Branches and brush from the May 21st storm that are piled on residential boulevards in the City of Peterborough will be removed by city crews, but it may take at least another month before this happens.

At the Peterborough city council meeting on Monday night (May 30), council directed the city to allocate resources and equipment to manage and remove green waste debris from private property.

However, that work will begin after the city has removed storm debris from city-owned property. including right-of-ways, streets, sidewalks, trails, and parks.

The city estimates it may be four to six weeks before green waste debris can be collected from residential boulevards. Council is asking residents to remain patient while the city manages resources for the clean-up effort.

To assist residents cleaning up their properties, city council also decided to waive the fees for disposal of tree branches and brush at the Peterborough landfill on Bensfort Road until June 30. Previously, there was a fee of $7 for 100 kilograms or less of green waste, or $95 per tonne for an entire load.

The city has also opened a fee-free temporary drop-off site at 425 Kennedy Road where residents can dispose of tree branches and brush.

Kawartha Lakes Food Source recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of its own brand of salsa, a social enterprise that has produced more than 6,000 jars of salsa since it launched on May 20, 2021.

Proceeds from the sale of the salsa help offset operating expenses such as rent for the non-profit organization, which procures and distributes food to 35 local agencies and delivers food literacy programs.

According to Kawartha Lakes Food Source executive director Heather Kirby, the organization hopes the social enteprise will help the organization be “financially resilient in the midst of any future economic uncertainty.”

“The project will be an ongoing, self-sustaining source of revenue that compliments our regular fundraising efforts,” Kirby says. “Diversifying our streams of income is a priority for our team as a way of mitigating risk and ensuring we can always be relied on by our member agencies and our community during times of need.”

The idea to produce a food product began with an online poll in early 2020, when Kawartha Lakes Food Source asked members of the community what type of food product produced by the organization they would be most interested in purchasing. Move than 70 per cent of respondents voted for salsa.

The organization then worked on recipe development, marketing assessments, and regulatory compliance. The final salsa recipe was developed in collaboration with George Brown College’s Food Innovation and Research Studio, with the salsa produced by Kawartha Lakes Food Source staff and volunteers alongside employees of the Ontario Agri-Food Venture Centre.

The salsa was originally launched at seven retail locations in Kawartha Lakes — Reid’s Valu-Mart (422 Russell St. W., Lindsay), Farmers Butcher Shop (3 Commerce Place, Lindsay), Mariposa Woolen Mill (1275 Highway 7, Oakwood), Fresh FueLL (172 Angeline St. N., Lindsay), and Burns Bulk Food (118 Kent St. W., Lindsay) — where it continues to be available.

Locations have since expanded to eight other retailers in Kawartha Lakes and the Peterborough area, including Bigley’s Shoes and Clothing (39 Bolton St., Bobcaygeon), Craftworks and Antiques at the Barn (124 Lindsay Rd., Selwyn), Living Local Marketplace (1179 Chemong Rd., Peterborough), The Food Shop (374 Water St., Peterborough), Sobeys Fenelon Falls (15 Lindsay St., Fenelon Falls), Foodland Coboconk (6708 Highway 35, Coboconk), Foodland Havelock (38 Ottawa St. W., Havelock), and The Kawartha Living Store (1475 Highway 7A, Bethany).

The salsa will also be available for sale at pop-up locations including regional farmers’ markets.

In 2021, Kawartha Lakes Food Source received the Not for Profit Excellence award from the Lindsay and District Chamber of Commerce.

For more information, visit kawarthalakesfoodsource.com/salsa.

Peterborough police are investigating after three puppies were stolen from a home on Saturday afternoon (May 28).

At around 1:15 p.m., officers were called to the home in the area of High Street and Brown Street in Peterborough.

Upon arriving, officers learned a woman had entered the home and left with two male and one female American Bulldog mix puppies.

The puppies were described to police as a brindle male puppy with a white patch on his chest, a white male puppy with brown ears and brown around his eyes, and a female puppy with a brindle back, white chest, and white stripe between her eyes.

Anyone with information is asked to call Peterborough Police Crime Line at 705-876-1122 x555 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at stopcrimehere.ca.

Peterborough police are searching for a male suspect after $19,000 of necklaces, watches, and cash was stolen from a jewellery store in Lansdowne Place Mall on Monday morning (May 30).

At around 6 a.m. on Monday, officers were called to the mall after an alarm went off. After arriving, police learned a man has broken into the mall and then into the jewellery store.

