excluding Trent Valley Archives contribution).

The store’s lunch and meeting rooms saw their share of wedding and baby showers, as the staff gathered to share milestones in their personal lives as well.

Fish were not the only animals to present challenges for the staff over the years. Andrea Shumsky, who spent a couple of years working at Zellers herself, remembers her husband Monty Wiegand telling her about the stray cat he found eating barbecued potato chips in the stockroom. It took a couple tries to not only capture, but hold on to this feline trespasser.

“Poor baby was hissing, he was so scared,” Shumsky says of the first time she saw the cat. While some staff members questioned her decision, Shumsky adopted Stocky the stockroom cat. He became a cherished member of her family, but he never lost his taste for barbecued potato chips.

Collins notes that while she misses her Zellers family and the fun they always had, she believes the store closing affected customers, like the seniors who walked the mall each morning, as much as the staff.

When serving the public, ‘Everything from A to Z’ came to include a few humorous moments along with the challenges. Looking back, the moments that seem to stand out in memory were often the last customer on Christmas Eve, Braniff notes. Perhaps because the staff were eager to close up and get home to their own families.

There was even a customer paying for last-minute shopping with his Christmas bonus, which he received in the form of a thousand-dollar bill. None of the staff on duty had seen a thousand-dollar bill, much less knew how to verify the bill’s authenticity.

Luckily, the personal connection of one staff member with the police department led to an officer dropping by to check the bill for the store staff. (Both the $1,000 bill and the $500 bill have been discontinued in Canada. The $100 note is the largest.)

On another Christmas Eve, a shopper accidentally locked her keys in her vehicle. Staff set about quickly searching the store for anything that could be used as a tool to help the customer. Out in the parking lot it was discovered the shopper was driving a hatchback, and while the doors were locked the hatch was not.

Not so much a crisis after all.

The day the news came, the staff on duty were called into the stockroom to hear that their store’s closing date had been set. With the arrival of liquidation managers’ morale dropped and the atmosphere in the store became unsettled. The customers were upset and the staff grew stressed as an era in Lindsay retail ended.

Hudson’s Bay Co. announced recently that the Zellers brand is not quite dead though, as it gets ready to debut a new e-commerce website and open some Zellers outlets within HBC stores in major Canadian cities.

It will also offer “a digital-first shopping journey that taps into the nostalgia of the brand,” according to a media release.

Perhaps the chain is just facing another challenge and the final chapter has yet to be written for this truly Canadian retailer.

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The Last Crop

Agriculture is essential to the local economy and way of life, but development is booming.

How do we find the right balance?

By Nancy Payne

Photo: Sienna Frost

In one of the best growing seasons in recent memory—local farmers have been spared both droughts and deluges—there seems to be a new crop sprouting in fields around Kawartha Lakes.

Nestled amid the corn, soybeans and barley stubble are something new: billboards touting the fields’ availability for development. If you have sharp eyes, you might also spot stakes popping up on land farmers have worked for generations.

“We’re now starting to be recognized as a community where developers want to come to develop,” says Richard Holy, the city’s director of development services. With Highway 407 making the commute to the GTA easier, and the growing acceptance of working from home, not to mention hair-raising housing prices in the city, our area is suddenly looking even more attractive to would-be homebuyers and the developers keen to sell them those homes.

While Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls and some of the smaller communities are seeing new housing projects, most of the action is around Lindsay. South of town, developers have bought hundreds of acres of prime agricultural land near I.E. Weldon S.S. and, with council’s support, have received a minister’s zoning order (MZO) that permits its development.

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There are some higher density projects, like the eight-storey tower going up on St. Joseph Road in Lindsay, and a bit more interest in low- and mid-rise buildings on the part of both customers and builders, Holy says.

But the reality is that when people are looking to move to our area, they’re looking for a house, usually detached, with a lawn. So, if you want to build for those buyers, there’s not enough land inside town limits.

As Shakir Rehmatullah, owner of Flato Developments, told The Advocate Podcast in December 2021, “If you look into all the surrounding areas around Lindsay, everything is a farm. Growth is coming.”

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“We cannot say no to the growth. But we have to do development and we have to do growth in a sustainable manner.

We have to build a community which is sustainable.”

The area his company has bought southeast of Lindsay is prime farmland, while Flato’s planned development near Cameron also includes agricultural land. (There are three classes within the designation of “prime agricultural land,” plus three classes that can support activities such as hay crops and pasture, and one that is not suitable for agriculture.)

Farmland can be lost to industrial use or infrastructure such as highways and landfills, as well as to development, but whatever the reason, the pace is accelerating. In June, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture announced the province is losing 319 acres of farmland every single day, up from 175 just six years ago.

“It’s not sustainable. You can’t watch farmland disappear forever,” says OFA president Peggy Brekveld. “Five per cent of our land base is arable,” she says, “and at five per cent, our farmland should be considered precious.”

She and her husband have a cash-crop and dairy operation near Thunder Bay. Although they’re not exactly in Ontario’s agricultural heartland, they saw the process up close when a 45-acre field they were renting was divided into three housing lots.

As a real estate agent who also has a small farm near Dunsford, John Harris has a unique perspective.

Having grown up near Stouffville, “I’ve been watching this for 50 years,” he says. “Unless somebody stands up and makes a lot of noise, I don’t know if it’s going to stop.”

Even though we seem to be experiencing a rush of development locally, some aspects of the apparent boom are coincidental. For instance, the signs in a field north of Downeyville boasting 22 new lots are on land that, says Holy, was designated for development under the auspices of the former Victoria County. And the enormous Tribute and Sugarwoods developments off Angeline Street North and Colborne Street West in Lindsay are the fruit of another decades-long project, the Northwest Trunk sewer.

