At its meeting on Monday night (December 11), Peterborough city council approved a 2024 budget that would see a residential property tax hike of seven per cent.

This is less than the 7.38 per cent increase in the draft budget recommended by council’s finance committee on November 21, which was itself a decrease from the 9.59 per cent increase in the original draft budget.

Still, the seven per cent increase is more than twice as much as the 3.15 per cent rate increase in the 2023 budget. It would add $10.17 per month, or $122.02 for the year, to residential taxes for each $100,000 of property assessment. For a home assessed at $600,000, this would be an increase of $732.12 for the year.

During a breakfast meeting with Peterborough mayor Jeff Leal hosted by Peterborough and the Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce on November 21, the mayor called the 2024 budget “a course correction budget to avoid a series of double-digit increases down the road.”

At Monday’s meeting, councillor and finance committee chair Andrew Beamer said the budget will improve maintenance of city roads and infrastructure as well as municipal services, while expressing concern about the size of the tax hike.

“We do need to make key strategic improvements in the community to ensure that we are not falling behind and that we are moving forward,” Beamer said. “This has to be a one-time budget situation. This can’t become the norm. We need to work together for a more manageable budget next year.”

One of the major changes from the original draft budget to reduce the residential tax increase from 9.59 per cent to 7.39 per cent was shifting around $3 million in taxes from residential properties to commercial and industrial properties by increasing the tax ratio for both commercial and industrial property classes from 1.5 to 1.65 — reversing a trend of decreasing the ratios in previous years.

A little over a week after hosting the mayor’s breakfast meeting, the Chamber issued a media release objecting to the decision and urging city council to reconsider.

“It’s disappointing that the finance committee would recommend a significant change in economic policy, a policy that was drafted with thorough consultation with local businesses, to give residents the appearance of a reduced tax increase,” said the Chamber’s president and CEO Sarah Budd. “We routinely hear from our government leaders that there is one taxpayer. Shifting $3 million in tax levy to one group of property owners and calling it savings for another does not give the impression that we are all in this together.”

To further reduce the residential tax hike form 7.38 to seven percent, some of the changes from the finance committee version of the budget include using $1.31 million instead of $800,000 in investment interest generated from the sale of Peterborough Distribution Inc. to Hydro One, increasing transit fares to generate an additional $100,000 in revenue, and deferring $150,000 from the Sherbrooke Street reconstruction class environmental assessment project.

The approved budget also increases grants by 1.5 per cent to certain community organizations including Artspace, Community Care Peterborough, Peterborough Musicfest, Peterborough GreenUP, New Canadians Centre, and more. The original draft budget has proposed reductions of around 3.6 per cent in funding for the organizations.

As part of the 2024 budget, council decided to set aside $226,021 in payments to Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development for physician recruitment. The funds will remain in reserve until council considers a report early in the new year about hiring a physician recruiter.

Council also did not support increasing the budget by $374,686.45 to allow for the purchase of a electric heavy-duty vehicle for wastewater collection to replace an existing diesel truck that is due for replacement. At its general committee meeting on December 4, council had endorsed the increase of $604,644.17 for the vehicle purchase — which would include immediate delivery of the vehicle, two heavy-duty electric vehicle charging stations, staff training, and more — instead of $248,892.46 for a new diesel truck that would be delivered in two to three years.

Peterborough mayor Jeff Leal presented the 2024 budget to council on Monday night under the new Strong Mayor Powers created by the Ontario government. The mayor’s budget incorporated all the changes recommended by council during its deliberations. Under the Strong Mayor Powers, council can amend the proposed budget by passing a resolution within a 30-day review period. The mayor then has 10 days from the end of the council review period to veto any council amendment.

Environment Canada has issued a snow squall watch for much of the Kawarthas region for Tuesday night (December 12) and Wednesday.

The snow squall watch is in effect for Peterborough County, Kawartha Lakes, and southern Haliburton County.

Lake effect snow squalls are expected to develop Tuesday evening or overnight in the wake of a passing cold front and affect areas east of Georgian Bay and portions of the Bruce Peninsula. These snow squalls will will continue into Wednesday afternoon before weakening by Wednesday evening.

