One person is dead following a two-vehicle collision on Highway 7 east of Peterborough near Norwood early Saturday afternoon (May 27).

Peterborough County OPP and emergency crews responded to a collision between an eastbound tractor-trailer and a westbound sport utility vehicle (SUV) that happened just after 1 p.m. on Highway 7 between County Road 38 and Asphodel 3rd Line.

The driver of the SUV was pronounced dead at the scene. Police have not released any other information about the victim. There were no other injuries.

Highway 7 has been closed between County Road 38 and Asphodel 3rd Line while police document the scene.

The cause of the collision remains under investigation.

Anyone who may have witnessed or has video or dash camera footage of the collision and who has not spoken with police is asked to contact the Peterborough County OPP Detachment at 1-888-310-1122.

Alpacas, axe-throwing, inflatable jousting, classic picnic games, food, treats, and fun. These aren’t the elements to a new treatment program, but rather key ingredients for our second annual Backyard Summer Social gala on Saturday, June 24th.

Our signature fundraising event lets adult attendees be kids again as they swap out tux, gown, and heels for T-shirts, shorts, and sandals to celebrate summer. The Backyard Summer Social supports our Building Abilities For Life Campaign that funds high-demand services like speech and occupational therapies to reduce wait times for these essential services.

Our Backyard Summer Social takes place in the backyard space located at the rear of our Peterborough location. Used for outdoor treatment and therapy for kids and clients, the backyard is transformed for the fundraiser — reflecting the recent evolution of the space.

Many years ago, a daycare and classroom operated at Five Counties and the backyard was home to swings, slide, climber, a paved path for bikes, and other play equipment. The daycare eventually closed and the playground equipment was removed. While the backyard has always been used for recreation therapy and other programs, the outdoor space may not have been used to its full potential.

That started to change three years ago at a time when our staff were advocating for the backyard to be better used for treatment and therapy services. With the support of individual donors, local service clubs, businesses, and — most critically — the forging of a partnership with Peterborough GreenUP, the backyard space began its transformation.

Working closely with GreenUP, a therapy garden featuring native plant species (and a sensory area allowing for hands-on exploration by kids) was added in the backyard. Different ‘play’ zones were also introduced, providing opportunities for sensory engagement, therapeutic programming, and unstructured play.

There are many instances of this, including:

• A paved track allows kids who are working on walking skills or developing balance, testing out new mobility equipment, or riding a bicycle for the first time to do those in the backyard area.
• Built-in musical features allow for engagement opportunities, especially for kids who communicate in different ways. For instance, the mushrooms are metal and can double as drums, while the large tubes act as a large metal xylophone.
• A covered awning and the shaded areas under trees allow for a natural group gathering space to carry out different therapies and activities.
• An artificially built hill in the backyard is a natural play space allowing kids to improve gross motor skills and prepare to try out plastic play structures in their local park.
• A stage area is used for music therapy programs, kids’ performances and outdoor camps.

For our kids, clients, families and even staff, the fully accessible outdoor green space is a wonderful addition to our Peterborough site. It provides therapy and treatment options in a low-stress, sensory-sensitive natural environment in which people feel safe.

While at first glance the backyard space may look simple, there are thoughtful complexities weaved throughout. At the core is a return to nature, which our Recreation Therapist Colleen (who frequently uses the backyard space with clients) describes this way.

“Nature isn’t plastic … it’s not contrived,” Colleen notes. “Nature is real and tangible with the trees, flowers, grass, and sun. The opportunities to explore, engage, learn, and discover can be magnified in an outdoor environment. Learning is deeper, memories are better, and the treatment and therapy outcomes can be more substantial.”

Attendees at the Backyard Summer Social on Saturday, June 24th will be able to attest to this for themselves, as the activities offered at the event mirror what our clients experience during treatment.

For example, guests aren’t just mini putting — they are using gross and fine motor skills. This aligns with the experience of the kids we see, as many don’t remember their time here as treatment but more as playtime.

