Peterborough city council has voted against continuing to provide funding to expand the daytime and overnight drop-in programs at Trinity Centre in 2026 for people experiencing homelessness.

Following a late-night discussion at its general committee meeting on Monday (June 23), with councillor Dave Haacke absent from the meeting, council were split on two motions to allocate $269,280 to One City Peterborough to enhance the overnight drop-in program at Trinity Centre and $244,800 to expand the operating hours of the daytime program at Trinity Centre.

Under council’s rules of order, a tie vote means a motion has failed as there’s no majority in the affirmative. However, councillors voted unanimously in favour of a $250,000 increase to the city’s Housing Stability Fund and $285,600 to expand Brock Mission’s capacity.

The four items were part of a staff report on homelessness winter shelter options from community services commissioner Sheldon Laidman, in response to a council request from February for such a report.

Laidman’s report recommended that council commit $1.05 million of the city’s 2026 operating budget to maintain existing homelessness services that were funded through $1.2 million from social services reserves in 2025.

The 2025 funding included $264,000 to allow the Trinity overnight drop-in program to operate through summer 2025 and $240,000 to expand the operating hours of the Trinity daytime program in 2025.

The funding in 2025 also included a $360,000 increase to the Housing Stability Fund to expand access to prevention and diversion supports for residents at risk of homelessness and to provide financial supports for people moving from homelessness into housing, as well as $280,000 to expand Brock Mission’s 24/7 capacity from 32 to 40 beds, helping to reduce pressure on the emergency shelter system.

The report recommended that council approve the continuation of similar levels of funding in 2026, but through the city’s 2026 operating budget rather than through social services reserves, which would result in an increase of 0.46 per cent to the 2026 property tax rate.

“Failure to invest the $1,050,000 million for 2026 will significantly compromise the City’s ability to respond to homelessness,” the report states, noting that an additional 53 people will be unsheltered as they would be without access to overnight indoor space throughout the year and that 300 homeless or low-income people who rely on the city’s only daytime drop-in program will lose access to a consistent and accessible indoor location.

“Without these supports, pressures on emergency services, hospital emergency departments, and encampment management will likely increase, straining other parts of the municipal system and reducing the overall effectiveness of the homelessness response,” the report states.

In introducing a motion to accept the report, councillor Keith Riel — who, along with councillor Alex Bierk, is co-chair of the city’s homelessness portfolio — noted that the city is unable to enforce the removal of tent encampments in city parks if there are insufficient shelter spaces.

“This has been a theme for well over a year,” Riel said. “If you don’t have a place to put people, then you’re going to have what I can say is a situation that I don’t think any councillor wants to face.”

Councillor Bierk told council that, if it does not support the report’s recommendations, the people using the services will not longer have a place to sleep or a place to go during the day.

“It provides overnight support for 50 to 60 individuals every night, and it provides support for 300-plus individuals during the daytime to access that,” he said. “These are the most vulnerable individuals in our community.”

Bierk acknowledged the concerns of some community members and some councillors with Trinity Centre, but said that One City Peterborough is offering “essential supports” to people who need them, including serving 74,752 meals in the past year, a 57 per cent increase from the year before.

“If you think the situation is bad now, with the calls that we’re getting and with the situation of homelessness, it’s going to get a lot worse if we don’t support this,” Bierk said.

In response to a question from councillor Matt Crowley about the relationship between the city’s enforcement strategy for the parks and facilities by-law and homelessness, legislative services commissioner David Potts said that the city’s ability to clear tent encampments depends on the availability of shelter spaces, and that is the “only factor” preventing enforcement.

In response to a question from councillor Don Vassiliadis about whether the city conducts performance reviews with One City Peterborough for its operations of Trinity Centre, city project manager Jessica Penner said the city completes annual audits and meets with One City on a bi-weekly basis to monitor the operations and address any emerging concerns.

In response to a question from councillor Kevin Duguay about when the contract expires with One City Peterborough, community services commissioner Sheldon Laidman provided clarification on how the programs at Trinity Centre are currently operating and how the additional funding would be used.

He explained that the Trinity Centre overnight drop-in program as originally approved by council will continue until March 31, 2026, and council is being asked to approve funding to extend the program’s 45 beds through summer 2026. The daytime program, which normally operates for only four hours a day, will run until September 2026, and council is being asked to approve funding to continue the expanded operating hours of the daytime program from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. beyond December 2025.

“I have some serious reservations about extending funding to One City as an organization,” councillor Duguay said. “The difficulty that I have throughout all of this is where some of this funding is going. I don’t believe in funding a bad operator — a bad apple.”

He suggested, after the contract with One City Peterborough ends, the city could issue an RFP (request for proposals) to see if another organization could operate a program in another location.

Duguay said that One City Peterborough has not delivered programs “that were keeping with their original presentations to council.”

