Donna Rogers received some very good news just before a media event on Thursday (May 26) to announce the pending opening of Peterborough’s new Consumption and Treatment Services site (CTS), located at the Opioid Response Hub at 220 Simcoe Street in downtown Peterborough.

The executive director of Four Counties Addiction Services Team (Fourcast), the lead agency for the CTS, received a message from Health Canada giving the green light for the CTS to open in mid-June as planned.

“Your request for an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to operate a supervised consumption site at the Peterborough CTS safe consumption site has been granted pursuant to section 51.1 of the CDSA and is valid for a period of up to three years,” Rogers said, reading the message from Health Canada to local media, who had been invited to tour the CTS prior to its public opening.

VIDEO: Donna Rogers reads Health Canada exemption approval for Peterborough’s CTS

Fourcast and the other agencies involved in the CTS — Peterborough City-County Paramedics, Peterborough 360 Degree Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic, Peterborough Public Health, and PARN – Your Community AIDS Resource Network — weren’t expecting to hear from Health Canada until next week, following a site inspection on May 16 that was the final stage of the approval process.

While the Opioid Response Hub at 220 Simcoe has already been already offering supports to people who use drugs, Health Canada’s approval permits the supervised use of illegal substances in the CTS.

“From the day of the CTS funding announcement to the Health Canada final inspection, we actually had 55 working days to get us to this point,” Rogers said. “It took an army of enthusiastic and compassionate people to arrive at this outcome. Fourcast staff, community partners and others combined to procure everything from steel tables (for the CTS’s three consumption booths) — that had to have their legs cut in order to fit the size — to soap dispensers. We also had to hire a staff team who will work at the CTS.”

Rogers thanked the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough (CFGP) for their support of last year’s ‘Light The Way To $160K’ campaign that raised funds to renovate the former Greyhound bus terminal at 220 Simcoe Street so it could be used as an Opioid Response Hub, including the CTS.

“If not for the generosity of donors, we would not have been optimally prepared to move forward immediately following the funding decision,” Rogers said, referring to the province’s decision in February to approve $1.3 million in funding for the CTS — a decision the partner agencies in the CTS had been waiting for since late 2020. “The CFGP leadership and support allowed us to move forward and transform a bus station into a usable CTS site.”

Rogers also acknowledged the work of Kevin Mooney Construction — “an incredibly valuable partner” — for their efforts in accommodating “our very ambitious renovation timeline” during a time of supply and labour shortages caused by the pandemic.

Rogers had special praise for Kevin MacDonald, the owner of 220 Simcoe Street.

“Kevin said yes to being a landlord to a CTS — he bought this building and leased it to us for this purpose,” Rogers said. “He has stayed quietly in the background, applauding our progress. Today, I applaud Kevin for giving our community the opportunity to reach this milestone.”

The CTS will have a “soft opening” on Monday, June 13th. During the first week, it will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hours will then expand to 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with further expansion as the service is established and the demand for the service and needs of users is evaluated.

“The CTS will be part of a broader system response to the opioid crisis in our community,” Rogers said. “The CTS will afford service users another option where they can reduce the harms from using the toxic street drug supply.”

Rogers added the CTS will complement other harm reduction services offered in the community, including the Safer Supply Program offered by the Peterborough 360 Degree Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic and PARN’s Harm Reduction Works program that helps distribute sterile drug-using equipment and provides overdose prevention training and Naloxone distribution.

Kerri Kightley, program manager of the CTS, took media on a tour of the Opioid Response Hub including the CTS. The public is also invited to tour the site and ask questions from 5 to 7 p.m. on Monday, May 30th and Tuesday, May 31st (as the Opioid Response Hub is already offering support to people who use drugs, drop-in visits are not possible to respect their privacy).

“An individual would come through the door and indicate that want to see somebody from the Mobile Support Overdose Resource Team or wanted to engage with Harm Reduction Works services or wanted to use the CTS,” Kightley explained. “Based on that, we would funnel them to the right service.”

The Opioid Response Hub includes an assessment room where staff from partner agencies can have discussions with clients and connect them with appropriate services.

“The assessment room is the shared space that we will continue to leave open for our community partners,” Kightley said.

Located beside the assessment room is the office of the Mobile Support Overdose Resource Team (MSORT), a team of eight people including one paramedic, addictions specialists, and harm reduction specialists who connect with people who have had a recent overdose or are at risk of an overdose.