Although the path was cleared fairly recently for the proposed Flato development on the opposite side of town, houses won’t be popping up just yet.

“It’s going to take a number of years,” Rehmatullah told the podcast. “The plan we have is about a 25-to30-year plan. So it’s going to happen in stages...

We’re going to grow very slowly. We’re going to be very respectful.”

Working under both growth projections and landuse legislation from the province, Kawartha Lakes is looking out to 2051 in its own planning process, says Holy. “At some point in time, if we’re going to accommodate our growth allocation that the province gives us, we’re probably going to have to move on to agricultural land somewhere.”

When expanding local communities do inevitably displace farm fields, the goal is to ensure the land is used as efficiently as possible. Tighter rules also mean the days of individual farm owners nickel-anddiming away prime land for building lots are gone.

The wild card, of course, is the minister’s zoning order.

In a 5-4 vote in October 2021, council supported Flato’s request for an MZO on the farmland it had bought near Lindsay.

'You can’t watch farmland disappear forever', says OFA president Peggy Brekveld. Photo: Nancy Payne

An MZO overrides local rules such as the city’s official plan. That doesn’t mean the developer gets carte blanche, but it does mean that property the city hadn’t slated for development is now going to need, among other things, water and sewer service and new roads.

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The city is still negotiating with Flato and Bromont, the Ravines of Lindsay developer that has also bought land southeast of town, to finalize framework agreements covering the terms the developers agreed to. In the area covered by the MZO, the builders will have to defray the enormous infrastructure costs.

“The premise of the development charges is that growth pays for growth,” Holy says. The city then assumes the usual costs associated with any built-up area such as garbage and recycling collection, road upkeep, maintenance.

Despite the Progressive Conservative government’s frequent use of MZOs — it has issued more of them than all provincial governments from 1995 to 2018 combined — there are practical limits to the amount of prime agricultural land the province can stand to lose.

“You can’t just ship everyone up to the Shield where you can’t grow anything,” says Harris.

Brekveld points to Waterloo as a model. The city has created something called the Countryside Line, beyond which farmland is not to be touched for any other purpose.

That firm boundary has led to innovations such as creating apartments on top of warehouses and building more housing around transit stops.

Shakir Rehmatullah, president of Flato Group.

“Farmers are businesspeople as well as caretakers of the land. They are efficient with land, they’re efficient with water, they’re efficient with the resources they put into a crop. But there’s a limit.”

Locally, the trend is to fewer, larger farms. And while numbers of beef cattle are waning, cash-cropping — growing crops to sell rather than just to feed the farm’s own livestock — continues to increase, says Kelly Maloney, the city’s economic development officer for agriculture. Agriculture remains our main economic driver, and no matter how efficient a farmer is, cash crops will always need land.

Of course, Waterloo is a much larger city with a more concentrated population, but, Brekveld notes, its planning process also revealed that soon its population may well need more rental accommodation for seniors and young adults than big single-family homes.

The local reality, Holy says, is that the huge costs of servicing agricultural land for potential development make it unlikely we will see unbridled subdivisions of the kind that seem to anyone travelling into the GTA to spring up between trips. Given our distance from major population centres, “There is only so much growth that we’re going to attract.”

When we’re thinking about the desire for development, we also need to remember the connection between farmland and the food on our plates, says Brekveld.

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Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Peggy Brekveld.

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Indeed, the city’s agriculture and food action plan lists protection of farmland as one of its top five priorities.

Alongside the development boom, there are also some encouraging signs in local agriculture, she says. “The number of farmers and the number of farms are decreasing, but we are seeing a trend again to younger farmers coming back and staying in the business, where 15 to 20 years ago that was quite different. Agriculture and food has a bright future.”

Those farmers also have safeguards under Ontario’s Farming and Food Production Protection Act. It recognizes that the business of agriculture involves sounds, smells, sights and slow-moving machinery that people moving to the area from the city might not expect or understand.

Ultimately, the way of life we appreciate as residents of Kawartha Lakes is the same thing people are looking for when they choose to move here, and the same thing developers are marketing. Agriculture is central to that life, so it wouldn’t make sense to pave over all of our farmland, says Holy, just as it wouldn’t make sense to allow the city to change to the point where it’s no longer what attracted new residents in the first place.

“I believe that people are coming here because of our community values and our lifestyle. They do bring an additional richness, and I think that’s something that’s really good for our community as well.”

‘We are seeing a trend again to younger farmers coming back’ says the city's Kelly Maloney. Photo: Sienna Frost

John Harris on the binder with 'Doc' Thompson driving the tractor on a farm south of Sunderland.

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Trades Crunch

Ontario eliminated trades classes for intermediate students in the 1990s – and now we’re paying the price

By Denise Waldron

Erastus Burley is offering to pay a sous chef $46,000 to $48,000 a year plus generous perks. But the manager of The Pie Eyed Monk and the Lindsay Brewing Company and still can’t find someone, even though, according to the online job site Indeed, the yearly pay for a sous chef is about $35,000 in Canada.

“It’s getting almost unmanageable in the sense that there’s so much competitive jockeying for the small amount of people that want to work,” said Burley.

“Some wages are just astronomical. Now they’re so high in order to get someone to even submit a resumé.”

A shortage of skilled trades workers is not unique to Kawartha Lakes. According to Statistics Canada’s latest estimate, about 700,000 skilled trades workers are expected to retire between 2019 and 2028, creating an ever-growing need to recruit and train thousands more.