In his comments, Mayor Jeff Leal said he was supportive of funding for the Housing Stability Fund and Brock Mission, but is “really challenged” by expanding funding to One City Peterborough, referring to the organization’s 2024-25 annual report.

The mayor criticized One City’s staffing costs of just under $1 million, representing 83 per cent of their budget, and expressed concerns about the number of Indigenous people who are clients of Trinity Centre, suggesting that the federal government should be providing funding. He also criticized the lack of information in the annual report about the success rate of One City’s programs.

“This is an organization, I think, (that) needs an audit — it needs an in-depth audit,” Leal said. “We need to sit down with them and get some understanding about the contents that are in this public report that they put out. Until we can get that information, I’m not going to support the two budget allocations for Trinity.”

After pointing out that One City Peterborough has adhered to its contract with the city, councillor Bierk noted that if council does not support an extra six months of core funding for Trinity Centre over the summer, “then we don’t have a winter plan.”

“Our winter plan that’s presented in this report is contingent on using that site at Trinity,” he said. “And we did put out an RFP when we were establishing our winter response that One City is operating, and I believe that One City was the only (organization) to apply for that RFP, much in the same way that One City was the only (organization) to apply to look into our additional winter response in this report.”

In response to the mayor’s observation about One City’s staffing costs, Bierk said that “every expert on homelessness that I’ve talked to has said that the most crucial element in having a successful shelter, and we use this model at Wolfe Street, is a high (staff-to-client) ratio.”

After noting that adding more shelter spaces has not decreased the number of people who are homeless, councillor Lesley Parnell said “we just cannot keep growing and growing and growing this expense on our local municipal taxpayer. That’s the bottom line.”

“Everybody around this chamber has a great deal of compassion — we all have compassion,” Mayor Leal said, following Parnell’s comments, later stating, “I’m not comfortable … shovelling money over to One City with no accountability.”

“Our money is being invested there with no accountability. It’s not wrong to ask for some accountability. That’s not an issue of compassion, it’s just an issue of accountability.”

In her comments, councillor Joy Lachica said that “Some of what I’m hearing feels like we’re throwing up our hands.”

“It’s because we’re frustrated,” she said. “We’re frustrated that it’s not going away, that it’s still with us, and the numbers don’t seem to be decreasing. They also don’t seem to be increasing, which is something we should hold on to.”

She added that if there are issues with Trinity Centre such as people milling about, “then let’s deal with that,” suggesting a high fence could be installed similar to the Wolfe Street community.

“Let’s not give up on those people — let’s not give up on the relationship that we’ve built (with One City),” Lachica said. “We need not to abandon our city on this issue, and that’s what we’d be doing if we don’t continue to address this on some level. We cannot pull the plug.”

In his final comments, councillor Bierk said “We’ve already been around in the circle of this debate,” noting that council previously approved funding the services out of reserves.

“We identified the need,” Bierk said. “We were coming into the summer months and we knew what would happen if we were not providing those supports in the summer months: the homelessness situation in our community would blow up, because we do not have a place for people to go. So now, all of a sudden, when we’re being asked to put this into our budget and maintain this, people are backing off.”

“How are the issues that you all are raising going to get better if we cut this service? They’re not going to get better.”

He said that, without the services offered by One City Peterborough, the 522 unique individuals served at Trinity Centre overnight last year “would be looking around our parks, our backyards, our vestibules at our businesses and where we park, for shelter because that’s the reality for them.”

As well as the four motions before council, the report also included a number of other options for council’s consideration, including a winter overnight warming space option for six months (November 2025 to April 2026), a winter-only 24/7 shelter option for six months (November 2025 to April 2026), and additional modular units at the Wolfe Street bridge modular housing program.

Councillor Crowley put forth an additional motion to support the winter-only 24/7 shelter option at Trinity Centre from November 1, 2025 to April 30, 2026, to be funded with $150,000 from social services reserves for 2025 and $300,000 from the city’s 2026 operating budget, which was the first motion that council voted on.

That motion failed 5-5 (a tie vote means the motion is withdrawn), with councillors Lachica, Bierk, Crowley, and Riel and Mayor Leal voting in favour, and councillors Andrew Beamer, Vassiliadis, Parnell, Duguay, and Baldwin voting against.

The motion for $269,280 to enhance the Trinity Centre overnight drop-in program also failed 5-5, with councillors Lachica, Bierk, Crowley, Baldwin, and Riel voting in favour, and Mayor Leal and councillors Vassiliadis, Beamer, Parnell, and Duguay voting against.

The motions for a $250,000 increase to the Housing Stability Fund and for $285,600 to expand Brock Mission’s 24/7 capacity both passed unanimously with a vote of 10-0 in favour.