Under the snow squall bands, visibility will be significantly reduced due to the heavy snow combined with blowing snow, and snow will quickly accumulate. Locally heavy snowfall with total amounts of 10 to 25 cm is expected in the northern Peterborough County, northern Kawartha Lakes, and southern Haliburton County, with 10 to 20 cm expected in southern Peterborough County and southern Kawartha Lakes.

Snow squalls cause weather conditions to vary considerably, commonly shifting from clear skies to heavy snow within just a few kilometres. Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become difficult to navigate due to accumulating snow.

Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve.

This story has been updated with the latest forecast from Environment Canada.

Peterborough police have issued a warning to the public after a man followed and accosted a woman on Saturday afternoon (December 9).

At around noon on Saturday, officers were made aware of an incident where a woman was walking her dog in the Euclid and Trent streets area of Peterborough, south of Parkhill Road East and east of Armour Road, when she was approached by a man driving what was described as an “old-style” black SUV.

The man then followed her on foot, grabbed her hood, and told her she had to come with him immediately. The woman’s dog intervened and bit the man. The man then followed the woman in his vehicle to Caddy Street, where he eventually drove away.

The man is described as white, 50 to 60 years old, around 6’4″ tall with a medium, solid build, and clean shaven with salt-and-pepper hair. He was wearing a black coat with blue jeans and white sneakers.

The victim did not know the make or model of the man’s vehicle or get the plate number.

Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to call Peterborough Police at 705-876-1122 ext. 555 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or at online stopcrimehere.ca.

When a massive fire destroyed the only grocery store in North Kawartha Township just over three years ago, the community felt its loss in more ways than one.

Since 1976, the Sayers family and their supermarket had been part of the fabric of the village of Apsley — first as Sayers General Store before becoming an IGA, a Foodland, and then, in 2017, Sayers Independent Food Town.

While locals were suddenly left without a place to buy groceries during the trying times of the pandemic in December 2020, they also lost one of their social hubs — the fire occurred early in the month before the provincial-wide lockdown after Christmas. While Sayers was a place for fresh produce and pantry staples, it also provided some residents with the chance to connect with their fellow community members.

With construction now completed on a new store expected to open early in the new year, North Kawartha Township Mayor Carolyn Amyotte is bubbling with enthusiasm about the prospect of the return of Sayers Foods.

“It has been really tough,” Amyotte said. “We’re a resilient community and we adapt, and certainly people have adapted, and local businesses have adapted to support community folks.”

The mayor said that effort has been impressive “but certainly nothing takes the place of having a full grocery store.”

The gap caused by the fire was felt even more so because Sayers had taken on an active role during the pandemic, Amyotte noted, by stocking up supplies, arranging for 24-hour shift coverage, introducing an online ordering system, and delivering groceries to people who were in isolation.

“They were rock stars,” Amyotte said, adding having them “sidelined” just before another provincial lockdown was “heart-breaking.”

The mayor recalled hearing the news of the fire at 7 a.m. on December 5, 2020 and thinking, “I’ve got to go in and give my town a hug.”

“At that point, we couldn’t even picture where we are today — the end is near,” Amyotte said of the three years it has taken to get to this point. “It’s a beautiful new building, which is going to be a game-changer for downtown Apsley.”

After the fire, according to Amyotte, she was working behind the scenes, with every level of government “on standby” to try and help the community.

“Everybody recognized the seriousness of the situation and were prepared to come forward.”

Amyotte said Sayers has a key economic impact on the community for not only the seasonal residents and tourists it attracts during summer months, but for its year-round residents who are employed by the store.

“They were one of our biggest employers — one of the top three,” she said about the Sayers family. “They’re also big community supporters.”

Jeff Sayers co-owns and manages the store with his siblings Barb and Rick. His parents are semi-retired but will still have an office in the new building. He says he expects to have between 30 and 50 employees when the store is open and at full capacity.