While the federal government launched an advertising campaign and website to promote the skilled trades as a strong first-choice career path for youth and young adults in January of this year, Burley believes students need early exposure to the trades.

He is a renaissance man with skills in sewing, cooking, carpentry and set design and building. In Grade 7 and 8 he studied the trades, which set him up for a lifelong love and learning of them. He credits his skills today to this early exposure.

“You can have the greatest home life with the most supportive and intelligent mother and father, but 26

being able to work collaboratively, in home-ec, in shop and in sewing classes is essential to understanding how those trades operate, because they’re all collaborative teamwork efforts.”

Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government announced in May of this year it plans to build 10.5 million homes in the next 10 years. Burley said we are going to need the trades in order to do it.

“Perhaps there needs to be an aggressive funding program to encourage those to not all to be marketing managers, Shopify executives, Tik Tok stars or whatever other review platform they want to do that’s connected to video games.”

The provincial government shut down all shop and home economic classes for Grade 7 and 8 students in Ontario in the late 90s. Retired high school carpentry teacher Pete Tamlin noticed there were fewer students enrolled in his shop classes after the cost-cutting decision. “I think if we exposed them to the trades, there is no question more would choose these classes in high school.”

Students entering Grade 9 only have two optional courses. Without the exposure to mandatory trades classes in Grade 7 and 8, many students choose safe or familiar subjects.

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After teaching for 24 years at I.E. Weldon Secondary School in Lindsay, Tamlin said not all students are inclined scholastically, and the trades offer students well-paying, meaningful careers. Tamlin says his shop students were enthusiastic. He recalled building a cottage off the school grounds and the students had even missed their lunch break — they hadn’t noticed because the work enthralled them. “When I mentioned it, most gulped their food and got back to it, with some taking pictures of their work.”

Tamlin said bringing back skilled trade classes for middle school students would introduce them earlier and perhaps pique their interest in continuing in high school. But, he added, “The obstacle is there are no shop teachers.”

The student teachers enter into a summer of learning at university, followed by a placement during the school year and then a summer wrap-up at teachers’ college.

Duketow said some teacher education universities in Ontario are giving tradespeople a Bachelor of Education, not simply a certificate of teaching at the end of their teacher training program. “It puts them on a very high pay scale coming right into teaching.”

He said teaching is a way for tradespeople to give back and to encourage the next generation.

Growing up, Duketow had early exposure to the trades, as his dad was a high-performance auto mechanic. He went on to become a mechanical engineer and obtained his home building licence.

He said not all students have the important early opportunity to try the trades but his board has many opportunities for students entering high school to get a taste.

The four elementary PVNC schools in Kawartha Lakes expose Grade 7 and 8 students to the trades in a variety of ways. “Students go to a college to do a hands-on day with plumbing in the morning and carpentry afternoon, for example,” Duketow said.

The board also arranges to bring Grade 8s to the high school that they’ll likely be attending and often will include some sort of applied trades experience in the tech shops. He said students see the tech shops are safe and really enjoyable places to learn.

Tania-Joy Bartlett, owner of New Beginnings Contracting Services. Photo: Belinda Wilson

The PVNC Catholic District School Board does not have any qualified shop teachers on its supply list.

Alex Duketow is the board representative for trades education with the board. He supports shop teachers providing innovative programming that encourages and inspires students to move into the hands-on world and into the trades.

The shortage of tech teachers is prevalent across Ontario. Duketow said the province has done a lot to make the transition into teaching for tradespeople easier. He said if someone has a red seal (demonstrating a high level of competence) or a certificate of qualification, or at least five years in their trade, they can get into teaching much faster.

The school board also runs welding camps in the summer. Duketow said the hope is to encourage students to take Introduction to Technology in Grade 9. It seems to be working — there is a waiting list for the class now.

Not all skilled trades workers had exposure at a young age, took an apprenticeship, or went to school for their skills. Moline David learned her trade through love — in a way. She lived and worked in an office in the GTA before meeting and falling in love with her late husband, Terry Arscott. He owned an aggregate and construction company in Fenelon Falls.

Her perfectly manicured nails, stylish hair, bright lipstick and high heels stood out in the gravel pit among men. “Because I was in the office everyday, I just wanted to learn something different. It fascinated me to drive a backhoe,” David said of learning her craft in her 50s from her husband. “I still load the backhoe. People come in for gravel or sand and they can’t believe I can load their truck.”

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Her advice to women considering a trade? “Go out and do what you like. It’s fun to show that you can do it and you don’t it have to be dependent on a guy.”

Tania-Joy Bartlett is a master electrician, a heavy equipment operator and has her AZ DZ licence.

These skills are no thanks to her early schooling.

While her Bowmanville school offered shop classes in the intermediate grades, girls could not take them. She said it was frustrating, but she felt lucky — her dad was really good with vehicles and was an electrician.

Upon entering Grade 9, Bartlett was told girls were not allowed to take tech classes either. “I told the shop teacher that if I sat in the very back of the classroom and didn’t interfere with him, would he let me sit in there? So that’s what he did.” The automotive class would be her only tech experience in high school.

Today, Barlett is the owner and CEO of New Beginnings Contracting Services in Dunsford. She employs 26 people, including four women in the trades.

Bartlett says she could hire 26 more — if she could find them. And without a full team of tradespersons, she said, projects are taking longer to complete.

The entrepreneur is sitting on $4.6 million worth of projects. Staffing is not the only issue holding up the jobs — building permits from the city are taking months instead of weeks. Bartlett would like to see the return of tech programs for Grade 7 and 8 students because it translates into more people in the trades.

