Construction has begun on a new 224-bed long-term care home in Peterborough that will anchor Trent University’s Seniors Village.

An official groundbreaking ceremony was held on Tuesday (September 9), attended by Ontario Minister of Long-Term Care Natalia Kusendova-Bashta as well as Trent University leaders and faculty.

To be built and operated by peopleCare Communities, a Canadian family-owned provider of senior living communities in Ontario, the long-term care home will centre around seven “resident home areas” to create a more intimate and familiar living space for residents. The building will include therapy and quiet rooms, a bistro, a secure landscaped courtyard, and a multipurpose spiritual room.

Located on leased land on the northwest corner of Water Street and Woodland Avenue on Trent University’s Symons Campus, the long-term care home will also include a teaching and research space for the use of Trent University students and faculty.

“Following years of planning, breaking ground on this long-term care home marks a meaningful step forward for Trent, for peopleCare, and for the community,” said Trent University president and vice-chancellor Dr. Cathy Bruce in a media release.

“This project will help meet the urgent need for long-term care, while also creating a space where innovation, research, and learning come together to improve quality of life for older adults. It’s a place where care will be practised with compassion, informed by evidence, and to benefit others.”

As a designated age-friendly university, Trent University will also be inviting and encouraging residents of the long-term care home to engage in university life, and will be facilitating meaningful intergenerational connections on campus.

The home will be surrounded by 55 acres of mature greenspace and trails. Following engagement with the Michi Saagiig First Nations, the Elders and Knowledge Keepers Council named the site Nokomisinaanan Gitigan (Grandmother’s Garden), reflecting a shared commitment to honouring both community and environment.

Trent University and peopleCare have entered into a teaching and research agreement that will provide experiential learning for more than 90 nursing, social work, and kinesiology students each year.

“A strategic goal of this collaboration is to interest students in geriatric care, a sector challenged to attract young healthcare leaders,” according to a March 2021 document from Trent University and peopleCare.

“peopleCare and Trent will work together to spearhead research into promising practices in aging, conducting research and piloting initiatives within the LTC home (and potentially other peopleCare homes), with the intent to spread and scale innovation throughout the LTC sector and the broader healthcare system.”

Trent University selected peopleCare Communities through a competitive process, with public information sessions held in 2021 to share environmental studies on the land.

Construction is expected to take around 18 to 24 months, with the first residents to be welcomed to the home in 2027. Trent is currently undertaking a process to select a developer for the remainder of the Seniors Village, which is envisioned to include housing and related services for aging in place.

“peopleCare is thrilled to build and operate a new long-term care home that will be a centre of excellence for aging adults in Peterborough, as part of Trent University’s Seniors Village,” says peopleCare chairman and CEO Brent Gingerich.

“We’re excited to collaborate with an innovative partner like Trent and create something truly unique, where clinical best practices, teaching, research and intergenerational connections come together.”

The project is a recipient of the construction funding subsidy top-up from the Ontario government and is part of the government’s commitment to build 58,000 new and redeveloped long-term care beds across Ontario as outlined in its 2025 budget.

“This new long-term care home is a critical step forward in addressing the needs of our aging population here in Peterborough and across Ontario,” says Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith.

“It’s more than just a building; it’s a promise to our seniors that they will have a safe, modern, and comfortable place to call home, where they can receive the high-quality care they deserve. I’m proud to see this project moving forward, as it directly supports our government’s commitment to building a stronger, healthier future for everyone.”

A 26-year-old Peterborough man is facing three charges after he recorded himself speeding on his cellphone and shared the video.

The Peterborough police’s traffic management unit was made aware of a cellphone video in which a driver recorded himself travelling 150 km/h in a 60km/h zone on The Parkway — two-and-a-half times the posted speed limit.

Through investigation, officers were able to confirm the date, time, location, and speed of the vehicle.

As a result of the investigation, police located the driver on Monday (September 8) and charged him with three offences under the Highway Traffic Act: stunt driving, speeding 150 km/h in a 60 km/h zone, and driving while using a hand-held communication device.

Police impounded the man’s vehicle for 14 days and suspended his driver’s licence for 30 days.