It has been a long three years, Jeff said, filled with processes that needed to be followed which encompassed insurance paperwork, consultants, an appraisal, and some construction material delays — but walking away from the grocery store business wasn’t an option.

“This is our way of life,” Jeff said. “We’ve received an outpouring of community support. The community definitely needs a grocery store.”

In addition to the supermarket essentials, the new Sayers Foods — which has increased square footage in the store portion — will have an expansive deli, which will encompass ready-to-go meals and a pick-up window. There will also be a café with seasonal outdoor seating and Wi-Fi.

Jeff projects the store will have a “soft” opening in late January, as he is just waiting on the occupancy permit, and anticipates a grand opening in early spring.

Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared a Peterborough police officer of any wrongdoing in connection with a stand-off at a car dealership in August that ended in the death of a 28-year-old man.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) — an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of police officers that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault, or discharge of a firearm at a person — issued its report into the incident on Friday (December 8).

The SIU interviewed the police officer who was the subject of the investigation, six civilian witnesses, and five witness officials, including a fellow police officer who arrived at the scene. The SIU also reviewed memo books from witness officials, evidence at the scene, and photographic, audio, and video evidence, including in-car camera footage from the subject officer’s cruiser.

According to the SIU report, at 2:15 p.m. on August 11, 2023, a police officer was travelling in his cruiser in the area of Park Street North and Parkhill Road West when he was forced to quickly react as a Jeep Cherokee abruptly reversed out of a driveway.

The officer decided to stop the Jeep for a traffic infraction and, when the vehicle failed to stop, he began a pursuit. The officer chased the Jeep, which ran a red light before eventually making its way onto northbound Chemong Road. The officer followed for a period, but then discontinued pursuit in the area of Bellevue Street.

The 28-year-old man driving the Jeep, who was later determined to be suffering from mental illness and having an acute episode at the time of the incident, lost control of the Jeep at Chemong Road and Towerhill Road and crashed into a pole at the northwest corner of the intersection. He emerged from the vehicle holding a firearm and held up a taxi at gunpoint before making his way in the service garage of the nearby Peterborough Volkswagen dealership.

Frustrated when he was unable to obtain keys for one of the vehicles under repair, the man struck an employee of the dealership in the back of the head with the gun and was holding the employee at gunpoint by the southwest corner of the garage when the police officer arrived in his cruiser.

On hearing broadcasts of 911 calls reporting a motorist emerging with a gun from a crashed vehicle, the officer had made his way to Chemong Road and Towerline Road where he was directed by civilians to the dealership.

The officer drove his cruiser a short distance into the garage through the west bay door, exited, and confronted the man at gunpoint. The time was 2:18 p.m. The officer ordered the man to drop the gun he was holding to the head of the employee. Although the man released the employee, who fled from the garage, he refused to drop the gun. Instead, he turned the gun on himself, pointing it under his own chin, and repeatedly asked the officer to shoot him.

The officer replied that he was not going to shoot the man, but wanted him to drop the gun so they could talk. As the stand-off continued over the next several minutes, the man sprayed and poured the contents of various automotive fluids from containers on nearby benches before drinking from them. It was later determined the man had ingested antifreeze, engine coolant, and motor oil.

At this point, a second officer armed with a C8 rifle had arrived at the scene and, along with the first officer, implored the man to drop the gun and refrain from drinking from the containers.

At around 2:24 p.m., not more than six minutes from when the first officer had arrived on scene, the man collapsed and dropped his firearm. Officers moved in, secured the weapon, and handcuffed the man. Realizing that he was in medical distress and having seizures, they rolled the man into the recovery position, removed the handcuffs, and administered CPR until the arrival of firefighters and paramedics.

The man was transported to Peterborough Regional Health Centre and pronounced dead at 3:32 p.m. The pathologist who later conducted an autopsy on the man was unable to arrive at a preliminary cause of death.

“On my assessment of the evidence, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the SO (subject officer) committed a criminal offence in connection with the Complainant’s death,” writes SIU director Joseph Martino in the report. “The question is whether there was any want of care on the part of the SO, sufficiently serious to attract criminal sanction, that endangered the Complainant’s life or contributed to his death. In my view, there was not.”