She said it’s one of the biggest things when talking with the students from junior achievement or high school.

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“If you haven’t been exposed to it, how do you know that you might like it, or you might not like it?”

She encourages parents if they are building a deck, to have their daughter with them. “That’s what my dad did with us. He always had me right there as a sidekick.”

Bartlett said that is why she’s so invested in doing what she does now with the trades; she got it from a young age. “So you just need to kind of always go back to those basics, those ideas where you’re comfortable.”

According to the Workforce Development Board’s estimated employment numbers, there are just shy of 4,000 skilled tradespeople working in Kawartha Lakes and 169 online job postings locally that are unfilled.

Sandra Wright is the board’s labour market information analyst, and she says with the lack of skilled trades workers, much needs to be done to fill all those job openings.

She said the government needs to target the socalled “young/old” tradespeople who left their trades during the pandemic.

These workers, in their mid- to late 50s, were fed up with the openings and closings (due to COVID) and called it at day, Wright said. “We need time for workers to feel comfortable to come back into the labour market.”

Along with wooing back experienced workers, Wright said, “Immigration is the answer to the skilled trades shortage as we are not growing our own.”

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Conversations with interesting people in Kawartha Lakes

Liz Pead on finding community harmony, talking with the other and being a maker Liz Pead was on her way to the 2019 Kawartha Yarn and Fibre Festival when she found herself lost on Oak Street in Fenelon Falls — and now she lives there.

It’s a quick and punchy narrative and it’s clear she’s told it many times. That doesn’t mean I like it any less.

While trying to get to her solo show at the Colborne Street Gallery, she parked in front of 42 Oak Street, which was for sale, thinking to herself “how insane” the Toronto studio prices were where she was living and how lovely this little village was.

Pead, 49, has long grey hair and captivating red glasses that precisely match her lively personality.

We’re in the Olympia Restaurant in Lindsay — a firsttime visit to the establishment for her.

“I literally stopped the car because a little voice said to me, ‘You can stop looking now, you’re home,’” Pead says, finishing off her Oak Street origin story. “I put in an offer on that house,” which didn’t work out, and so she ended up buying the house across the street.

Liz Pead operates Liz Pead Studio. (A bit on the nose but it has a nice resonance.) She tells me that professionally she calls herself a maker, given how diverse her interests and talents are.

“I make stuff. I’m a maker. Artist, weaver, craftsperson — a maker of objects,” she explains. “I teach art, I teach craft and I teach design. I see it as a synthesis or hybrid.”

Pead doesn’t want to be nailed down to being one thing, despite such unsolicited advice from the Terry O’Reilly wannabes of the world.

Liz Pead in her studio. All photos by Geoff Coleman.

Whether it’s making tie-dyed T-shirts for Pride Week, teaching at the Haliburton School of Art + Design, or sitting in her kayak beneath a waterfall and painting the cliffs, she wants to be immersed in all of it.

We both order a Greek salad — mine with a chicken breast on top and hers with a skewer of chicken. As someone who used to work in a top-notch Greek restaurant years ago, she is taking in the entire Olympia menu, comparing and contrasting with her past experiences.

While she lived in Toronto for 23 years before getting lost in Fenelon, she’s actually a New Brunswick transplant.

“Growing up in New Brunswick, I don’t know how I just did 23 years in Toronto. I keep joking that I’d get less for manslaughter,” Pead says.

Pead was raised in Fredericton and attend the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, as it’s known today. She also lived for five or six years in St. Andrews by-the-Sea, a town on the Maine border known for its British sensibilities, well-heeled residents and flourishing artisans.

Eventually Pead found herself visiting friends in both Montreal & Toronto & ended up staying in the latter to do her hard time, finding a job at a Toronto gallery.

31

Liz Pead says she would love to see a Kawartha cultural corridor.

But it wasn’t all penitential in spirit during her two decades in Hogtown. After all, she lived in an intellectually stimulating area — just two blocks from the Royal Ontario Museum and with Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul as neighbours. Not a bad sentence to serve.

As a maker, Pead finds it fascinating to consider the ideas of philosophers like Martin Heidegger and Byung-Chul Han, both of whom believe that objects have lost their true meaning.

She studied painting at the Ontario College of Art and Design, adding to her surfeit of artistic skills, and operated her Toronto studio with much success.

“We’ve lost that sense of the other,” says Pead.

“We have this perfect, smooth world where everything is contained in a box like, say, a perfect Instagram post.”

Lately from her studio in Fenelon, though, she’s been working on the most Canadian thing possible — creating landscapes out of hockey gear.

“My work is very much about patriotism and identity as a community. It’s high culture, like Group of Seven, meeting low culture (hockey) — and to me those things are intertwined.”

Pead doesn’t mean low culture as a negative, either.

How could she, considering she’s a hockey mom.

And she’s not even the kind of hockey mom that the term implies — she’s a goalie herself.

“Girl goalie for rent!” she jokes, only she isn’t really.

She’s a former rec league player and I get the sense she’s ready to step between the pipes as soon as possible this fall if there are any takers.

Pead has two kids — her older boy is a third-year Queen’s University student studying sociology and is a goalie like his mom. Her younger boy is going into Grade 10 and plays double-A hockey.

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But in place like Fenelon Falls, says Pead, that perfect & smooth world doesn’t exist. “You have characters. You have individuals — there’s a million ‘others’ here in places like this.”

In fact, Byung-Chul Han — a Korean-German philosopher, takes this one on squarely when he writes in his new book Undinge (German for nonobjects).

