Environment Canada has now issued a freezing rain warning for Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes for late Wednesday afternoon and evening (November 8), with freezing rain also possible in Haliburton County and Hastings Highlands until Thursday morning.

An approaching low pressure system is expected to bring snow, ice pellets and freezing rain to the area. Precipitation may begin as snow or ice pellets this afternoon before transitioning to freezing rain late Wednesday afternoon or early in the evening.

Ice build-up of 2 to 5 mm on some surfaces is expected, especially over areas of higher terrain.

Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become icy and slippery. Take extra care when walking or driving in affected areas.

For Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes, freezing rain is expected to transition to rain overnight.

For Haliburton County and Hastings Highlands, any freezing rain is expected to transition to rain showers Thursday morning.

The original version of this story has been updated with the latest forecast from Environment Canada.

The City of Peterborough’s draft budget for 2024 proposes a substantial 9.59 per cent increase to the city’s all-inclusive rate, which includes the municipal property tax, education tax, and municipal storm and sanitary sewer surcharge rates.

City staff presented the draft budget to Peterborough city council during its finance committee meeting on Monday evening (November 6), in advance of a series of public meetings that will be held in November and December.

The 9.59 per cent increase is 6.44 per cent higher than the 3.15 per cent rate increase approved for the city’s 2023 budget, which was a quarter of a per cent higher than the 2.87 per cent rate increase in 2022.

A 9.59 per cent increase would add $167.17 per year for each $100,000 of residential assessment for the typical household. For example, a city household with a home assessed at $260,000 would pay an additional $434.61 annually.

In August, city council approved a rate increase guideline of between 4.5 and 5.5 per cent for the draft 2024 budget. While the budget was prepared with a 5.5 per cent increase, council-approved directions, external organization requests, and city service delivery enhancements totalling over $8 million have added another 4.09 per cent to that increase.

Council-approved directions contributing to the additional 9.59 per cent rate increase include over $2.96 million for compensation initiatives, around $575,000 for transit modifications, and around $388,000 for municipal law enforcement expansion.

External organization requests include an additional request of over $3.4 million for the Peterborough Police Service, around $69,000 for Peterborough Public Health, and around $96,000 for Peterborough County-City Paramedics.

City service delivery enhancements include around $69,000 for in-house snow removal at city-owned facilities, over $308,000 for generator maintenance, and almost $130,000 for a management position at Service Peterborough.

The draft 2024 budget includes $359 million in operating expenses — with $173.9 million from property taxes and the remainder funded by other revenues such as grants from other governments, user fees, and service charges — and $128.2 million in capital expenditures for 147 projects.

The draft budget also includes a number of spending cuts, an increase in revenue estimates, and use of reserves to reduce operating expenses by $2.5 million, partially offsetting the increases in other areas. The tax requirement for the capital budget was reduced by $11.9 million by delaying projects until future years, reducing investments in capital programs such as sidewalk installations, and the use of reserves.

As part of 405-page draft budget highlights document, city staff have provided city council with a large number of possible service cuts to reduce the tax requirement, including deferring hiring by-law officers, cutting operation of the Centennial Fountain in Little Lake, cutting the individual artist grant program and the public art program, removing lifeguards from city beaches, and closing directly operated child care.

The city is hosting a number of public meetings on the draft 2024 budget, including a public meeting from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (November 9) at McDonnel Street Community Centre (577 McDonnel St.) and an informal drop-in from 4:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday, November 14th in the main foyer at City Hall (500 George St. N.), followed by a finance committee meeting at 6 p.m. with registered delegations presenting to council.

In addition to the public meetings, finance committee will hold a meeting on Wednesday, November 15th to hear presentations from invited local boards and agencies, and will review, discuss, and debate the draft budget from November 20 to 23. There will be no public delegations at these meetings.

City council is scheduled to consider approving the 2024 budget at its meeting on Monday, December 11th, where registered delegations can present to council.

For more information about the draft 2024 budget, visit peterborough.ca/budget.