Join us in learning how Five Counties is transforming lives every day — and revitalizing spaces along the way.

With less than a week before the Minden emergency department is set to close for good, NDP health critic and Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas and Ontario Health Coalition executive director Natalie Mehra held a media conference on Thursday morning (May 25) to again urge accountability from Ontario health minister Sylvia Jones regarding the closure decision by Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS).

On April 20, HHHS initially announced its intention to close the Minden emergency department and consolidate emergency services at the Haliburton hospital, located 25 kilometres northeast of Minden. On April 27, Minden residents travelled to Queens’ Park to deliver a petition that at the time had been signed by over 3,300 individuals living in the Minden area asked Jones to intervene and implement a one-year moratorium on the decision to close the emergency department.

That petition now has nearly 25,000 signatures, according to the Save Minden Ontario Emergency Room Facebook group.

When the petition was brought forward to the legislature by Gélinas, who has served as NDP health critic for 16 years, Jones responded by stating that this was a local decision that had been made “thoughtfully” by HHHS and that the provincial government had no intentions of intervening as to “let them do their work.”

HHHS currently operates two emergency departments that are open 24/7, one at 4575 Deep Bay Road in Minden and the other at 7199 Gelert Road in Haliburton, both with on-site heliports. Unlike the Haliburton location, which has 15 in-patient beds, the Minden location does not offer in-patient acute care services.

HHHS has stated the decision to close the Minden emergency department on June 1 was made because of ongoing staffing shortages that would result in multiple and unpredictable closures of one or both of the emergency departments over the summer.

Much of the criticism of the closure decision from both Minden residents and local politicans relates to a lack of prior consultation and the timing of the closure at the beginning of summer, when Minden’s population triples due to seasonal residents and tourists, as well as the ability of residents to travel to Haliburton — a minimum 20-minute drive from Minden.

At a meeting of Haliburton County council last Tuesday (May 16), Minden Hills Township mayor Bob Carter asked members of the HHHS board to resign following a presentation of their plan to consolidate emergency services at the Haliburton hospital. At that meeting, HHHS CEO Carolyn Plummer said having two emergency departments in the county was no longer sustainable.

“We’ve fought long and hard to keep both sites open, but we’ve reached a point where we’re just not able to do that on a consistent basis anymore,” she said. “I do feel confident that this is the right decision.”

As the date for the closure of Minden’s emergency department, which last year treated over 13,000 patients, looms right at the beginning of the busiest tourism time of year for the region, Minden residents have taken to raising funds to launch a legal challenge to the HHHS decision based on the lack of consultation with both the public, employees, and unions — a point to which both Gélinas and Mehra spoke emphatically.

“There are timelines that have to be respected,” Gélinas said at Thursday’s media conference. “First, they have to post and let people give people at least 60 days notice that they intend to look at a service change. They never did that. They have obligations toward their union. SEIU (Service Employees International Union) has it in their contract that, if they’re going to change any department, they have to give them a five-month notice. None of that happened. All of that rests on the shoulders of the Minister of Health and the Ford government to make sure that the steps are followed.”

To date, the legal fund has yet to raise half of its $100,000 goal. However, attendees of a recent rally in Minden remained confident they would be able to stop the June 1st closure and, should the closure proceed, they would not give up the fight.

For her part, Gélinas said Jones was ultimately accountable for the closure decision.

“Hospitals are the highest priority of a minister of health,” Gélinas said. “No hospital can close an emergency department or close all together without [Jones’] approval. She has to take responsibility, grant [residents and staff] the minimum of one year that they’ve been asking for, and really do the right thing and make sure that this emergency department stays open for years to come.”

Also on Thursday, HHHS acting chief of staff Dr. Norm Bottum released a “community message” reiterating the reasons for the closure.