Next to the MSORT office is the workspace for PARN’s Harm Reduction Works, a long-standing program that helps to distribute harm reduction equipment to the community.

“People can come here of every walk of life and meet with PARN and be able to access drug-use equipment, personal care supplies, condoms, snacks and water, (and) Naloxone,” Kightley said.

The CTS includes an intake space where people can meet with a harm reduction specialist, indicate what substance they are at the CTS to use, and get the equipment they need to prepare and use their drugs.

“You don’t need to provide any identification,” Kightley explained. “You don’t need to provide your first and last name, your date of birth, and a whole bunch of information. It’s very anonymous. We’re using a unique identifier for each person who comes through the door. There’s a lot of anonymity that’s built into this space and there’s a lot of safety about being able to come here and not be identified.”

At that point, the person would be assigned one of the three consumption booths in the CTS, including an accessible booth for people with mobility issues, to use their substances — supervised by a paramedic.

The Health Canada exemption for the Peterborough CTS allows users to consume drugs through injection, orally, or intranasally. Inhalation of drugs through smoking or vaping is currently not permitted due to provincial health regulations.

“We’ve very specifically designed these booths so there is a really great line of sight for our paramedic who will be on site,” Kightley explained. Each booth has a mirror so the paramedic can observe people as they prepare and consume their substances, as well as biohazard bin where the person can discard used equipment.

A key feature of the CTS is a medical room staffed with a registered nurse from the 360 Degree Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic.

“It isn’t common for the provincial government to fund a full-time registered nurse for a CTS, so we’re super pleased that was included in our funding,” Kightley said. “For 35 hours per week, we have a trained medical professional on site who can look at some of the primary care pieces that individuals who are service users are bringing forward.”

“In our community we see a lot of wound care issues — a lot of untreated physical health and mental health issues — and we know that RN will be pivotal in being able to navigate some of the health services and being to connect people to the primary care services they need.”

The medical room contains a treatment bed, a mobile workstation, medical supplies, and a handwashing sink.

“Really this is a mini clinic where we’re able to offer some supports,” Kightley said.

After people at the CTS consume their drugs, they are welcome (but not required) to stay in a small and open waiting area to see what the affect is on their body.

“Folks can sit down, have a coffee, connect with our staff, be monitored by the paramedic or the nurse on site, and our harm reduction specialists,” Kightley said.

Kightley noted the CTS is a relatively small space with the Opioid Response Hub.

“We will pretty respectful of the privacy of the individuals that are here, and try and create the CTS as a warm bubble within this larger hub of services,” Kightley said.

The Canadian Canoe Museum on Monaghan Road in Peterborough remains temporarily closed due to damage sustained during the May 21, 2022 derecho storm.

The museum was original expecting to reopen on Saturday (June 4), but repairs to one section of the museum’s roof still need to be completed.

“Out of an abundance of caution and to ensure a positive visitor experience, sadly, the museum will remain closed until this work is complete,” writes Carolyn Hyslop, the museum’s executive director, in an email.

On May 27, the museum announced it was temporarily closed due to significant damage from the storm.

“If you’ve driven or wandered by the museum these past few days, you may have witnessed some of the damage we sustained during the severe thunderstorm that affected Peterborough and the surrounding areas last Saturday,” Hyslop wrote in an email at the time. “The large spruce trees on our front lawn, uprooted and leaning; our colourful, welcome signage ripped clear off the building or left dangling; and roof and fascia debris strewn all over the parking lot.”

While there were no injuries to staff, volunteers, or visitors, Hyslop addded the severe winds caused significant damage to the museum’s roof and collections centre. The winds tore large swaths of the protective membrane from the roof, some of which landed in the parking lot. The loss of parts of the membrane led to rain and moisture entering the museum’s galleries, soaking and affecting a few different areas.

Many windows in the collection centre, which houses most of the museum’s collection of watercraft, were either damaged or blown out, resulting in glass and debris in the collection centre.

“We are happy to report that the watercraft collection is safe and has suffered no damage,” Hyslop writes.

The museum does not yet have a reopening date, but will share an update on its website and social media accounts when the museum can reopen with summer hours (10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday).