As Remembrance Day nears, my thoughts turn to my father, and how proud he was of his service during the Second World War, limited as it was.

Stationed in England, he was slated to join the Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944. But just a week prior, he contracted pneumonia and was held back. His condition worsened and, not long after, he was returned home to Toronto.

Dad was afflicted with asthma until he passed in 2007 — a byproduct of his wartime illness — but he came home to live a productive and full life. Many of his friends did not. He sometimes lamented he that he ‘missed out.’ My siblings and I still thank God that he did.

Close to 20 years after returning to his wife and young daughter — my mom and sister — Dad planted the seed for my lifelong reading of as many fact-based accounts of armed conflict past as I could, in particular any and all books pertaining to the lead up, waging, and aftermath of the Second World War.

It was the summer of 1963 when Dad loaded me into the family sedan for a rare father-son night out. After settling in at the storied Fox Theatre on Queen Street in Toronto’s Beaches district, I was transfixed for three hours as The Great Escape, John Sturges’ epic film based on Paul Brickhill’s 1950 book of the same name, flickered across the screen.

To put things in context, my only cinema experience up that point was accompanying my mom for the debut of every Elvis Presley movie released up to that point. Dad wasn’t an Elvis guy, and my siblings were old enough to do their own thing, so I was it. Good times with mom, for sure, but a far cry from Steve McQueen jumping successive barbwire fences atop a Triumph TR6 motorcycle. This six year old had a new Superman to idolize and he was coolest of the cool. I’d argue he still is.

VIDEO: “The Great Escape” (1963) trailer

A few years later, my first library card proudly secured, I checked out Brickhill’s book from the Main Street library branch and read a good chunk of it during the long walk home. And so my affinity for all books war-related began. The gift of a Kobo reader a few years back put an end to my buying hard copies of books, but the home office retains that lovely musky book smell. I can’t part with them.

As the day when we pause and remember nears, the following are five books in my collection that I’m in the process of re-reading.

Each reminds me not only of remarkable courage displayed and painful sacrifices made, but also that history has something to teach us. Based on current world events, particularly in Ukraine and in the Middle East, we haven’t heeded the lessons of the past. That is a tragedy greater than war itself.

“Vimy” by Pierre Berton

At 5:30 am on Easter Monday in 1917, just north of Arras, France, a deafening artillery barrage marked the beginning of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Within three days, four divisions of the Canadian Corps had done what their British and French brethren had failed to do in successive attempts over the two years prior: seize and hold the best-defended German position on the Western Front.

Victory didn’t come without a tragic cost — 10,000 Canadians breathed their last in the mud and slime — but as many a historian has noted and rightly so, Canada, in short order, emerged as a nation unto itself as opposed to a colonial British outpost.

Pierre Berton’s recounting of what transpired prior, during, and after the battle is as riveting as it is vital in terms of reminding us that the men who stormed Vimy Ridge were ordinary Canadians — farmers, fishermen, and shopkeepers — who did some extraordinary things.

I’m reminded each November 11th that sculptor Walter Allward, who designed the striking Canadian National Vimy Memorial that was unveiled in 1935 on French soil gifted to Canada, also designed the Peterborough Citizens War Memorial. It was unveiled six years earlier in Confederation Park as a tribute to those from Peterborough city and county who left for France but never came home.

“Their Finest Hour” by Winston S. Churchill

Those looking to understand how David possibly found the resolve, and the required strength of character, to put Goliath down would be wise to turn the pages of the second volume of Winston Churchill’s epic six-volume account of the Second World War.

Few had the ringside seat the wartime prime minister of England had, from the fall of France to the Nazis in 1940 to Victory In Europe Day five years later. This volume focuses on events post-Dunkirk as England stood alone, the threat of seaborne invasion very real and foreboding; the book’s title borrowed from his still-stirring House of Commons tribute to the Royal Air Force’s stunning defeat of the superior Luftwaffe in the skies over the Channel and England itself.