“Our goal is to ensure our community has a stable and safe emergency care system that you can all count on,” Dr. Bottom wrote. “This means having an emergency department that is open and able to provide quality services — each and every time someone shows up in an emergency department. The safety of our community has been impacted by the multiple, unpredictable, last-minute closures faced by HHHS over the past number of years.”

When asked about the statement by reporters, Gélinas said she didn’t buy the argument and pushed back against the idea that there had been closures at the Minden location.

“The argument is pretty shallow,” she said. “To prevent something that has not happened yet, we will take away the service altogether? [A service] that provided 13,000 people with the emergency care they needed in a high quality way in the last 12 months.”

To this point, Mehra added the whole situation looks like “a decision in search of a rationale.”

“Physicians dispute the claims that HHHS is making regarding staffing the emergency department,” she said.

In response to further questions concerning the lack of consultation, specifically with unions and employees, Gélinas again pointed out these workers had not been granted the requisite five months of notice regarding transfers, but found out about the closure through the media at the same time everyone else in the public did back in April.

“This disconnect between what we hear from the good people at the board and what we hear from the good people of Minden, this has to be cleared up,” Gélinas said. “And this is the job of the Minister of Health. She has all the tools. What we need is the political will and that’s sort of lacking right now.”

For her part, Mehra stated her concerns this closure is merely a sign of more to come. Across Ontario, smaller municipalities are seeing their amalgamated hospital boards work to shut down services in smaller rural centres.

“If they get away with closing Minden and the minister says ‘Oh, it’s a local decision,’ then Welland is next, right?” Mehra said. “Welland is on cue for having its core services closed, almost all of its acute care services and so on. Chesley is at risk. Wingham is at risk. So is Almonte and Alexandria. There’s a whole array of small rural hospitals at the most serious risk.”

According to the NDP, the recemt passage of the Ford government’s Bill 60 (Your Health Act) — which allows for the creation of “integrated community health centres” or private clinics that are able to conduct OHIP-covered surgeries — creates the possibility that investors will set up clinics in communities that have lost publicly funded health services.

“I see the eagerness of the investor to make a pile of money off the back of sick people,” Gélinas warned.

Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles echoed that warning when she visited and met with Minden residents on Thursday afternoon.

“What happens in Minden is what’s going to happen across this province if we’re not careful,” Stiles said, calling for the provincial government to reverse the closure decision.

Northumberland Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are investigating after the death of a child on Thursday afternoon (May 25).

At 5:17 p.m. on Thursday, police received information about a child who had gone missing from an address in Hamilton Township.

The child was subsequently found dead at the address.

Police have not released any information about the age of the child or the cause of the child’s death, but advise there is no threat to public safety.

The Northumberland OPP Crime Unit and the Central Region Forensic Identification Services are continuing the investigation, under the direction of the OPP’s Criminal Investigation Branch and in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario.

Police say they will release more information about the ongoing investigation “when appropriate.”

Port Hope Fire and Emergency Services has donated hundreds of items of used firefighting equipment to be used in the fight against wildfires in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The equipment was donated to Firefighters Without Borders Canada, an organization founded in 2010 that provides training and firefighting equipment to communities in need around the world.

The donation includes 25 self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA), 50 SCBA bottles, hose fittings, radios, uniforms, lights, confined space rescue equipment, and various personal protective equipment including bunker gear, coveralls, and hoods.

“We are so pleased to extend the life of this essential fire response equipment,” says Port Hope fire chief Jeff Ogden in a media release. “We are honoured to support this organization and provide other fire departments with this important life-saving equipment.”

This gear will be driven to the Firefighters Without Borders Canada warehouse in Belleville to be packed with other donations and shipped by transport to western Canada, where it will be used to support First Nations communities in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan.

“On behalf of council, I want to thank our fire chief and Port Hope Fire and Emergency Services for stepping up to support this worthy cause,” says Port HOpe mayor Olena Hankivsky. “The devastation of the fires in western Canada is a concern for all Canadians and I am so pleased that we can do our part to contribute to the aid efforts with the resources we have available.”