Police are continuing to investigate the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call Peterborough police at 705-876-1122 ext 289. If you prefer to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at stopcrimehere.ca.

Community members who donate to the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) Foundation are not only supporting world-class healthcare close to home, but are inspiring healthcare professionals to find innovative solutions to the most pressing healthcare needs facing the region.

PRHC has shown commitment to fostering such innovation by being among the first hospitals in Canada, and the first of its size, to develop a dedicated multi-year nursing strategy that sets a visionary path for the nursing profession at the hospital.

Some recent nursing innovations that have been championed at PRHC were recognized through the donor-funded PRHC Foundation Nursing Innovation Awards, held at PRHC’s inaugural Nursing Symposium during National Nursing Week in May 2025.

“Innovation is one of the focus areas of PRHC’s strategic plan and an ambitious goal that the PRHC Foundation is proud to support,” says PRHC Foundation President and CEO Lesley Heighway.

“It’s wonderful to have an opportunity through the Nursing Symposium and the PRHC Foundation Nursing Innovation Awards to recognize, celebrate, and encourage all the innovations our hospital colleagues are pursuing.”

Through the PRHC Foundation awards, the hospital recognizes five nursing groups or individuals for their exceptional creativity, leadership, and the impact they have made to significantly improve patient-centred care, nursing practice, or healthcare systems.

“The focus has really shifted to promote nurses to make these changes and to be leaders and have professional development and growth in their career,” says award winner Rachel Whiteside, RN and PRHC interim clinical nurse educator for the hospital’s Women’s & Children’s program.

“I started my career wanting to be a nurse and wanting to help people and, to me, that meant going to work, doing my job, and providing the care — but now it’s so much more than that,” Whiteside says. “To have the support from the hospital and to see they’re prioritizing that really does make a difference, and it does make me want to keep going.”

Whiteside’s award-winning innovation involved collaboration with Peterborough City and County paramedics to add warming mattresses to every ambulance for neonates — babies that are 28 days old or younger. The idea came to her when she noticed a pattern and learned that 10 out of 13 neonates who arrived at PRHC within the past year were hypothermic upon arrival.

Among the many detrimental effects of hypothermia in babies are respiratory distress, hypoglycemia, and increasing risk of sepsis — all of which require separating newborns from their mothers for treatment, at a time when that connection is crucial.

“We try our best not to separate mom and baby, but when the baby needs to be in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, there is that disconnect,” Whiteside explains. “Mom and baby can’t be rooming together, and babies can’t have a constant connection if they’re hooked up to monitors or if they’re on CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) or any other kind of intervention.”

“It causes a lot of stress on the baby to not be with their family that way, so I wanted to figure out why this was happening,” she adds.

In the emergency department, PRHC uses warming mattresses for patients with cracked discs to provide “instant warmth.” Whiteside suggested that, as is done in some remote communities, local emergency medical services could also have warming mattresses in their vehicles so they can keep the neonates warm during transportation.

At very little cost, Whiteside’s innovation means fewer neonates will come to the hospital in hypothermic states, ensuring they are at less risk and can connect with their families sooner.

“If they are properly thermally regulated, the chances of us stabilizing them are higher,” Whiteside says. “Hopefully if they come in nice and warm, they’re not going to have all these trickle-down effects like hypoglycemia. If it just helps one family in our community and one baby, that’s a big deal for me.”

Carly Ryan is another inaugural PRHC Foundation Nursing Innovation Awards recipient for her efforts in conducting an evidence-based review that introduced a topical lidocaine rubbing cream for procedural pain control in pediatric patients.

The new cream is more cost-effective, acts more quickly, and results in a better experience for pediatric patients when compared to the product previously used.

“We know as nurses that pediatric populations can be a bit tricky to reassure because they don’t always understand what we’re doing when it comes to painful procedures,” says Ryan. “We have to be a bit creative with that so the patient can have a good therapeutic relationship with us.”

The previous numbing cream required up to 60 minutes to take full effect. In comparison, the new cream takes only 20 minutes to activate and is just as effective, which improves the patient experience.

By reducing wait times, children spend less time feeling anxious, which helps build trust in healthcare professionals from an early age.