The man stole 83 silver necklaces (several with intricate detailing), 19 men’s and women’s Citizen brand watches, and $200 in cash, with a total value of around $19,000.

The suspect was last spotted heading eastbound on Lansdowne Street on a bicycle.

He is described as wearing a black sweater with red and white lettering, grey pants, a black face covering, black shoes, a black hat, and a backpack.

Anyone with information is asked to call Peterborough Police Crime Line at 705-876-1122 x555 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at stopcrimehere.ca.

Robert Gibson is a 33-year-old graduate of Trent University’s Environmental Science Studies program. He currently works as a janitor and, thanks to the high cost of housing, lives with his parents just like so many others in his peer group.

Compared to his competitors for Peterborough-Kawartha MPP, you could be forgiven for thinking Gibson’s resume is slight and his life experiences minimal. What you may not know is that he lives on the autism spectrum and has overcome barriers others need not ever consider in order to stand for public office. This gives Gibson a kind of seriousness that belies his seemingly limited experience.

“As someone with lived experience with low support needs,” Gibson told me, “I can be better informed about policy and if a certain policy is as effective as it could be.”

Indeed, watching Gibson perform at two debates, it occurred to me that forcing all our candidates to squeeze their answers to often very difficult questions into 30 seconds is not just senseless, it’s also deeply unfair to anyone who might have a speech or cognitive limitation. Thoughtful solutions to tough problems can come from just about anywhere, but they might not come at all if people with differences are continually forced to conform to ableist rules.

Without the artificial time constraints of a debate, Gibson and I had a relaxed conversation over Zoom. I wanted to get a better understanding of who he is, what he’s passionate about, who influenced him growing up, and why he decided to run for public office.

As I’ve said in other profiles, it was also important for me to be sure to centre the concerns of kawarthaNOW readers in my questions about party policy. To get a sense of what’s on your minds, kawarthaNOW published a poll that asked you to rank 11 issues of concern, as well as to tell us what we may have missed. With that in mind, what follows is our lightly edited (for length and clarity) conversation.

Justin Sutton: We know you earned a degree in Environmental Science Studies, and you’ve written about environmental issues, but what else motivates you?

Robert Gibson: I’m interested in improving society at large and I know that the housing crisis is huge. I have an interest in municipal relationships — that’s something I’ve written about along with environmental issues. Relationships between municipal and provincial governments. I was also a student until the pandemic started. I graduated right at the same time, so I know the value of community groups and how integral students are to informing discussions.

I am primarily focused on the environment because I do think it touches on everything, not just climate change. It also influences housing. For example, if people’s houses flood, that impacts rent prices. I’m young myself and I want to be able to afford a place of my own one day. Transparency in government decisions and public participation is definitely one area I’m worried about.

JS: Could you tell me about your influences? Who along the way has impacted the way you see the world, and your interests?

RG: Definitely my teachers in elementary and secondary school. I had a high school class in science which put me on a path to environmental studies. Groups like the Ontario Public Interest Research Group that highlights social inequalities. Definitely college professors, and I have to say my parents.

I started watching the news regularly at an early age and saw how people were being impacted as a result of climate change, including the city of Peterborough. I was camping with Scouts at the time of the 2004 Peterborough flood and when my parents picked me up, they told me about the flood. I watched the news coverage at the time and that’s how I started to get a sense of different issues. Before the campaign I was involved with the Arthur Newspaper (Trent University’s student newspaper), and I learned a lot from them.

JS: Have any other experiences along the way influenced you and the way you see the world?

RG: I do live on the autism spectrum, so I have faced some barriers. I’ve overcome a lot of them, but there’s still some stigmatization around autism as well as mental illness. I saw a display once at the Ontario Science Centre that talked about how garbage stays preserved for thousands of years because of the lack of oxygen when garbage is packed tightly in a dump, so I have learned from museum displays. I’ve also learned from the REDress Project about missing and murdered Indigenous women, so I’ve learned from arts and cultural educational displays as well as from personal experience being on the autism spectrum.

JS: Did your personal experience living on the autism spectrum inform your choice to enter politics? For example, has overcoming the barriers you’ve faced made you want to actively help others do the same?

RG: I know that I can be an inspiration to someone else who is on the autism spectrum, but I don’t want it to be a highlight. It’s definitely not the main reason why I chose to run but it is included in the decision-making process to a limited extent.