“Today we chase after information, without gaining knowledge,” Han writes. “We take note of everything, without gaining insight. We communicate constantly, without participating in a community.

We save masses of data, without keeping track of memories. We accumulate friends and followers, without encountering others.”

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Pead says, for example, “If you’re a bright orange NDPer, your neighbours are most probably different.

There are people of every kind here. Frankly I don’t care what political stripe they are; I just want to help our community.

“So living in harmony in a community with that (reality), to me, in some ways is more important at this moment in history than it has ever been.”

Pead says partisan politics might be attractive and it’s always interesting to find allies. “But respectful discussion and hearing others’ viewpoints is better.”

I ask her what the idea of being progressive means to her.

“I think in all things we need to get ‘progressive’ back and I think the left is just as guilty as the right.

It’s blindness to our own flaws. Without respectful discussion you can’t see yourself in that mirror and instead you get yourself described back to you — the ‘other.’”

Returning to arts and culture, Pead says she’d like to see a robust Kawartha cultural corridor that would at least encompass Kawartha Lakes and Peterborough County. In five to 10 years, she envisions more cultural-based industries located here. She says that means supporting what we have, like the Arts and Heritage Trail, and building more arts and culture attractions and things to do.

“We need everyone to be lifted up to do better,” says Pead, who would also like to see a smoothly operating website app with a user-friendly interface that would allow arts and culture businesses to create the story of their place. “Creating and selling a story about where you are and how you got there is critical,” she says.

Pead stabs an olive and praises her salad. “So good!

And I’m picky about Greek food.”

She finishes off her second coffee and then orders a cappuccino to top off her lunch.

Discovering Fenelon Falls has meant a lot to this maker. “I think I’ve had the chance to make some really good friends here. I’m not sure I could have done this in Toronto — this is different and more meaningful and I feel like what I do matters more in this place — and I care more about it.”

Pead is realizing that small-town life is the best of everything.

Liz Pead entering her studio in Fenelon Falls.

“I feel like every day I’m living in a Louise Penny novel in Three Pines. I haven’t figured out which character I am yet. I don’t want to be Clara,” she says with a laugh, “but I’m afraid I might be.” (Clara Morrow is an artist living in Three Pines in the book series.)

Whatever led Pead to get lost on Oak Street in 2019 is still the force that animates her.

“I know I have to work with everybody in the community to build better.”

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Residential Recreational Purchases, Residential&&Residential Recreational & Recreational Purchases,Sales & Refinancing Sales Purchases, Sales&&Refinancing Refinancing Heather Richardson

Protocols are in place supporting volunteer safety

Angus McNeil

Residential &&Residential Recreational Purchases,ofPurchases, Wills & Residential Powers of Attorney Recreational Residential Recreational Wills &&& Recreational Powers Wills Powers ofAttorney Attorney Purchases,Sales & Refinancing Sales Purchases, Sales&& &Refinancing Refinancing Sales & Refinancing

If you are interested in spending some of your time with us you can fill out a form online at: auxiliary.rmh.org and email it to Karen Bassels, Director of Volunteer Services kbassels@rmh.org Or, you can drop it off at the main lobby of the RMH at the Information Desk (10 Angeline Street North).

We look forward to hearing from you!

Contract Preparation &Preparation Review Contract &&Review ContractPreparation Review Business Succession Planning Contract Preparation &Preparation Review Business Succession Contract Preparation &&Review Contract Preparation & Review Contract Review Planning

Business Succession Planning

Wills & Powers of Attorney Wills & Powers of Attorney Wills & Powers of Attorney

WillsAdministration & Powers of Attorney Estate Estate Administration

Business Succession BusinessPlanning Succession Planning BusinessPlanning Succession

Estate Administration Business Succession Planning

Incorporation Estate Administration EstateIncorporation Administration Estate Administration

Estate Administration Incorporation

W. Waylon Skinner

Incorporation IncorporationIncorporation Partnership Shareholder Incorporation Partnership &&Shareholder Agreements Partnership & Shareholder Agreements Partnership & Shareholder Agreements Partnership & Shareholder Agreements Partnership & Shareholder Agreements & Shareholder Partnership

AgreementsAgreements 10 William St. St. S., Lindsay 10 William S., Lindsay

(705) 324-6222 www.staplesswain.com (705) 324-6222 www.staplesswain.com Dedicated to Excellence Since 1959 Dedicated to Excellence Since 1959

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Coats for Kids donation drive in partnership between BGC Kawarthas and Food Source BGC Kawarthas has announced a new partnership with Kawartha Lakes Food Source, which will see several food banks in Kawartha Lakes participate in BGC Kawarthas’ 25th annual Coats For Kids (and adults too) donation drive.

The partnership will make it easier for people across Kawartha Lakes to participate.

Donations of slightly used winter outerwear will be accepted between Sept. 19 and Sept. 23 at Lindsay Dry Cleaners (211 Kent St. W).

It will be open as per its regular weekday hours, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The following three food banks will also be open for donation drop-offs. Contact them to find out what dates they will be available.

420 Eldon Road, Little Britain (705) 748-3848 4075 County Road 121, Kinmount (705) 488-9963 401 Kent Street West, Lindsay (705) 324-1978

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lindsayadvocate.ca

•

Fenelon Falls Salvation Army Food Bank (42 Bond St. W., Fenelon Falls, 705-887-1408)

•

Woodville Eldon Food Bank (100A King St., Woodville, 705-879-6029)

•

Omemee and Area Food Bank (21 Sturgeon St., Omemee, also known as the Omemee Baptist Church, 705344-9345)

The charities recognize there are also adults in need of coats.