I can’t say with it any degree of certainty that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a copy of Their Finest Hour close at hand but, if not, he should. His small country is fighting a behemoth, not unlike England in 1940-41. Supporting allies have given his forces armaments. Churchill gives him reason to believe.

“Behind The Glory: Canada’s Role In The Allied Air War” by Ted Barris

I list this book but, for the definitive perspective on Canada’s immense contributions to the two world wars and the Korean War, any book written by Ted Barris will do the job.

A journalist by profession, Barris’ first military-themed book was Behind The Glory. Published in 1992, it tells the story of Canada’s largest Second World War expenditure: $1.75 billion to train close to 250,000 Allied airmen for action overseas. In doing so, he brought a little known aspect of Canada’s contribution to the war effort to light.

Barris’ subsequent books covered the Canadian experience on Juno Beach, in Korea, and at Vimy Ridge. He is a masterful storyteller who, not unlike any historian worth his or her weight in gold, relentlessly seeks out those who were there and asks the one question that matters most: What was your experience?

Last year, just prior to Remembrance Day, I had the honour of interviewing Barris, a 2022 Order of Canada recipient, for my YourTV program. That we chatted in the shadow of Peterborough’s remarkable cenotaph was poignant. As we later scanned the names of those long gone, I couldn’t help but sense the gratitude of those who Barris has so fittingly honoured.

“D-Day: The Climactic Battle of World War II” by Stephen E. Ambrose

For my money, this is the definitive account of what General Dwight D. Eisenhower termed The Great Crusade — the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France on June 6th, 1944.

Countless books have detailed what transpired on the day of days that saw five beaches in the Normandy region stormed by Canadian, American, and British troops but Ambrose, by way of close to 1,500 interviews of veterans, and German survivors too, captures the horror and glory of the D-Day landings like few have — one exception being Cornelius Ryan, whose 1959 book The Longest Day has well withstood the test of time and remains very worthy of a read.

Ambrose is an American and, as such, his D-Day tome primarily relates the invasion experiences of American soldiers who came ashore on Omaha Beach, albeit there is a chapter dedicated to what transpired on Juno Beach on which a combined Canadian-British force landed. Still, the man who also penned Band of Brothers stays true to a formula of getting the most from his interview subjects and putting the reader right there with them as they pray, crawl forward … and then pray again.

“The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” by William L. Shirer

Decades after the fact, it’s still difficult to comprehend how a nation of cultured and enlightened people could throw their lot behind a politician hell bent on world domination, making no secret, via a widely published book, of his plan to exterminate those he viewed as inferior human beings.

American journalist William Shirer’s exhaustive 1,140-page study of the birth of Nazi Germany — and the horrors and persecutions that followed — is arguably the most important book of the 20th century, it’s still relevant lesson being that appeasement to a dictator’s demands will never have a good ending.

With a front-row seat during those turbulent times until his ouster from Germany in December 1941 following Germany’s declaration of war against the United States, Shirer was a witness to a people seduced by false promises, relieved by Germany’s release from the shackle of the Versailles Treaty and overjoyed by early military victories.

This book is must reading for anyone even remotely interested in how sheep will gladly follow a shepherd over a cliff if they’re told it won’t hurt much when they hit the ground. As Nazi Germany’s corrupt Minister of Propaganda said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Tragically he’s been proven right time and time again since. Will we never learn?

Peterborough will pause to remember on Saturday, November 11th, with the major public commemoration again held at the Cenotaph in Confederation Park.

Organized and hosted by Branch 52 of the Royal Canadian Legion, the 10:30 a.m. service will be preceded at 10 a.m. by a veterans’ parade in the downtown core.

Prior to the moment of silence at 11 a.m., Mayor Jeff Leal and past Legion president Joel Chandler will speak, followed later in the ceremony by invited guest speaker Peterborough police chief Stuart Betts.

One person is dead following a two-vehicle collision in Haliburton County on Monday afternoon (November 6).