JS: In addition to wanting to know more about who you are, I wanted to centre this interview on the concerns of our readers. We published a survey that asked our readers to rank 11 broad issues. We also asked them to tell us if we missed anything. As I’ve said to the other candidates, our savvy readers quickly pointed out that ranking broad, interconnected issues is nearly impossible.

So, accepting that our results are imperfect because of that limitation, the number one issue of concern to 27 per cent of survey respondents is healthcare. Several respondents linked their concerns to Bill 124, which limits wage increases for nurses, nurse practitioners, and other health-care professionals. Others suggested mental healthcare should be a central feature of our healthcare system, not an add-on. Can you tell me about the Green Party’s plan?

RG: The Green Party’s plan includes repealing Bill 124 because nurses should be paid fairly, and collective bargaining is an important process to retain. Right now there’s a shortage of healthcare professionals. We also want the role of chief medical officer of health turned into an ombudsman — a legislative officer — because healthcare shouldn’t be a political issue. There should be regular reporting on how healthcare can be improved.

Supportive housing is also important, and 10 per cent of Green Party budget would go directly towards mental health. There should also be an inquiry into how the government handled the pandemic so that we can better learn how to prepare for the future. ODSP should definitely be doubled.

JS: Do you see the doubling of ODSP as related to healthcare?

RG: Yes, I do because health, environment, and income are all part of the determinants of health. If you can’t afford safe shelter, then that’s a problem, which is why the Green Party supports prescriptions for housing.

JS: Climate change/environment was chosen by 20 per cent of respondents as their second ranked issue of concern. I think we’ve covered that issue quite extensively in our coverage of the environmental debate at Trent University, so I’ll ask you about housing, which 15 per cent of our readers are deeply anxious about. From your perspective, why is housing top of mind for so many and how would a Green government respond?

RG: It’s concerning because people are having a challenging time getting into the market as first-time home buyers. The housing that is being built is spread out, contributing to urban sprawl and climate change. Forty percent of greenhouse gasses come from buildings.

I’m currently living at home with my parents and I hope to live on my own, but with rent ever-increasing it’s a challenge to find employment that will allow me to stay connected to my family and the community which I’ve grown to love and participate in. Something that isn’t discussed enough is that housing impacts employment. Workers need somewhere to live; if there’s nowhere to live, it’s hard to attract workers.

The Green Party believes that homes should be for people, not speculators. That’s why anyone who owns three properties or more would face additional taxes, and there would be a vacancy tax to discourage people from buying a property and leaving it empty. We want to change the planning act to encourage building duplexes, triplexes, tiny homes, and other forms of housing. Province-wide we would build 60,000 affordable, supportive units, which works out to be 480 units within Peterborough-Kawartha. Freezing urban boundaries to limit the amount of urban sprawl is also important as low-density housing is not affordable for municipal governments.

JS: When we asked our readers to tell us what issues we left off of our list, by far the biggest issue of concern to our readers is the seeming rise of political polarization. We saw what happened to the federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh when he visited Peterborough on May 10. How will you, if elected to represent Peterborough-Kawartha, help to ease seemingly entrenched polarization?

RG: Early on the campaign one person phoned me and opened up the conversation by swearing at me. I definitely haven’t experienced it as badly as other candidates; partly that’s because I’m a white male, but I do know that it’s an important issue to address. It’s happening to city councillors and federal politicians, racialized individuals and women especially.

I think it’s more complex than just being pandemic related, (but) it’s definitely unacceptable behaviour. People sometimes brush these things under the rug. They don’t address it with their friends, but we have to have tough conversations with our friends and families because I think it starts at the micro level and builds up. It’s important that all political parties come together after the election to discuss solutions.

JS: Let’s end on a light-hearted note. How do you keep yourself well in the context of spending so much time thinking through important issues like the ones we’ve just discussed? Do you have a practice or a guilty pleasure you enjoy? What do you do to maintain good mental health?

RG: My guilty pleasure is Pokémon GO. I also look forward to Dr. Who and other sci-fi shows. Those are the two pleasures I turn to.

VIDEO: Robert Gibson responds to May 21, 2022 storm

The first thing I noticed about Jen Deck is her sense of humour. Faced with a criticism by one of her challengers in an early debate, she batted it away with a witty retort like a pro baseball player might hit a lob ball. “I’ve learned to be tough,” she would tell me during a wide-ranging discussion, “in order to have my voice heard.”