Donations in any sizes are accepted and appreciated. In addition to coats, the drive is also looking for donations of hats, gloves and snow pants.

After September’s donation week, coats will be available for pickup, free of charge for anyone in need, beginningTuesday, Oct. 11 at BGC Kawarthas (107 Lindsay St. S., Lindsay).

Join the growing list of

Heather Muir * Susan Gleeson * Alan Gregory * Barb Evans Mike Perry * Lauren Drew * William Steffler * Barb Taylor * Zita Devan Nanci Byer * Peter + Kathy Anderson * Joe + Joyce McGuire Cordula Winkelaar * Glenda Morris * Ivory Conover * Jamie Swift Eileen MacDonald * Ross Smyth * Christine Wilson * Nora Steffler Jim Buchanan + Donna Gushue * Linda Friend * Bruce + Debbie Peck Maurice + Marie Jackson * Neil Campbell * Deborah Smith * Leslie King Peter + Sandra MacArthur * Catherine Hennings * Cam Finley David + Margaret Robertson * Leslie King * Janet Smith Go to lindsayadvocate.ca and choose Support Us from the menu bar or send a cheque made out to Fireside Publishing House to The Lindsay Advocate: 1 Russell St. E, Lindsay, ON K9V 1Z7 or contact 705-341-1496 or kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com.

Thank you for your support!

Kawartha Lakes Singers Auditioned Choir

LOOKING FOR NEW SINGERS Mixed chorus Lindsay, ON • Tues. 7 - 9 pm Sight reading skills a MUST

Tracy Hennekam

Contact Arlene Gray: 705-799-1742 singtoomemee@gmail.com

Broker of Record / Owner

705-320-9119

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2018-09-17 10:11 AM

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705.887.9281 dougelmslie@hotmail.com

Pat Warren • Will deliver a renewed voice for Ward 2 • Will champion responsible development

For Mayor of the City of Kawartha Lakes www.dougelmslie.com

• Will work full-time on your behalf

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lindsayadvocate.ca

Go with the Flo.

That’s not a typo. It’s one of the many companies that offer electric vehicle chargers in Canada. And I checked out a few of them on my summer adventure.

I’d dreamed of taking my EV on a long road trip since I bought it in 2019. COVID put the kibosh on that until this year. On June 17, I hopped in my Hyundai Kona and drove from my home near Seagrave to my sister’s place near Halifax — a total of 1,760 km one way.

The trip wasn’t as spontaneous as it sounds. Driving electric means doing some planning. It’s not like there’s a charging station on every corner.

As of June Canada had 16,573 public EV charging ports, according to Natural Resources Canada. Of those, about 1,200 are DC fast chargers which can charge to 80 per cent or more in 20 to 60 minutes.

The rest are AC chargers like the one I had installed at home. It’s great for a “fill” overnight or if you’re stopping for a few hours. At my sister’s I plugged into a three-prong outlet capable of charging up in a couple of days.

Before leaving, I used the PlugShare EV trip planner.

You set your start and end points, how far you’re willing to go off route for a charge, and the map pinpoints charging options.

My Nova Scotia drive was blissfully uneventful. On the way out I charged seven times over three days.

The average cost of using a fast charger is $15 an hour. Total cost of “fuel” for the trip out: $105. When I’m charging at home – which is most of the time – that same distance costs less than $20 at off-peak rates. Had I used our small SUV, driving one way to Halifax would have cost about $300.

Tips for EV Trips: •

Plan your charging stops & use a navigation system to get you there. Google Maps works, but most often I relied on my car’s navigation system.

It shows charging stations.

•

Ideally, plan stops at mealtimes. At one New Brunswick truck stop I enjoyed a great lobster roll for dinner. At another in Nova Scotia I visited a popular market for lunch.

•

Use charging apps like Flo and ChargePoint.

Order their cards and top them up ahead of time; then just swipe at the charger to save fiddling with a phone app. My Flo card worked its magic not only at Flo and ChargePoint chargers, but also with Electric Circuit in Quebec, & the eCharge Network in New Brunswick.

•

Check your app to see if the charger is available – and if it’s working.

•

Where possible, book places to stay that have EV chargers so you can leave topped up in the morning.

Lessons Learned:

1. Driving an EV takes a different mindset. Don’t expect to “fill up” in five minutes.

2. We need more fast chargers. Several times I had to wait for that Volvo or Bolt to finish before I could plug in.

3. Being able to swipe a credit card at the “pump” would be nice.

For me, this trip was an acid test for long-distance EV driving. And the car passed the test.

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at the existing retirement community

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Happiness is hard to come by — we all know that.

This Book Won’t Make You Happy: Eight Keys to Finding True Contentment by Niro Feliciano shares how to instead achieve contentment, even in light of inevitable stress and grief.

Learn to slow down and enjoy a daily sense of calm by incorporating the suggested practices into your everyday life.

This book was selected from the Kawartha Lakes Public Library’s NextReads Newsletters. Register to receive monthly or bi-monthly e-newsletters with enticing book suggestions.

www.kawarthalakeslibrary.ca/nextbook

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circumstances,” wrote one correspondent in the Nov. 21, 1902, issue of the Fenelon Falls Gazette.

“If those who are finding fault had come as near to doing their duty as the caretaker has, the basement of the church would not be in the condition that it is.”