“The SO was lawfully placed when he confronted the Complainant in the dealership garage,” Martino continues. “He had cause to believe that the Complainant had fled from the site of a crash into the dealership armed with a gun, and he was duty-bound to attend the scene to ensure public safety. Once in the garage, and seeing him holding (the employee) at gunpoint, the officer also had grounds to arrest the Complainant for a variety of offences.”

Martino adds the officer showed “due care and regard for public safety” during the incident, including concern for the man’s safety.

“From a distance of several metres, behind the front driver side of his cruiser, the SO did what he could to de-escalate the situation. Though the Complainant was in possession of a gun, which he could have discharged at the officer at any moment, the SO held his fire and tried to talk him down.”

Martino says the officer could not have withdrawn from the scene, as the man “had already shown a propensity for violence” and the officer could not be sure other people in the vicinity would not be endangered.

“Similarly, the use of a conducted energy weapon or pepper spray were not reasonable options for a variety of reasons, including the SO’s distance from the Complainant and the location of a vehicle between them, the presence of flammable materials in the area, and the officer’s vulnerability to return gunfire in the event those weapons did not work.”

Martino adds that, once the man had collapsed, officers moved in quickly to render emergency first-aid.

“There are no reasonable grounds to conclude that the SO conducted himself other than within the limits of the criminal law in his dealings with the Complainant, there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case,” Martino concludes. “The file is closed.”

Two people in their 70s and their family pet died following a two-vehicle collision in Warkworth early Friday afternoon (December 8).

At around 1:20 p.m. on Friday, the Northumberland Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Northumberland Paramedics, and the Trent Hills Fire Department responded to a report of a collision between a pickup truck and a car on Dominion Road in Warkworth.

The occupants in the car included two people from Hastings, aged 76 and 70, along with a family pet. The 76-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. The 70-year-old was transported to a local hospital, where they were later pronounced dead. The family pet succumbed to its injuries. Police have not released any other information about the victims.

The driver of the pickup truck, a 33-year-old from Carrying Place, suffered minor injuries in the collision.

Dominion Road between Mill Street and Old Hastings Road was closed for several hours while police investigated and documented the scene.

Police are continuing to investigate the fatal collision. Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or their local police. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at stopcrimehere.ca.

Five Counties Children’s Centre has received almost $400,000 in capital funding for its Northumberland Backyard Project from the Ontario government and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

In partnership with the County of Northumberland, Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre, YMCA Northumberland, and the local EarlyON Child and Family Centre, Five Counties Children’s Centre plans to transform the backyard area at the centre’s location at 800 Division Street in Cobourg into a safe and fully accessible outdoor area that provides more space and options for treatment, recreation, cultural awareness, and outdoor education programs.

With the initial grading, drainage, landscaping, and fencing done this summer and fall, the capital grants will support the project’s completion in 2024. Once completed, the backyard will include an accessible playground, sensory play equipment, garden area, gazebo, stage, and a track for wheelchairs, bikes, and other mobility devices.

“We are extremely grateful to the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services for investing in our backyard, our kids, and our community,” says Scott Pepin, CEO of Five Counties Children’s Centre, in a media release. “The capital funding will not only transform our backyard but will help transform lives. Our field of dreams is almost a reality, and the end result will be a fully accessible, culturally responsive, nature-based play space that boosts outdoor treatment sessions, reduces wait lists, and helps children and families enjoy accessible play.”

Five Counties Children’s Centre provides speech, physio, and occupational therapies, as well as other treatment services, for children and youth up to the age of 19 in the counties of Northumberland, Peterborough, and Haliburton and the City Kawartha Lakes. This past year, the non-profit organization served more than 6,200 children and youth in its region, with one quarter of them in Northumberland County.

The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services is providing $255,100 to revamp and expand the parking lot at Five Counties to accommodate more families accessing services at the centre and the neighbouring EarlyON site. The Ontario Trillium Foundation is providing $141,000 for the building of the accessible track and other play features.