Jen Deck moved to Peterborough from Toronto to attend Trent University. She had children young and briefly lived on social assistance with her partner and newborn baby. Somehow, Deck self-deprecatingly tells me, she still managed to finish her three-year degree in biology and women’s studies, “on the eight-year plan.”

She went on to work as an occasional teacher before taking on a leadership role with the teachers’ union. Indeed, she’s been the occasional teacher president of the Kawartha Pine Ridge Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario for the past eight years.

When I talked to Deck mid-campaign, she was open, forthright, and like I said, very good-humoured. By her own admission, she’s not a politician; she’s simply a capable, concerned citizen who stepped up when the NDP came calling. I believe the human being you vote for — what interests them, how they see the world, who influenced them — is important. It was also crucial to me that I ask every candidate about the issues our readers told us are most pressing for them.

To that end, kawarthaNOW published a poll that asked readers to rank 11 issues of concern, as well as to tell us what we may have missed. What follows is a lightly edited conversation (for length and clarity) that includes Deck’s responses to some of those issues.

Justin Sutton: We know you’re a Trent University alumna, a trained teacher, and union leader. Aside from your area of expertise, what else interests or motivates you?

Jen Deck: I can tell you that all of my adult life I’ve been an avid canoe tripper and white-water paddler. I’m actually a white-water canoe instructor and I’ve had the opportunity to guide a number of really amazing canoe trips in Canada, which is one of the ways I’ve been able to grow to love the Canadian wilderness. I got to lead a trip on the Soper River on Baffin Island, I’ve been many times down the Dumoine River, I went down the Nahanni when I was 17.

I was privileged to send my kids to the same camp that I went to, so they had similar experiences. I’m also an avid blood donor and I’m set to my 50th donation before my 50th birthday and I’m also really proud that one of my kids followed in my footsteps and he’ll be making 30 donations before he turns 30.

I am an environmentalist, and both of my kids wore cloth diapers, and I ran a little business in town when they were little selling cloth diapers. I did that as a side gig while I was finishing my own degree in biology and women’s studies.

JS: Could you tell me about your influences? Who has had a profound impact on you and why? I’m thinking of writers, artists, politicians, thinkers, activists, educators, business people, and so on.

JD: I’m a big science fiction reader … I’m a bit of a geek. Margaret Atwood had a big influence on me as a very young person. I read all of her books but of course The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) was foundational for me as was The Edible Woman (1969).

I was really influenced by some of the amazing profs that I had at Trent University. Marg Hobbes was one of my woman’s studies profs and she really opened my eyes to feminism and how to bring intersectionality into feminism. Michael Berill was studying frogs and the impact that pollution was having on them and messing with their hormones way back 30 years ago so that was influential for me developing as an environmentalist. I followed David Suzuki very closely in those days and (the late former federal NDP leader) Jack Layton — of course, I think everyone fell in love with Jack Layton.

Books wise, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979) is one of my favourite books that I read when I was 12 and keep reading it because I just loved (the late author Douglas Adams’) gentleness and his comedy, and he sneaks in some social commentary really subtly. I also know that he struggled with mental health and I was really sad when he died because that was a loss to us all. He also wrote a really great book about species extinction (Last Chance to See, 1990) with Mark Carwardine.

JS: Did any musicians impact the way you see the world?

JD: My kids have had a huge influence on my musical taste, so we have LPs of Run the Jewels. I love the Rheostatics, Ani DiFranco, Steely Dan, Tom Waits, Peter Gabriel, Mother Mother, and Spoon. I tend to put podcasts on or CBC Radio. I went to see Ani DiFranco quite a few times, she came to Peterborough and then I saw her in Victoria where I danced like an absolute maniac when I was like eight months pregnant. I think I alarmed people, because I was a massively pregnant person dancing like a whirling dervish.

JS: Can you tell me about something you’ve experienced along the way that influenced or changed the way you see the world?

JD: I had my kids really young and we didn’t have a lot of money. We were on social assistance for a period of time out in Victoria, I certainly got used to funny looks from people, and that was really an education for me because for most of my life I’ve lived a very privileged life. So it was a glimpse into an idea of what many people experience on a daily basis, and that’s always stuck with me and I try to remember that and have compassion.

You know, you’ll hear of people who will disparage people on social assistance for like having a great stroller or a car seat. I’ve worked with young mums and I’ve been one myself and I know that their lives are really tough, and I don’t begrudge them those little nice things in their life because I know they have a tough go.