Large municipally run buildings have always required caretakers to look after both their cavernous spaces and often expansive grounds. The caretaker of the Victoria County Courthouse received a salary of $500 a year in 1908 to take care of the building and the lawn surrounding it. He was given free accommodation and had both lighting and fuel costs covered by the County.

Duty and diligence: a history of caretakers in Kawartha Lakes Whether a school, a municipal facility, a place of worship or a local business, a building’s appearance is likely to garner comment. We take notice of the clean carpets, the diligent dusting, and the immaculately polished floors.

Behind all of this are caretakers, a trade — no, an art — that has a long and illustrious history here in Kawartha Lakes.

We begin with places of worship, which have employed caretakers for centuries. Depending on the denomination, they might have been called beadles or sextons, and had a variety of tasks ranging from keeping floors, pews and windows clean to digging graves and ringing the church bell. They also played various roles in the service, including keeping order and lighting candles.

While church caretakers are normally wellrespected, in 1902 the one at Powles Corners, in Fenelon Township, was accused of neglecting his responsibilities. Parishioners complained about mud being tracked into the church basement on account of there being no sidewalks in the hamlet.

The hapless caretaker had his supporters, however: “There is no person on the face of God’s earth who can keep a church perfectly clean under the 42

lindsayadvocate.ca

Coboconk’s William Simpson was about 55 when he was appointed to the position on June 11, 1908.

Unfortunately for Simpson, he was deemed to be too old for the job and was apparently unfamiliar with the all-important knowledge associated with operating a steam plant and boiler system.

Within a month, he had been let go (with a compensation package amounting to $100) and was replaced by James Ashwell.

The latter, a former locomotive engineer on the Grand Trunk Railway, was selected from a list of 23 applicants and was soon busily occupied with tending the furnace, keeping the building tidy, cutting the grass and shoveling snow off the sidewalks.

For generations of students, the most familiar of caretakers — more recently called custodians or janitors — were those men and women who dutifully kept local schools spick and span.

A school caretaker’s responsibilities are numerous, and a list of them was issued in 1897 to caretakers employed in Fenelon Falls-area schools.

These included ensuring that the floors were carefully swept every evening; ensuring that the floors were well-scrubbed during each holiday term; ensuring that fires were kindled before 7 a.m. each day; and ensuring that snow was cleaned off all walks.

The art of school caretaking was diligently practiced at Lindsay Collegiate Institute under a long line of custodians, including a Mr. W. Walsh, who was held in high esteem by members of the school cadet corps.

“Your interest in our undertakings of every kind and your desire to be of as much assistance as possible to us has been manifested on several occasions,” read a thank-you address to Walsh in the Watchman Warder on June 22, 1911. Your willingness to help us make our functions and festivities successful and enjoyable has been ever apparent.”

Not all aspects of a caretaker’s job elicited praise — from either the caretakers themselves or from others.

Salaries were always a contentious issue. James Hall, caretaker of Central School in Lindsay, went before the school board in 1912 asking for a higher salary to help offset costs associated with renting a house.

Some caretakers were even thrown under the bus for doing their duty. In 1935, Hazel Robertson was fired from her Bobcaygeon-area caretaking position after pointing out that negligence on the part of trustees had resulted in a glass pane falling out of a school window and seriously injuring a student.

Henry McCausland, secretary of the school board, told Robertson to “hand in your keys” after she gave strong evidence against the board in this case.

On the whole, however, caretakers were loved by those they served. Dave Seabrook worked as a caretaker at Parkview Public School from 1977 through 1993, and then went to King Albert Public School where he worked until his retirement in 2006.

Moving to an older school brought its own challenges.

Although the school could be unbearably hot, says Seabrook, “you couldn’t leave the windows open at night because bats would get in. Kids called me the ‘bat man’ because I would come in to the classroom with a net and a pair of gloves to remove the bats.”

Apart from regular caretaking duties, Seabrook also remembers cooking turkeys for King Albert students and dressing up in costume for Halloween. “I really loved King Albert,” he says. “I just loved the kids.”

Cindy Ray sales representative

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Let me help with yours. cindyray.ca 705.340.1188

43

ITALIAN STUFFED PEPPERS

Italian stuffed peppers make a delicious meal all on their own or can be served as a side dish. Approximate cost per person is $3.15.

3 bell peppers 1 onion 1 garlic clove 1 can of corn, drained & rinsed 1 package of ground meat ½ cup rice 1 large can diced tomatoes

1 large can tomato sauce 1 cup shredded cheese ¼ tsp salt ¼ tsp ground black pepper 1 tsp dried parsley or thyme 1 tsp dried oregano leaves Olive oil

1. Rinse peppers. Cut peppers in half lengthwise & remove seeds.

2. Finely chop the onion. Peel & mince garlic. Set aside.

3. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the ground meat, finely chopped onions & garlic. Crumble the meat & cook until browned.

4. Drain any liquid off. Add corn.

5. Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, rice, parsley/thyme, oregano, salt & pepper.

Bring to a simmer & cover, stirring occasionally, until rice is tender, 10-15 min.

6. Place the pepper halves, cut side up, in a baking dish with olive oil. Divide the meat mixture among the pepper halves. Sprinkle each pepper with cheese.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes at 350°F, then serve.

Mix it up with stuffed sweet potatoes instead! Cut sweet potatoes in half, sprinkle them with olive oil, & roast on pan in oven at 400°F until fork tender. This will take 20-30 minutes.

Scoop the potatoes out like a canoe, leaving a half inch edge, & stuff potatoes with the rest of the ingredients & leftover scooped-out sweet potato. Pop back in oven until cheese is melted.

For a taco-inspired flavour, add 1 tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin & ½ tsp paprika.