Shortly after 2 p.m., Bancroft Detachment Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) responded to the collision, which happened on Highway 118 near Dyno Road, west of Cardiff in the municipality of Highlands East.

The driver of one of the vehicles was pronounced dead at the scene. Police have not released any other information about the victim.

Police are continuing to investigate the cause of the collision.

For the second year in a row, Peterborough’s Little Lake Cemetery is hosting a public sunrise service on Remembrance Day.

The service will begin at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday (November 11) at the war memorial in the veterans’ section of Little Lake Cemetery (915 Haggart St., Peterborough).

“Approximately 70 people attended the service last year and we hope even more people are able to attend this year,” says Little Lake Cemetery Co. CEO James Belk in a media release. “We had many attendees voice their appreciation to us for putting on the service”.

The sunrise service will again be officiated by Regimental Chaplain Nancy Wilson of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, and will include playing of “The Last Post” followed by two minutes of silence. Staff will be at the main gates of Little Lake Cemetery to direct attendees to the service.

Little Lake Cemetery and Highland Park Funeral Centre are also continuing to work with various area schools in association with the No Stone Left Alone Memorial Foundation, which focuses on educating youth in Canada about Canadian veterans.

Local students will be placing Canadian flags at individual veteran’s graves in the days prior to Remembrance Day.

A 55-year-old Pontypool woman is facing multiple charges after being accused of defrauding a Peterborough business of almost $330,000 over the past decade.

In June 2022, the owners of the business contacted police after finding financial discrepancies related to their company’s financial statements and completing a full audit of their books back to 2011 when the accused woman began working for the business.

The audit determined that almost $330,000 had been stolen from the business through various means.

Officers with the Peterborough police’s fraud unit conducted an investigation and reviewed the information provided by the business.

As a result of the investigation, police arrested a 55-year-old Pontypool woman and charged her with fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000, falsification of books and documents, mischief to data, unauthorized use of credit card data, and unauthorized use of computer.

The accused woman was held for bail and and appeared in court on Friday, November 3, at which time she was given a next court date of November 21.

During his vacation in Amelia, Florida, last fall, Bill Blair’s philanthropic spirit and love for cycling led him to join a 100-kilometre charity ride to raise funds for a local hospital’s cardiac care program. Little did he know this ride would take an unexpected and life-altering turn.

At first, everything was going as planned. Then, five kilometres from the finish line, Blair suddenly suffered a type of heart attack so severe it’s immediately life-threatening and often fatal. The main artery of his heart was nearly or fully blocked. He collapsed and fell from his bike.

Luckily, a fellow cyclist swiftly administered CPR on Blair, while coincidentally, a cardiologist named Dr. Brian Saluck was driving by and saw Blair fall from his bike. He quickly pulled over, took over CPR, and waited for paramedics.

Blair’s pulse had vanished, and his heart stopped. The paramedics used an automated external defibrillator to restart his heart. Recognizing the situation’s urgency, Dr. Saluck followed the ambulance to the hospital for which Blair was raising funds. There, he inserted a stent into Blair’s artery, clearing the blockage and saving his life.

In the latest episode of the PRHC Foundation’s Heart of Healthcare video series, Foundation President & CEO and series host, Lesley Heighway, sits down with Blair at the 100 Acre Brewing Co., a popular hotspot for cyclists.

They talk about that day that changed Blair’s life, the importance of having lifesaving care nearby, and the community’s role in bringing advanced care, including state-of-the-art cardiac technology, to Peterborough Regional Health Centre.

The heart attack was a complete shock to Blair, a 63-year-old retired accountant, who’s been active for the last 30 years and in good health. He spent decades participating in local races and had completed five Ironman triathlons.

He spent three days in the hospital following his procedure without remembering what happened. His recovery, he says, was remarkably swift. One week after surgery, he was walking and exercising, and within a few months, he was back on his bike.