JS: I’d like to confront something head on. You only just joined the campaign in the last few weeks and, because of that, there may be concern that you have not had enough time to really dig in and get to know the brief as well as make in-roads with Peterborough-Kawartha voters. It could be said that you’re not well known enough to win at the moment, so I’d like to give you the chance to make your pitch — why should voters take a chance on you?

JD: I did definitely come in late in the game and that is because we needed an NDP candidate. There wasn’t one and I was approached. I wanted to vote NDP and there wasn’t a candidate, so I stepped up. I’m new to politics; this is not something that I sought out but the job that I’ve been doing for eight years is very similar. I’ve been representing my occasional teacher members for eight years and fighting for them, so labour activism and equity activism is not new to me.

I’m not a flash in the pan — I’m rising to a challenge and accepting a responsibility that somebody needed to take and I’m a quick learner. I’m not new to the values and the issues that the NDP is trying to address in their platform. I’m new to the platform (so) it’s been an accelerated learning curve for sure, but I’m not new to that either. I’m used to getting announcements from the ministry of education and we have to jump and respond and put things into place quickly.

I think it’s fair to say that some people may not know me, but I actually have a surprising number of contacts with really important organizations and community members that even I hadn’t really thought about — until they started reaching out to me to remind me about the impacts I’ve had in this community over the last 30 years.

JS: In addition to wanting to know more about who you are, it was important to me to centre this interview on the concerns of our readers. So we put 11 issues to them, asked them to rank them and also asked them to tell us if we missed anything. They immediately told us it’s nearly impossible to rank interconnected issues, which I completely understand. So, looking at the broad strokes of what we learned, healthcare ranked head and shoulders above every other issue. Readers connected their concern to Bill 124, which limits wage increases for nurses, nurse practitioners, and other health-care professionals. Others suggested mental healthcare should be much more of a priority for the next provincial government.

My observation, and I put this to the other candidates, is that the pandemic has revealed multiple intersecting cracks in the public healthcare system to Ontarians who may not have paid close attention before the pandemic. Do you see it the same way?

JD: Oh, absolutely. It’s no surprise to me to see healthcare at the top of the list. Just as you said, the pandemic shone a light on an already broken system. We in education and healthcare have been screaming for years and it feels like we’ve been screaming into the void. Bill 124 is emblematic of the Doug Ford government: complete disregard for workers, predominantly women and disproportionately women of colour and other equity seeking groups.

I think most people have a deep sense of fairness and justice and to see healthcare workers so disrespected at a time when they have been put on the line — their lives have been put at risk — and they have been working themselves to the bone and to absolute exhaustion and to have them to have a wage freeze that’s effectively a pay cut because it doesn’t even come close to keeping up with inflation, that is insulting to most people on a really deep and fundamental level. We’re for sure talking about nurses but we can’t forget PSWs and technicians and custodians. All of these people deserve a fair wage, and they deserve to bargain fairly.

JS: Climate change/environment was chosen by 20 per cent of respondents as their second ranked issue of concern. We’ve discussed the NDP’s plan in our coverage of the environmental debate at Trent University, so I would ask you to speak to this issue more personally, if you would. Perhaps you could tell us what you’ve observed in your work and how it’s impacted your view of environmental issues.

JD: I think it’s notable that climate ranks as high as it does. I was just at a debate the other day and a comment was made that young people don’t want the climate to be prioritized over their ability to buy a house and my response was, I think you’re mistaken. I think young people, more than anyone, are aware of how critical the climate is to their well-being and it’s just fundamentally important.

We’ve known for decades. I remember (it) from high school. At the time we called it global warming, but the term that makes more sense to me is global weirding where we’re getting these extreme weather events that upset the balance. How can farmers possibly plant when they’re having massive droughts and massive floods that are happening at critical times of the planting season and destroying their crops? Our bee population that we depend on … we largely depend on wild bees to do most of our pollination, and yet we’re managing to kill them off with such disregard.

I know, because I’ve been a teacher, that we are motivated by optimism not pessimism, so you don’t change people’s behaviour by telling them how bad things are. I just think it’s incumbent upon all of us to do our best, like the camp site rule, you should leave the camp site better than you found it. We should be leaving the planet in better shape for our kids than it was when we arrived.