“The new cream offers a near-painless experience which can completely change how a child feels about their healthcare provider,” says Ryan. “The more positive of an experience we can give them, the more likely they’ll grow and adapt, and the anxiety will be less and less as they become adults.”

“The new cream also helps us move children through the clinic more quickly, which reduces the risk of infection between patients,” Ryan adds.

Not only were the Nursing Innovation Awards funded by donors, but a hospital environment where equipment and technology is donor-funded reinforces the ability of nurses, doctors and staff to innovate.

“With donor support, the PRHC Foundation funds advanced equipment and technology that our hospital colleagues use to provide exceptional patient care,” says Heighway. “Often, it’s that great care that inspires a donor to give. They or a loved one were treated at PRHC, received expert compassionate care from nurses, doctors, or staff, and they want to do something to give back. So, they donate to say thank you and help PRHC’s healthcare providers help the next patient.”

“When we use those donations to update equipment, we never replace like with like. That new, donor-funded technology is always better than what was in place before. It’s faster, safer, more accurate, and it helps bring new services and more great medical professionals to our region. That’s an environment that fuels innovative solutions to hospital challenges and supports world-class patient care.”

For Ryan, support from donors in the community along with initiatives like the Nursing Symposium inspire nurses to continue finding new and creative solutions that benefit their patients.

“Having that community support encourages us to engage in these dialogues to see where we can maybe make changes, and it allows us to grow, adapt, and feel like we’re part of a team that is ever-expanding and ever-evolving with a patient-care centred approach,” she says.

“With continued support from the hospital and Foundation year after year, the possibilities keep growing. I’m really excited to see how this progresses and what it will mean for the future of patient care at PRHC.”

For her part, Heighway says Whiteside and Ryan and their fellow PRHC Foundation Nursing Innovation Awards winners have all demonstrated exceptional creativity, leadership, and impact.

“Through innovative practices, projects, and research, they’re significantly improving patient-centred care and nursing practice,” she says. “Ultimately, that means patients — our family, friends and neighbours — are receiving better care.”

“Rachel and Carly’s innovations are making a difference for some of PRHC’s youngest, most vulnerable patients, which is particularly inspiring — for donors, and for Rachel and Carly’s colleagues who may be considering the ways they can address challenges they see in their own areas of care and are looking to them as an example.”

VIDEO: “If my mind is good, my heart is good, my work is good”

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Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor was among the performers who “raised a little shell” for Ontario’s at-risk native turtle species at a private event hosted by the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre (OTCC) in Peterborough on Thursday evening (September 4).

Billed as an evening for changemakers featuring music, conservation, and education, “Raise a Little Shell” took place at OTCC’s new facility at 2785 Television Road and followed the official opening and open house for the facility two weeks before on August 22.

Ennismore singer-songwriter and fiddler Melissa Payne and Hamilton singer-songwriter and guitarist Terra Lightfoot also entertained the crowd, book-ending presentations on the work of the OTCC and on the state of species at risk protections in the province.

The event was emceed by OTCC volunteer Caolaidhe (pronounced Cailey) Keelor, who helped organize the event over the summer with the aim of raising awareness of the plight of Ontario’s eight native turtle species and the work of the OTCC. That included securing the appearance of the three musicians, including Greg Keelor — a task made easier by the fact the two are married.

Audience members included OTCC executive and medical director Dr. Sue Carstairs, OTCC board vice chair Colin Cassin, Ontario Nature executive director Andrés Jiménez Monge, and siblings and nature lovers Mary and Gerry Young, who donated their family’s 100-acre property to OTCC so it could be protected in perpetuity and used for conservation purposes.

After an introduction to the evening by Caolaidhe and a performance by Payne, OTTC education coordinator Lisa Browning spoke to the audience about the work of OTCC. She first thanked Caolaidhe for her work in organizing the event and the Youngs for donating their family property to the OTCC, which had outgrown the space at its former Chemong Road facility.

Formerly known as the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre, the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre is a non-profit registered charity that takes in and rehabilitates injured turtles from all over Ontario. The only hospital specializing in wild turtles that is accredited by the College of Veterinarians of Ontario, OTCC depends on volunteers, both those who are in the facility and those who bring in the turtles, as well as the veterinarians and vet techs who treat the turtles.