The entire experience, he says, has added to his outlook on the importance of having access to lifesaving medical care where and when you need it most. Although Blair had his procedure in Florida, he says he finds comfort in knowing there is a new, donor-funded Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at PRHC.

Last year, the hospital and the PRHC Foundation announced the completion of a $3.55 million investment in the Health Centre’s two existing Cath Lab suites, made possible by community donations. In the first month that both suites were operational, there were 324 Cath Lab visits, including 279 angiograms and 117 cardiac stenting procedures — some performed while a heart attack was taking place. Throughout 2022-23 there were more than 2,800 cardiac procedures performed at PRHC.

Every year, thousands of patients from across the region rely on the Lab and PRHC’s cardiac care team for lifesaving, minimally invasive cardiac stenting and diagnosis. Since 2013, the hospital’s code STEMI program has allowed patients with suspected heart attack to be routed directly to PRHC for emergency cardiac stenting, bypassing community hospitals that are unable to perform this procedure and going straight to the PRHC Cath Lab.

Now, advancements in technology are allowing doctors to perform minimally invasive cardiac procedures more safely and effectively using tools that didn’t exist when PRHC opened fifteen years ago. Expanding the hospital’s cardiac services will also reduce the need for residents to travel out of town for specialized care.

The new suites support shorter procedure times, meaning more non-emergency patients can be treated locally, saving them the time, cost, and stress of travelling to a bigger city centre for cardiac services and reducing the risk of a serious, life-threatening cardiac emergency.

As a former Chair and decade-long member of the PRHC Foundation Board of Directors, Blair has played a key role in championing the need for community donations to invest in hospital equipment — which the government doesn’t fund.

“If we can raise more money and have procedures that people are going to Kingston or Toronto or other places for, that we can have right here in Peterborough, that’s really exciting,” Blair says.

Blair says that every dollar invested in the hospital will positively impact patient care, leading to better outcomes for patients, and ultimately, a better future for our region. Having leading-edge, donor-funded tools allows PRHC’s doctors, nurses and staff to do their jobs to the best of their abilities — providing expert, compassionate care to more patients, faster and more safely. It also helps PRHC attract top healthcare professionals to work at the Health Centre and sets a foundation on which future innovation and new services will be built.

In July, Dr. Warren Ball, interventional cardiologist and head of PRHC’s cardiology division, spoke with Blair, his wife, Tracy, and Heighway in the new Cardiac Cath Lab. Blair says he was impressed by the Lab’s new, cutting-edge equipment and technology.

“Dr. Ball, who gave me the tour, showed me a sample stent that was very similar to the size and one that I have in me, which was very interesting,” he says. “I felt really good knowing if I have heart problems in the future, we’ve got a great Lab there [at PRHC].”

The new suites bring high-tech imaging right to cardiologists’ fingertips.

“This allows us to work more quickly and efficiently at a time when every second counts,” explains Dr. Ball. They do so with increased patient safety since the new equipment uses less radiation to obtain images of even greater diagnostic quality.

“We’re immensely grateful to donors,” he says. “It’s because of donors that we can keep hearts close to home. And that’s created the foundation for the next steps of our cardiac program.”

Heart of Healthcare is a unique project that showcases the personal stories of some of the individuals who are helping to shape the future of PRHC and the population of 600,000 people from the city and county of Peterborough, Northumberland County, east Durham, the Haliburton Highlands, and the City of Kawartha Lakes who rely on it.

Blair’s experience is one of many that demonstrate the role that world-class care close to home — closer to wherever you are — plays in our lives.

VIDEO: Heart of Healthcare – Episode 2

Watch the full discussion between Bill Blair and Lesley Heighway above.

Upcoming episodes of Heart of Healthcare will be available at prhcfoundation.ca and through the Foundation’s social media and Vimeo channels.

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

The Salvation Army Peterborough is helping families in need put food on the table and toys under the tree this holiday season through its Christmas Assistance Program.