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Impr-ess-ive!

Across 1 Served on a ___ of rice 4 Tory's foe, once 8 "The Lion King II: ___ Pride" 14 Nicholson prop in "The Shining" 15 Smidgeon 16 Kidnapping target Patty 17 Bering or Gibralter: Abbr.

18 Pooh-poohed red meat?

20 Bert's buddy 22 Negative connection 23 Skier's application 24 Wig maker on a tight budget?

29 Conceives of 30 Bar with swinging doors 33 Blue Jays, on a scoreboard 34 Pre-Netflix rental 36 The "L" of L-dopa 37 Gift boxes with zombie skulls, Igor eyeballs and plastic spiders?

42 Highlander's early language 43 Manuscript encl.

44 Mid-size coffee order, for short 46 Snooze under a sombrero 49 Fragile state 52 The lowdown on the layers?

54 "Don't know yet," on a TV guide 57 "... for all the ___ in China" 58 B.C. football pros 59 Place for a hasty autograph?

64 Colourful carp 65 Finger in a classic Austin Powers pose 66 Fairy tale opener 67 Opposite of WNW 68 Ermines, in summer 69 Pantywaist 70 Québec's Val-___-Lacs Down 1 It gets a batter to first 2 Additional spoonfuls of medicine 3 Borrowed French phrase for "latest fashion"

by Barbara Olson © ClassiCanadian Crosswords 1

2

3

4

14

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17

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5

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7

22 25

26

34 37

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47 52

8 9 10 11 12 13 19 21 25 26 27 28 31 32 35 38 39

48

32

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56 60

13

36 40

42

55

12

28 31

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Superlatively sagacious Ad ___ committee Suffix with burr- and band"With parsley," on French menus Himalayan hiree, maybe Roadside bomb, briefly Dream queen mentioned in "Romeo and Juliet" A cold one "... against ___ of troubles": Hamlet Univ. in Antigonish, N.S. René and Renée, to René and Renée Sinn Féin's parent org.

Hand over, as land Invitation letters Scatter Fitzgerald "Walkabout" director Nicolas Failed to notice Facing directly, as for a fight Word before "Boot" or "Kapital" "Just ___, I'm comin'!"

Hebrew consonant

40 Cup of joe, in Jonquière 41 "Ol' Man River" composer Jerome 45 Crystal ball toters, at Halloween 47 They can be read on some spines 48 "Stellar, dude!"

50 In your dreams?

51 Vous êtes ___ (words on a Montréal mall map) 53 Comic book "bam!"

54 Chef's measurements: Abbr.

55 Vancouver trade sch.

56 River seen from the Leaning Tower 60 Wanted-poster abbr.

61 Stephen Leacock Award winner's gift?

62 "Wheel of Fortune" request 63 Maker of bikes and hockey equipment

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Just say no to private health care

By Trevor Hutchinson Contributing Editor

In a now-famous press conference last month, in which a bee took a starring, symbolic role, Premier Doug Ford hinted that privatization may be one of the approaches used to solve the crisis in health care. Of course, in a master class of gaslighting, the government refuses to recognize the current situation as a crisis.

This should set alarm bells ringing for everyone, regardless of political stripe. One of the reasons Canada scores so high on “best places to live in the world” rankings is our universal publicly funded health care.

Of course, it is far too simplistic to say that all health care is 100 per cent public. Health care has always been a mix of private and public agencies working together under a single-payer system.

(Most doctors, for example, are private contractors who bill the government for their services.)

But hospitals are a different matter.

Private hospitals have been banned since 1973, a year after OHIP was created. (It’s worth noting that these accomplishments are one of the legacies of former premier Bill Davis — who led a Progressive Conservative government.)

Solving the crisis in Ontario’s hospitals by allowing the expansion of private hospitals (they will be called clinics to avoid the H word) is just bad policy. Not only is it a slippery slope toward more twotiered health care, it doesn’t make a lot of economic sense.

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Profits can only come two ways: by increasing revenue (i.e., charging the government more) or by decreasing costs (providing fewer health care resources).

This is the fundamental reason that for-profit long-term care is experiencing more deaths from COVID than not-for-profit.

In the recent Ontario election, Ford did not mention privatization of health care. His massive majority (which came from a measly 18 per cent of eligible voters) was not a mandate to privatize health care.

Not that this is a strictly partisan problem. Political parties of all stripes at all levels of government share some of the historic blame for our current situation. And it will take our best minds (including actual front-line workers) to come up with solutions.

Many health care unions react negatively to the word “reform,” but reform needn’t mean privatization. It is beyond absurd that fax machines are still used in the delivery of health care. Relying on a technology invented before the telephone is just dumb.

Getting rid of fax machines alone won’t fix the problems. Next to climate, this is one of the most complicated sets of issues facing us. But we have the expertise to fix it. We just need the will to fix it.

And our choice is clear: Hand over more tax dollars to private corporations and get worse health outcomes or fix a system that all of us need. lindsayadvocate.ca

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PRO BONO DAY

SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

Meet with one of Russell Alexander’s collaboratively trained family lawyers. To learn more about our pro bono day and to apply for a complimentary initial consultation: You’re invited to join us at Russell Alexander’s 1st Annual Virtual Family Law Summit. Special guest speakers to be announced! To learn more visit:

Home is where the heart is.

FLATO Developments is a residential and commercial real estate builder in southern Ontario committed to giving back and supporting the communities where they build and operate. To learn more about FLATO’s past and future developments, community commitment, and philanthropic support, visit flatogroup.com.

We are excited to be part of your community!