With extreme weather events becoming more common and more severe, the Township of North Kawartha has invested $50,000 in provincial funding to prepare for future emergencies, including completion on Thursday (July 30) of a radio tower upgrade in the southern area of the township for improved emergency communications.
“Significant weather events are no longer rare occurrences, they’re happening more frequently,” said North Kawartha mayor Carolyn Amyotte in a recent interview with kawarthaNOW.
Earlier this year, the Ontario government provided a Community Emergency Preparedness Grant (CEPG) of $50,000 each to the townships of North Kawartha and Havelock-Belmont-Methuen to support upgrades to emergency preparedness infrastructure.
Provincial grant supports rural emergency preparedness
The CEPG was established in the province’s 2023 budget as part of a commitment to spend $110 million over three years on emergency preparedness. Since its launch, the grant has provided $15 million to support 342 recipients.
The 2025-2026 funding program is distributing $5 million to 115 communities. Grants provided can range from $5,000 to $50,000 to support the purchase of supplies, equipment, and services. Eligible communities include municipalities with a population under 100,000, local services boards, Indigenous communities and organizations, and non-municipal fire departments.
When announcing the CEPG funding for North Kawartha and Havelock-Belmont-Methuen townships in April, Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith identified the ice storm of March 2025 as a “stark reminder” of the impacts of extreme weather events on rural communities.
“This investment is a direct response to those challenges. By providing the tools for reliable communication in North Kawartha and ensuring the HBM Community Centre has a backup generator to stay open as a warming site, we are making sure our residents are never left in the dark again,” said Smith.
During the 2025 ice storm, Amyotte declared a state of emergency in North Kawartha, becoming the first mayor to do so, due to the significant number of downed trees and power lines, and the lack of access for residents to essential services.
Ice storm experience shapes township investments
Amyotte said that the decision to invest in communications infrastructure and chainsaw equipment and training was based on the experience of the ice storm and the most pressing issues raised by township staff and residents.
“Knowing that the things that we’ve experienced, we want to do whatever we can to make sure that we can respond effectively and appropriately when these things happen,” she said.
Downed trees and blocked access roads were major challenges during the ice storm as they prevented residents from travelling and often impeded emergency services.
As such, the township invested part of the $50,000 in funding to purchase chainsaws and protective equipment and to expand training for 50 township staff. This will enable more staff to provide on-the-ground support to residents if trees are downed during a storm.
“What residents will see is that, when the next storm comes, there’s going to be township staff that will be able to get out there and get those trees cut up and get their roads cleared,” said Amyotte.
CEPG funding has also been allocated to upgrading the communications infrastructure and equipment for emergency services and township staff such as public works to ensure fewer interruptions.
Tower upgrade strengthen emergency radio coverage in southern part of township
Edward Hilton, economic development officer for North Kawartha, said that the communications upgrades include equipping more fleet vehicles with radio capacity and improving the antenna and base structures of Woodview Fire Station 1.
“We found that during the last ice storm cell phones weren’t working and we had to rely on radios both for fire and public works, so we’ve added a couple more vehicles with permanent radios installed,” Hilton said.
According to Hilton, upgrades to Woodview Fire Station 1 were completed on July 30 as part of the first phase of initiatives designed to improve emergency communications.
In a report by Hilton to council on July 14 about the upgrades, he explained the North Kawartha Fire Department currently operates a VHF radio communications system that relies primarily on a repeater tower in Apsley for dispatch and operational communications.
However, due to several factors including distance, antenna shadowing (obstacles blocking the signal), and interference caused by telecommunications radios also installed on the Apsley tower, the southern part of the township, particularly around the Woodview and Stoney Lake areas, has experienced limitations in VHF radio coverage.
The second repeater in Woodview will allow for better geographic coverage, particularly in areas affected by shadowing or fringe reception from the existing Apsley site. By reducing reliance on the repeater location in Apsley, the second repeater will strengthen the overall resiliency of the fire department’s emergency communications system and improve operational reliability during emergency responses.
Future improvements could include county-wide radio system
In his report, Hilton noted additional upgrades that could be made in future phases include establishing vehicle repeater systems. He also spoke to the potential of a collaborative effort across Peterborough County to support emergency radio communication systems.
“Municipal staff have had discussions with county staff about the potential for a county-wide emergency radio system,” the report states. “At this time, no formal budgetary request has been brought forward to county council. It is also believed that implementation timelines for such a system, if approved in the future, could be multiple years at the earliest.”
The radio tower upgrade, which Hilton estimated in his report as costing $40,000 (inclusive of HST and a project contingency of 10 per cent), was partly supported by funds originally allocated to Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) equipment and from Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) funding.
The July 14 motion to approve the upgrade to Woodview Fire Station 1, which Hilton estimated in his report as costing $40,000 (inclusive of HST and a project contingency of 10 per cent), was brought by deputy mayor Jim Whelan and seconded by councillor Colin McLellan. The motion also stipulates that council considers the future investments and upgrades recommended in Hilton’s report in the township’s 2027 capital budget.
For their part, both Hilton and Amyotte said they will continue to look to the province for funding and grant opportunities that support emergency preparedness in North Kawartha.
Amyotte also spoke about the importance of integrating emergency preparedness into daily operations and budgeting processes.
“We have a vision of where we want to go in terms of our preparedness and our readiness to respond and we’re making sure that we’re planning appropriately financially for it,” said Amyotte. “But also we’re making sure that we’re in a good position so that when the province does open up funding, we’re ready to put our application in.”