We need to tackle this in many ways and the Green New Democratic Deal will tackle our climate crisis but in doing that it will create hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs. We also want to create a climate youth corps, which will give kids good-paying jobs and give them a post-secondary credit for free and give them experience in the world of restoration or environmental management, which will hopefully spark a love for them of our planet and maybe those kids will go into conservation-themed employment.

JS: Could you discuss the differences between the NDP and the Ford Conservatives? Why should Peterborians take a chance on the NDP? How would you govern differently?

JD: The biggest difference that I see is that throughout all NDP policies, the focus is on equity and on the environment. So whether it’s talking about solutions for healthcare or education, or housing, or even pandemic preparedness, we need to always need to remember that different demographics experience these issues in different ways and to properly plan and respond to needs, we have to bear that in mind.

Equity and the environment are through lines in all of our platforms and that is exactly the opposite of the Ford Government. They come up with quick fixes and they don’t consider, in my opinion, the unintended consequences, or they disregard them. Saving money, for example, by freezing the wages of healthcare workers, education workers, and other predominantly female job classes in the public sector was a quick way to save some money, but it hobbled those workforces in a way that was unfair.

It’s been demoralizing to see how little the Ford government places value on us. It means they don’t really care about (all) kids — they only care about kids who are at private school whose parents can afford to pay for private school and don’t mind that public school kindergarten classes can be packed with 32 kids in them. Or that people are in hallways receiving their healthcare because they can access private healthcare.

JS: What would the NDP do to alleviate the housing crisis even in the short term?

JD: Housing is fundamental, it’s about dignity, it ties up all the cost-of-living bits because for most people their housing costs are one of their biggest expenses.

In the medium to long term, the plan is to build a ton of houses over the next decade. The numbers are in the platform, a quarter of a million of them will be below market rates. That’s going to take a decade. In the meanwhile, there are a wide number of initiatives that the NDP wants to put in place that will take the burden of housing and alleviate it by tackling other huge cost of living items.

Covering dental care, for example, is huge in freeing up people’s resources. Pharmacare — people are forgoing their medicines because of the expense. Insulin and needles will be covered. This is stuff that could have been fixed during the 15 years of Liberal government.

We’re also looking at bringing back rent control. We want to hold bad landlords accountable. We know that many landlords and landowners are ethical, but everybody deserves guardrails in rental and in real estate to bring the cost of housing down.

JS: Education also rated highly with our readers; what would the NDP do differently than the Ford government?

JD: Bill 124 has to go. It’s such a sexist act, it has to go so teachers can bargain fairly. The violent incidents that our education staff are encountering every day is shocking and the reason for that is kids are not getting the mental health supports and just the regulation supports and that early intervention.

If kids have experienced trauma or poverty, or neglect, they’re not developing the kind of social skills that will help them be happy and productive citizens. If we don’t address those needs early on, it gets harder and harder with each passing year because behaviour gets entrenched.

It’s heartbreaking to see that the vast majority of violent incidents that I’m seeing as a union president are coming from kids in kindergarten (and) grade 1 and 2. I’m talking about throwing desks and hitting and punching teachers. These are kids that are in crisis and we do not have the resources to properly help them.

JS: Stephen Lecce [Ontario minister of education] often touts a 420 per cent increase in school mental health investments. Are you saying you’re not seeing the evidence of that investment?

JD: So one of the things the Ford government loves to do is to talk about injections of funding, but they don’t talk about the cuts they’ve already made, and they don’t talk about how that impacts on a per pupil level. The government has really been advertising that they’re putting more money into education. What they fail to say is that it doesn’t even come close to keeping up with the number of pupils that are entering the system.

We are in a moment of expansion. Kids are flooding into the education system, our population dips and rises, and we’re in a period of growth right now, so the funding they say they’re increasing is not keeping up with that. On average the Kawartha Pineridge District School Board is receiving $800 less per student per year than it was a few years ago.

JS: You make a strong point about violence in the classroom and I wonder if there’s a link between that and what our readers told us is one of their biggest concerns, which is the rise of political polarization and increasing levels of violent rhetoric. You were right in the middle of a violent experience when Jagmeet Singh met with you on May 10. Have you had time to reflect on that day and think about what you might do to help confront this issue?

JD: I spent a long time thinking about the day Jagmeet came to visit and I’ve shed my fair share tears about it. I believe that one of the reasons people are mistrusting their government is that their government hasn’t been trustworthy. They make promises and they don’t fulfill them. I also believe people see our government officials speaking about people in a way that disregards and disrespects them.