Between November 20 and December 15, individuals and families can visit the Salvation Army Temple at 219 Simcoe Street by appointment only to receive a grocery store gift card for an amount dependent on their family size. Families will also have access to a toy shop set up in the gymnasium where they can choose toys and stocking stuffers for children and youth under 18.

Appointments can be booked beginning Monday (November 6) by by calling 705-742-4391. When coming to the appointment, families are required to bring identification for each family member, proof of their current address, and verification of income for everyone in the family.

The Salvation Army Peterborough has been facilitating the program for decades during the holiday season, but when they began distributing grocery store gift cards instead of food hampers during the pandemic, the non-profit organization found it to be a more flexible option.

“It allows them to adapt to their family’s needs,” explains JoAnne Leach, the Salvation Army’s Christmas support worker. “There are so many families with different dietary needs, cultures, and allergies.”

To also provide flexibility for gifting, the gym will be set up like a toy shop where people can choose the toys they want to give to their children.

Donations of new, unwrapped toys can be dropped off at the Simcoe Street location from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, or at a donation bin that will located outside Lansdowne Place near Old Navy in the coming weeks.

“If people or businesses want to do a toy drive, we urge them to do it as soon as they can — hold them in November or early December — so that we can get the toys on site and have them available,” notes Leach.

She adds that although the Salvation Army usually has a limited supply of toys from the previous year, the toys tend to get scarce after the first few weeks of running the program.

During the 2022 Christmas Assistance Program, 5,593 people were given food support through the grocery store gift cards, including 2,627 children and youth, with 2,483 children and youth received gifts through the toy donations.

Leach suggests this year might be even more dire as the Salvation Army has seen an influx in the number of families supported annually, especially through the breakfast program and food bank.

“These major programs directly impact our community when it comes to those who are in need,” says Leach, acknowledging rising grocery and housing costs as a factor. “There are so many people who struggle to just meet the daily needs of their families and themselves.”

Leach says the organization used to see 30 to 40 people per day using the breakfast program, which runs five days per week, and now gets upwards of 80 to 100 people visiting every morning.

Similarly, for its food bank, the Salvation Army has seen new users increase 74 per cent compared to the same time period last year, often with more than a dozen new families accessing the food bank in a given day. With the organization’s grant money running out in 2022, the Salvation Army has had to cut its food bank budget and, as a result, is now operating the food bank for three days per week instead of four.

“The need is certainly there, but these programs are funded through the donations we get at Christmastime from our mail-out fundraiser and through the Christmas kettles,” Leach points out.

The Salvation Army launched its ‘Hope for All Seasons’ fundraising campaign last week, with a goal of raising $540,000 through the mail-out fundraiser and $110,000 at Christmas kettles across the city.

Other fundraisers during the season will add a bit of fun, including the annual Teddy Bear Toss taking place at the Peterborough Petes game on Thursday, December 7th, when they will face off against the Brantford Bulldogs at the Peterborough Memorial Centre. Spectators are encouraged to bring new stuffed toys to the game, and when the Petes score their first goal, everyone throws the items on the ice to be collected and added to the toy shop for the Christmas Assistance Program.

“It’s a huge thing and it’s a lot of fun,” says Leach, adding that the Salvation Army band will be in attendance, playing in areas around the arena prior to the game. “We get to see all the teddy bears as they’re coming in, which is really neat to see the support.”

With the Christmas kettles starting in the community on November 16, the Salvation Army is always searching for volunteers, as about 25 to 30 individuals will be needed per day throughout December. Leach suggests groups and businesses can gather to volunteer their time for a day to make it a community effort. Additional volunteers are also needed for the Christmas Assistance Program.

“All of our community and family services provide help to the community, and we can’t do all of that without our volunteers and those who donate,” says Leach. “We have so many faithful donors that we appreciate so greatly but anything people can do to help out the community and make this a real community effort — that’s what we’re hoping and praying for.”

To make an appointment for the Christmas Assistance Program, contact Leach at 705-742-4391. To donate toys or make a financial donation, visit The Salvation Army at 219 Simcoe Street from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.