“Through our volunteers and through our staff, we’ve been able to help 1,888 patient turtles so far this year,” Browning said. “Last year, we did reach a record number 2,300, and that’s the most we’ve ever had come in in one year before.”

“We’ll see where the numbers are at by the end this year, but hopefully our increase in numbers every year is because more awareness is being spread and people know what to do when they find an injured turtle.”

With road mortality the greatest threat to turtles after habitat loss, Browning explained how injured turtles come to the OTCC from as far away as Dryden in northern Ontario — a 20-hour drive to Peterborough.

The OTCC has a program of “turtle taxi drivers,” where volunteers sign up to relay the turtles to the hospital with other drivers, with the OTCC coordinating the drivers. Sometimes a turtle will first be transported to a veterinarian or vet clinic to stabilize the turtle before it is transported to the OTCC.

“We’ve even had volunteer pilots fly turtles to us, from some of those farther places, and this is all on their own time,” Browning said. “This has been very useful, and they want an excuse to fly as well, so they get to fly and help a turtle at the same time.”

Browning also spoke about the OTCC’s hatchling program. Turtles admitted to the hospital are often hit by vehicles before they’ve had a chance to lay their eggs, and the OTCC can collect, incubate, and hatch the eggs, and then release the hatchlings back into their mother’s wetlands.

So far this year, the OTCC has had over 9,000 eggs incubating. The eggs hatch in the fall and the OTCC looks after the hatchlings over the winter before releasing them into the wild the following year.

The OTCC is also involved in road mortality mitigation projects to prevent turtles from getting hit by vehicles by working with Animex and Eco-Kare to spread awareness of the importance of eco-passages, which allow turtles and other wildlife to safely travel under a road.

“Education is also key to conservation and our centre has a fine focus on this,” Browning said. “From our teaching hospital to our public education centre that you’re in here, education is what drives conservation forward.”

Browning shared a list of the threats to Ontario’s eight species of freshwater turtles, largely caused by human activity.

One of the biggest threats is habitat loss, including the loss of wetlands to development and road fragmentation (when roads are built through wetlands). As well as being struck by road vehicles, turtles are also injured by boat motor propellers and fishing hooks. Other threats include predation by raccoons, which are prevalent in urban environments, and poaching of turtles for the illegal pet trade.

After her presentation, Browning brought out the OTTC’s “education ambassador,” Andrea the Blanding’s turtle, who has been at the OTTC since 2005 after she was hit by car and her shell, which is made of bone and keratin, was damaged. After treatment at the OTTC, most turtles will recover from shell damage and will be released back into the wild. However, Andrea lost one eye and the other eye was damaged when she was hit by the car so she is blind in both eyes.

“She’s really struggles to find food on her own,” Browning said. “She will not forage for food, and that’s why she’s still with us. We have to hand feed her.”

For turtles like Andrea that cannot be released back into the wild, the OTTC has permits to keep them in the facility so they can help spread awareness by participating in education programs.

“A lot of turtles do go back home again,” Browning said, noting the volunteers help with the releases. “Last year we released 5,000 turtles back home to where they came from. All the adults are going home within a kilometre of where they were found, and all the hatchlings are going back to their mothers’ homes all across Ontario.”

“Every turtle saved really is a big win for their population, because the hatchings have a one per cent chance of survival in the wild, and it can take 15 to 20 years for them to reach maturity and reach an age where they can reproduce. It can take an adult snapping turtle 60 years for one of its babies to replace it in the population.”

Browning also explained how turtles are the “caretakers of our wetlands” by eating sick and dead plants and animals in the water, helping to keep harmful bacteria levels low, and they also help disperse the seeds of native plants as they travel between water and land. Healthy wetlands act as a natural filtration for drinking water, provide natural flood mitigation, and provide natural carbon storage to combat climate change.

Concluding her presentation, Browning said people can help by advocating for turtle road signs and eco-passages in their area, calling the OTCC if they find an injured turtle, volunteer with or support the OTCC or other turtle conservation organizations, and use citizen science apps like iNaturalist to help record any observations about turtle populations.