My fix is to do what I’ve always done, which is I try to model the type of behaviour that I’d like to see. So I give people the benefit of the doubt and I try to engage with them in a respectful way. We need to dig down deep and try to figure out why people do what they do. I think misinformation is on all of us. We rubber neck when people crash but we don’t notice that most people are driving carefully. By spending so much attention on the really tiny proportion of people who are behaving inappropriately, I worry that it creates a permission structure for others.

It makes me uncomfortable, but obviously we just can’t live in a world where our mayor is receiving death threats and where people are afraid to go into politics because it’s going to be dangerous. It’s a concern that I have now.

We need more NDP in government so we can see the supports that people need that right now they’re getting angry about not having. Their anger is misinformed and against their best interests, but it comes from a place of deep hurt and feeling left behind.

Arts and culture was the topic of the night on Thursday (May 26) at the Nexicom Studio at Showplace Performance Centre, as three Peterborough-Kawartha candidates in the June 2nd provincial election took part in Artsvote Ontario 2022, a debate organized by an “ad hoc coalition” of Peterborough arts groups including the Electric City Culture Council (EC3).

There was one candidate notably absent from the arts debate: Conservative incumbent Dave Smith. The coalition had asked Smith to participate in the arts debate, send a proxy, or submit a video message, but he did not respond to any of these offers.

The three candidates who did attend — Jen Deck (NDP), Greg Dempsey (Liberal), and Robert Gibson (Green Party) — dug into how their respective parties would support the arts and culture industry as well as individual artists.

Following a new format, the discussion focused on four questions developed by coalition members, with all three candidates having submitted written responses to each question in advance.

EC3 executive director Sue Ditta kicked off the night with a passionate defence of arts and culture and its value to Peterborough-Kawartha.

“When we look at what arts organizations invest in the community through their budgets, it’s $10 million,” Ditta said. “We use a multiplier established by Statistics Canada, so it’s about $100 million in spin-off investments.”

Moderators Nadine Changfoot (Trent University), Steve Guthrie (formerly of CHEX News), Sarah Lewis (Peterborough’s poet laureate), and Ziysah von Bieberstein (poet) each took to the podium to ask one of the questions for the benefit of viewers (along with follow-up questions).

Asked about how a Liberal government would support the ongoing COVID-19 recovery efforts of arts organizations, Greg Dempsey began his first answer by confronting the absence in the room.

“I do want to say that I am disappointed that our MPP (Dave Smith) is not here to talk to us tonight,” Dempsey said. “I have seen reports in the media that his party has deliberately told candidates not to show up to local community debates like this one. This is the job interview, and I think it does a disservice to our democracy to not show up and to tell you about his plans for the arts community in Peterborough-Kawartha.”

With Smith’s absence noted, each candidate ran through his or her platform.

On COVID-19 recovery, Deck said the NDP “will help get artists, performers, and arts and culture workers onto more solid ground, so they can build their best life.”

“We will enact a COVID-19 arts and culture recovery strategy, including operating and marketing stabilization funds, emergency grants, and tax credits to cover PPE and retrofitting costs. We will direct support to artists, live entertainment workers, and cultural workers to keep them afloat.”

Dempsey said the Liberals will “invest $50 million to build, purchase or refurbish performing arts studios, visual arts galleries, and event spaces,” adding the Liberals will ensure “more spaces to feature work from Black, Indigenous, and other artists of colour.”

“We will also introduce a living wage, a universal basic income demonstration, and portable benefits that will cover the cost of prescription medicines, mental healthcare, dental care and vision care,” Dempsey added.

The Green Party, according to Gibson, will “develop a program of portable extended health benefits for workers in the gig economy that is tied to the employee even if they were to change employment. As well, the Greens will develop a universal basic income starting with doubling ODSP and Ontario Works.”

As for his party’s commitment to fund artists and arts organizations in Ontario after the cuts of the Conservative government, Dempsey said he is “committed to reversing all of those cuts to all of those organizations.”

“The previous Liberal government spent a considerable amount of time and effort to develop a comprehensive Ontario culture strategy back in 2016,” Dempsey added. “While they made some progress to advance its full implementation, progress stalled over the last four years. A new Ontario Liberal government will ensure that we finish its full implementation.”

Deck said the NDP is committed to stable funding for the arts.