The motion for $244,800 to expand the operating hours of the daytime program at Trinity Centre failed 5-5, with councillors Lachica, Bierk, Crowley, Baldwin, and Riel voting in favour, and Mayor Leal and councillors Vassiliadis, Beamer, Parnell, and Duguay voting against.

If you’re searching for a meaningful, educational, and reflective way to celebrate Canada Day, the New Canadians Centre is inviting you to spend the day learning from the land.

The non-profit organization is hosting “Lessons from the Land” for the fifth year, bringing free activities led by local Indigenous leaders to Jiimaan Kinomaagewin (Canadian Canoe Museum) at 2077 Ashburnham Drive in Nogojiwanong-Peterborough.

Taking place on Tuesday, July 1 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:05 p.m., the day will include activities, programs, and opportunities to learn about and celebrate Indigenous heritage, culture, and knowledge.

For many years, NCC used the day to host the Multicultural Canada Day Festival, which was one of their most celebratory events of the year with lots of food, dance, markets, and diverse cultures.

However, with the commitment to walk alongside Indigenous Peoples, especially after the May 2021 discovery of 215 unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., NCC decided to take a different approach to Canada Day and make it a day to pause and reflect on the path forward to Truth and Reconciliation.

“We decided to move away from celebrating multiculturalism in Canada on that day and instead holding some space for our newcomers, immigrants, and refugees to learn more about the real history of Canada as a nation,” says NCC Community Engagement Manager Mauricio Interiano.

“We’re really excited to be partnering with amazing Indigenous local leaders and to be running a lot of workshops and activities, so that our clients can have a different understanding and relationship with the land in this country that they decided to move to.”

Interiano explains that many of NCC’s clients frequently ask about the significance of the Indigenous land acknowledgements that frequently preface civic and community occasions, and this event allows the organization to provide context and education.

“Many folks who have come from other countries don’t have a real sense of history that happened on this land,” he says. “Indigenous folks have been taking care of our land, and we wanted to connect with this in a more meaningful way, and Lessons from the Land brings us that opportunity.”

The event will kick off with an opening ceremony led by Curve Lake First Nation leader and advocate Janet McCue who will be joined by her sister Linda McCue. Anishnaabe Kwe (Ojibwe/Cree) spoken word artist Sarah Lewis, who was the City of Peterborough’s inaugural poet laureate, will also recite her original poetry and set a reflective and inspirational tone for the events of the day.

While in past years, Lessons from the Land has featured activities around medicine wheels, cedar teachings, and walks at local parks, this year’s event at the Canadian Canoe Museum, on the shore of Little Lake, will focus on learning from the water.

“The Canadian Canoe Museum being open now presented this opportunity to get onto the water and to learn more about canoes and this way of transportation that Indigenous Peoples have used in the past,” Interiano says. “Many of our clients haven’t been to the museum and this gives them the chance to do that while learning and getting on the water on a nice summer day.”

Following this theme, at 10 a.m., Janet McCue will lead a talk about mnoomin (the Anishinaabemowin word for wild rice, pronounced mah-noh-min) and its importance in Anishnaabe culture, and will also provide some recipes for how it can be used.

From 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., guests can board a Voyageur canoe for a tour of Little Lake. Guided by the Canadian Canoe Museum, the participatory, educational event is open to people of all ages and skill levels, but is limited to 35 people and must be booked in advance. Participants should come dressed for the water.

Other family-friendly events will run simultaneously beginning at 10:30 a.m., including a fast-paced River Race game led by TRACKS Youth Program, an educational program hosted by Trent University that combines Indigenous science and western science within an environmental context.

The interactive activity will explore the journey of salmon, eel, and sturgeon during spawning season in the Lake Ontario tributaries by studying the obstacles they face, the importance of the waterways, and the role of traditional ecological knowledge in understanding local ecosystems.

Alternatively, guests can explore the sacred relationship between Indigenous communities and medicinal plants during “Rooted Teachings: Medicines of the Land,” a hands-on workshop led by Robyn Ivory from Indigenously Infused, a Curve Lake First Nation company that grows, harvests, and infuses traditional plants into candles, mists, and melts.

Participants will be guided through the uses, teachings, and stories of traditional medicines, as Ivory highlights the four Sacred Medicines and seven Grandfather Teachings. Anishinaabemowin language and cultural teachings will be woven throughout the session as participants deepen their understanding of how plants are grown, harvested, and prepared with respect, and how these medicines can support our well-being today.

“Robyn will be bringing some medicinal plants to teach folks the different ways that they can use this important gift from our motherland,” Interiano says.

The final event to run simultaneously will be a strawberry pin beading circle. Jaida Ponce, a Kichi Siibi Niizi Mnidoo Anishinaabe youth from Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, will lead the meaningful beading workshop centred on ode’imin (the Anishinaabemowin word for strawberry, pronounced o-day-min, which literally translates to “heart berry”), symbolic of love and truth in many Indigenous cultures.