After Browning’s presentation, Hamilton singer-songwriter and guitarist Terra Lightfoot performed for the attendees. Lightfoot, who is now living in the Haliburton Highlands, is a friend of Caolaidhe, who gave her the nickname “Terra Turtle” because she herself has rescued some turtles, including with the assistance of Leora Berman’s Turtle Guardians organization in Haliburton.

Following Lightfoot’s performance, Ontario Nature’s conservation policy and campaigns director Tony Morris spoke about the state of species at risk protections in Ontario.

Founded in 1931, Ontario Nature is a charitable conservation organization with the mission to protect wild species and wild spaces through conservation education and public engagement.

Representing over 9,000 individual members across the province and with around 130,000 supporters, Ontario Nature also has 150 member groups that make up its nature network and works as a land trust, with 26 nature reserves totalling over 3,000 hectares of land across Ontario.

“I was asked to speak about the state of species at risk and their protections in Ontario, and I feel a little bad because I’m going to bring the mood down, quite considerably unfortunately,” Morris said.

Morris pointed out that there are currently around 270 species that are currently listed at risk under provincial legislation in Ontario, compared to 200 species in 2017.

“This is a pattern that exists around the world,” Morris said. “We’ve kind of entered, as a society, the sixth mass extinction due to habitat loss over exploitation, pollution, and climate change. There’s been a 73 per cent decline in the size of monitored wildlife species around the world. This is based on data from over 5,000 species around the planet.”

He provided a timeline of how species at risk legislation has evolved in the province since the original Endangered Species Act was passed in 1971 by the Ontario government — the first provincial government to do so — to changes made most recently by the Ford government that have significantly weakened protection for species at risk.

Morris focused in particular on Bill 5 – Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, which was passed in June.

“Bill 5 is absolutely devastating for healthy communities, good planning, species at risk, and the rights of Indigenous people,” Morris explained. “It was passed under the premise that we need to speed up approvals to help our economy and address threats from the south.”

“This bill is probably the most devastating piece of legislation to ever happen in Ontario. Most significantly, it eliminated the Endangered Species Act, replacing it with the far weaker Species Conservation Act.”

He gave an example of how the new legislation defines habitat only as the immediate dwellings of a species, such as its den or nesting site. That means, for a turtle, the only thing that is protected is where it nests and not where it needs to travel to in order to eat.

Morris also noted several other changes that will weaken protection for species at risk, including the discretion of the minister responsible for the legislation replacing the advice of an independent committee of scientists when making decisions about whether a species should be listed and how, the elimination of recovery strategies, and only requiring those who are going to undertake an activity (such as development) that will harm species at risk to register that activity — without requiring them to adhere to any conditions when conducting the activity.

“In short, this is devastating for Ontario’s most vulnerable species,” Morris said. “If you think of an ecosystem like a jenga tower, each piece represents a species in an ecosystem. You start taking away those pieces and eventually that tower collapses.”

Morris shared some of the efforts by Ontario Nature to fight Bill 5 and offered suggestions for people to take action, including contacting provincial and federal politicians.

“Remember, it was people power that got the (provincial) government to reverse course in the Greenbelt,” Morris said, referring to the 2022 decision to restore the 15 areas of land that were redesignated or removed from the Greenbelt for development. “We can do the same thing here.”

Following Morris’ presentation, Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor closed out the evening with a performance accompanied by Lightfoot on guitar and backing vocals and Payne on fiddle and backing vocals.

He performed a number of songs, including the Blue Rodeo tunes “Rose-Coloured Glasses,” “It Hasn’t Hit Me Yet,” and “Lost Together,” Fairport Convention’s “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” and a new original tune.

After the performance, the OTCC brought out Paddy the snapping turtle. Now 42 years old, Paddy was admitted to the OTCC in 2012. A family had purchased him as a hatchling at a pet store, unaware that it is illegal to keep a native Ontario turtle as a pet. After attending an OTCC outreach event, the family decided to surrender Paddy to the OTCC.

Paddy has remained at the OTCC as he is not a candidate for release back into the wild, due to the fact that his point of origin is unknown and he is completely habituated to humans.

For more information about OTCC, including how to volunteer and donate, visit ontarioturtle.ca. For more information about Ontario Nature, including the campaign to repeal Bill 5, visit ontarionature.org.