“The NDP will create a provincial arts strategy that centres artists and supports arts, culture, and heritage community-based institutions committed to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusions, and assessing needs through measurable outcomes and we will increase funding to the Ontario Arts Council.”

Gibson said, “The Green Party will restore investments in the Ontario Arts Council and the Ontario Trillium Foundation worth $25 million. There is also funding to protect the natural environment that is Indigenous led. The Green party is also committed to all recommendations under the Murdered and Missing Women and Girls Inquiry and other calls to action.”

All three parties agreed to re-establish the Indigenous Culture Fund, cut by the Ford government. The Greens would fund it to $5 million, and the Liberals and NDP would restore its previous $10 million budget.

Asked about advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion for marginalized and racialized artists, including BIPOC — particularly Indigenous artists — and 2SLGBTQ+ artists, each candidate spoke movingly about their commitments.

“I cannot wait to make sure that their voice is my voice,” Dempsey said. “I’ve made my career in social justice and human rights works and we know that arts can be an incredible force for good and acceptance and positivity. We have a plan to set aside $5 million for organizations that represent black voices and $20 million for 2SLGBTQ+ organizations.”

Gibson noted that “this land has been stolen from Indigenous peoples, so it’s important to empower Indigenous-led efforts and to strengthen relationships with Indigenous nations.”

“Representation matters,” Deck said. “To properly address this, we need to start from the ground up. Education is underfunded and school is where children first explore art. They first interact with educators with artistic skills and talents. We know that when we cut education one of the first things that gets cut is arts education.”

“Putting commitment into arts and culture is of course valid,” Deck added. “It’s a moneymaker. It’s a job generator. It has all of these tangible benefits, but I really truly believe that we will not find our peace until we give children the ability to live and grow in a place that’s safe, and in a place that’s welcoming and affirming. We need to have different lived experiences in our decision-making capacities.”

When asked if they would actively advocate for programs and funding that increase appropriate capital funding and support expansion of digital capacities and other rural specific infrastructure needs, Dempsey reiterated his commitment to being a partner with the Peterborough-Kawartha arts community and Gibson reiterated cost of living mitigation strategies.

Deck spoke specifically about investing in rural infrastructure: transportation, healthcare, and schools.

“We want to double the northern and rural community fund,” she said. “We still have insufficient broadband, so if we want our artists to work in small communities, we need to provide them with stable and reliable broadband. We’ve had 20 years of promises about bringing rural broadband and we still don’t have it. The NDP is very much committed to doing that — that is an equity item and we really discovered that two years ago during the first (pandemic) shutdown.”

The night ended with powerful performances by Peterborough’s first poet laureate Sarah Lewis and poet Ziysah von Bieberstein.

Lewis started by saying, “art saved my life, as a marginalized person, as an Indigenous women, our voices have been silenced historically, and continue to be silenced. When we’re offered a stage, it not only empowers us but it speaks our truth and potentially changes behaviour.”

She then offered a moving rendition of her poem called “More than a Poem,” about the legacy of colonialism and turning the pain of addiction and identity loss into the power of activism, cultural resurrection, and decolonization.

Von Bierberstein followed by first speaking about how “the role of art is to look at things differently, to create the space for transformation.”

They then performed their poem “Stop the Cuts,” that asks us all to dream bigger than simply asking that governments stop cutting services and actually set about the hard, imaginative work of creating the world we want.

“Let’s do better”, they urged. “We will do better.”

The City of Peterborough is opening a temporary drop-off site for residents who need to dispose of green waste resulting from the Victoria Day weekend storm.

The drop-off site at 425 Kennedy Road will open Saturday (May 28) and remain open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily until further notice.

Residents can bring trees, branches, leaves, and brush and dispose of them with no fees.

Regular green waste, including grass clippings and garden waste such as weeds, will not be accepted at the temporary drop-off site. Residents can dispose of regular green waste, as well as branches and brush, during the weekly curbside green waste collection. All brush and branches must be tied in bundles up to one metre (three feet) in length and 30 centimetres (12 inches) in diameter, weighing no more than 23 kilograms (50 pounds).

The city also accepts green waste at the Bensfort landfill at a fee of $7 for 100 kilograms or less of material, or for $95 per tonne for the entire load.

To access the temporary green waste drop-off site at 425 Kennedy Road, residents are asked to enter from River Road South as Highway 115 is reduced to one lane in the area next to the location.

There may be wait times at the temporary green waste drop-off site depending on traffic volume.