The Kamloops-bound Peterborough Petes will feel the love again this coming weekend with community watch parties confirmed at Quaker Foods City Square in downtown Peterborough for the club’s Saturday and Sunday games.

On Saturday (May 27), the Ontario Hockey League champion Petes begin their bid for the second Memorial Cup, taking on the Western Hockey League champion Seattle Thunderbirds to open the round-robin portion of the 103rd Canadian junior hockey championships. The following day, Sunday (May 28th), the Petes will do battle with the host Kamloops Blazers in game two of tournament’s opening round.

Both community watch parties, featuring TSN’s broadcast screened on a 16-foot video wall provided by Porter Sound, begin at 5 p.m. with puck drop for both games at 6 p.m.

According to the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Association (DBIA), which is partnering with the City of Peterborough and sponsors including kawarthaNOW to present the weekend events, a plan to have a community watch party for the Petes’ third round-robin game versus the Québec Remparts on May 30th has been scrapped due to the late 9 p.m. EST start time and a related concern over the volume of crowd noise at a late hour.

The watch parties will also feature a kids’ fun zone, a small vendors market with food and snacks, and a beer garden provided by Bobcaygeon Brewery in partnership with Sandbagger Seltzer. Fans are asked to bring their own chairs and cash if they would like to purchase from any of the vendors Those who can’t make it to the square this weekend to take in the on-ice action fans can catch the Petes’ Memorial Cup games on OHL Live, TSN, Freq 90.5, Oldies 96.7, and Classic Rock 107.9.

“I’m looking forward to seeing Quaker Foods City Square filled with fans, watching the games together, cheering on their Petes,” says Peterborough mayor Jeff Leal in a media release. ” The community spirit has been brilliant. Thank you to the Downtown Business Improvement Area for organizing and hosting these family-friendly watch parties with support from the City of Peterborough. By partnering, we’re able to bring together our community to cheer on our Petes.”

The weekend watch parties are being organized based on the success of a like event that was held May 19th for game five of the Petes’ OHL championship series against the London Knights that drew close to 500 fans to Quaker Foods City Square.

The Petes lost that game 4-1 but rebounded two nights later with a 2-1 win to claim their 10th J. Robertson Cup as OHL champions.

That was followed on May 22nd by a community celebration of the Petes’ championship win, again attended by about 500 people, most sporting the club’s maroon-and-white colours. At that event, Petes players, coaches, and management received a raucous welcome.

Afterwards, DBIA executive chair Terry Guiel praised the square as a location for such events.

“It makes a city a livable, enjoyable place,” he said. “We have diehard fans of the downtown but there’s also a large demographic that’s new to Peterborough. We need to introduce them to the downtown as well as reintroduce people who haven’t come downtown in awhile.”

Peterborough Mayor Jeff Leal echoed that sentiment.

“This is exactly the kind of event that we want here,” he said,” adding “It’s the perfect venue for something like this.”

Completed in fall of last year at the site of the former Louis Street parking lot, the Quaker Foods City Square hosted ice skating throughout the winter season and recently became the new home of the Peterborough Regional Farmers’ Market that will operate every Wednesday and Saturday until October 28th.

Key funders of the project included the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) which provided $750,000, the City of Peterborough which contributed $677,909, and the DBIA with a $50,000 donation.

Last September, Peterborough city council approved a naming rights agreement with PepsiCo Foods which, through its Quaker brand, will pay $240,000 over 15 years for the city square’s name.

This story has been updated with additional information from a Peterborough DBIA media release.

Environment Canada has issued a frost advisory for much of the Kawartha region overnight Wednesday (May 24).

The frost advisory is in effect for the Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton, and Hastings Highlands.

Temperatures will drop to near or just below the freezing mark by early Thursday morning.

Cover up plants, especially those in frost-prone areas.

Take preventative measures to protect frost-sensitive plants and trees.

Frost may damage some crops in frost-prone areas.