Ponce will share teachings, stories, and reflections rooted in Anishinaabe traditions and values as participants bead their strawberries and learn the cultural significance of beading. All materials will be provided. The workshop is limited to 35 participants, though no advanced registration is required.

Those unable to attend the beading circle are invited to pick up a free beading kit at the NCC office at 221 Romaine Street after July 1 and follow an online video tutorial by Dominique O’Bonsawin, an Abenaki and French-Canadian artist who owns the Cedarlilie Bead Shop.

At noon, Thomas Olszewski’s Grandfather’s Kitchen will be catering a lunch of soup and bread, before Janet and Linda lead a drumming circle to close the event at 12:45 p.m. After that, attendees will be able to explore the Canadian Canoe Museum free of charge, courtesy of NCC.

To expand the conversations and educational opportunities beyond July 1 and to help community members to continue to reflect on the path forward, NCC has a virtual hub of educational resources that are always accessible. Participants will find videos and information on Turtle Island, Nogojiwanong, the residential school system, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the 94 Calls to Action, and much more.

“On their own time and at their own pace, people can learn more about Indigenous Peoples and, in general, how to be friends of the environment and the land that we’re on,” Interiano says.

Given that Lessons of the Land will be taking place outdoors, NCC is encouraging participants to bring a refillable water bottle (a water fountain is on site), a dish pack for lunch (bowl, plate, spoon, and fork), sunscreen, and chairs or blankets to sit on. There are plans to move inside the museum should there be rain.

But, above all, Interiano encourage people to come to the event willing to learn and reflect.

“We want people leaving this space feeling more appreciative of the land that we’re on and learning more about what the land has to offer outside the context of Canada,” he says. “I hope folks learn a new recipe, learn new ways of engaging in nature, and learn the knowledge that a lot of Indigenous folks have been using for many years — but also to learn other ways of celebrating Canada Day and the land that you’re on.”

For more information on Lessons from the Land, and to access the virtual education hub, visit www.nccpeterborough.ca/lessons-from-the-land-2025/

This branded editorial was created in partnership with the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.

A new child care centre is coming to Peterborough — one that will bring children and older adults together in the same space.

The not-for-profit Compass Early Learning & Care (Compass ELC) recently announced it will be opening a child care centre in partnership with St. Joseph’s at Fleming.

The centre will be located in the same building as St. Joseph’s at Fleming’s long-term care home on Brealey Drive, and the program will include spots for 10 infants (0-18 months), 15 toddlers (18-30 months), and 24 preschool children (30 months to six years).

“Bringing child care to our community in an innovative and collaboration method that is backed by research and led by community partnerships” makes this an exciting endeavour Compass ELC, the organization’s communications/WAGE coordinator Simal Iftikhar told kawarthaNOW.

“This is a first for Compass and we are grateful to be able to have the capacity to bring this initiative forward with some amazing partners. We are excited to see what other possibilities are in the future.”

Iftikhar said Compass ELC’s greatest hope is “to fill the gap in much-needed child care in our community and simultaneously foster relationships between both age groups to promote positive interaction, cognitive benefits, social skills, and a sense of community.”

Intergenerational benefits include increased self-esteem and feelings of well-being for older and younger participants, a media release noted. These programs help build friendships between older and younger people, making communities stronger according to the American National Resource Centre for Engaging Older Adults.

The City of Peterborough will be a funding partner, as well as the provincial and federal governments through the Canada-Wide Early Learning & Child Care partnership.

“We are thrilled to open this new program,” said Cindy King, manager of children’s services for the City of Peterborough, in a statement. “It’s a beautiful way to build community, promote empathy, and enrich the lives of all involved.”

Renovations will kick off shortly and are expected to wind down by the end of the year, with the program opening in early 2026, according to the release.

“We are very happy to be partnering with Compass on this unique opportunity,” said Matthew Boyles, director of corporate services for St. Joseph’s at Fleming.

“The board has consistently endorsed this development at every step along the planning process. We look forward to sharing our space and seeing the benefits of intergenerational existence at St. Joseph’s at Fleming.”

Compass ELC is described as a “passionate” and “caring” network of more than 700 employees and 80 home child care providers, together serving more than 5,000 families in Peterborough County, City of Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton, Durham, and Northumberland counties.

Compass ELC stated it understands the vital need for child care expansion, as the community has long waiting lists.

“As a not-for-profit organization enrolled in the Canada Wide Early Learning & Child Care $10/day child care plan, we are excited to expand access within the city of Peterborough and are particularly excited about the intergenerational opportunities at this location,” said Compass ELC co-CEO Ashley Collins.

Families looking to get on the waitlist can now add “CELC – St. Joseph’s at Fleming” to their OneHSN profile at onehsn.com/peterborough.