This is the final summer for the museum at its Monaghan Road location, as construction proceeds on the new museum on Ashburnham Drive beside Beavermead Park. The construction site did not suffer any severe damage during the storm, aside from a downed construction fence that has since been restored.

However, the storm did damage many trees on the property and along the Trans Canada Trail.

“Our team has done a preliminary sweep to take care of the trees that will impact the public’s use of the trail, and once more of the higher priority areas of the city and county are dealt with by our arborists, we will have our trees safely removed,” Hyslop wrote on May 27.

This story has been updated with the most recent information from the museum.

Sustainable Peterborough — a community-based regional partnership comprised of community groups, businesses, educational institutions, local governments, and First Nations — evolved out of an informal group of individuals and organizations who started meeting at the dawn of the new millennium under the name of Sustainability Network.

Their work led to the creation of the Sustainable Peterborough Plan. In the spring of 2012 the City of Peterborough, Peterborough County and its eight townships, and the two local First Nations adopted the Greater Peterborough Area Community Sustainability Plan.

Sustainable Peterborough is overseen by the Sustainable Peterborough Coordinating Committee. Components of the original plan have been incorporated into official plans, and influenced transportation plans, energy plans, cultural plans, economic development and tourism strategies, age-friendly plans, strategic plans, and the City of Peterborough’s Community Wellbeing Plan.

Sustainable Peterborough has assisted in securing over $1 million in external funding for projects such as the Healthy Kids Community Challenge and the Climate Change Action Plan for the Greater Peterborough Area, whose overall objective is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and the use of fossil fuels, lower our energy consumption, and adapt to our changing climate.

Sustainable Peterborough is proud to have worked with over 170 partner organizations, institutions, businesses, local governments, and First Nations to advance local sustainability. To showcase our collective successes, our annual report card was developed and from 2012 to 2018 highlighted some of the countless sustainable accomplishments of our community partners. This report card was cherished in the greater Peterborough area. Each spring from 2016 to 2019 we also celebrated our partners’ commitment to sustainability by hosting the popular Sustainable Peterborough Partnership Recognition Awards.

Since 2012 our community has changed and evolved, as have the definitions of sustainability and related local programs and initiatives. This led to a much-needed review and refresh of Sustainable Peterborough, which has spent the last couple of years conducting an extensive organizational review, including a governance and plan review. This comprehensive work facilitated many insightful conversations and led to the decision that the new Sustainable Peterborough Plan should focus on helping the community implement and track progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDG framework has become a recognized tool for advancing sustainability in the greater Peterborough area. Communities in Ontario and across Canada are working on localizing the SDGs. The SDGs have become a globally recognized framework for measuring progress towards sustainability. Benefits of using the SDG framework include the use of shared language and goal setting for sustainability across many communities globally and locally and access to tools to track and visualize progress towards the goals.

Using the SDG framework provides an opportunity for Sustainable Peterborough to continue the vital SDG work conducted through the 2019-2021 Community Forum led by Kawartha World Issues Centre and GreenUP. It also provides an opportunity to use long-standing community connections and partnerships to build on the significant local interest in sustainability, raise awareness of the SDGs, and incorporate best practices from other communities.

Our newly launched Strategic Plan 2021-2031 was recently approved by the Sustainable Peterborough Coordinating Committee and the Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED) Board of Directors. It provides a glimpse into our history and accomplishments, our governance structure, and the vision and mission for our path forward as we focus on starting to accomplish the objectives listed therein.

PDF: Sustainable Peterborough Strategic Plan 2021-2031
Sustainable Peterborough Strategic Plan 2021-2031

The SDG framework also aligns Sustainable Peterborough’s new strategic plan and PKED’s Future Ready Regional Economic Development Strategy. The Future Ready strategy identifies five SDGs as priorities for the region to achieve the vision of seeing Peterborough & the Kawarthas become the most sustainable and innovative community and economy in Ontario.

Sustainable Peterborough has been operating under the auspices of PKED since its inception in 2012, and the recent governance review has led to the mutually supported decision that this relationship continue. The partners are looking forward to further solidifying the relationship and having improved alignment through the mutual vision of advancing priority SDGs in Peterborough & the Kawarthas.

“On behalf of the Sustainable Peterborough Coordinating Committee, we are excited to work towards Sustainable Peterborough’s new mission of supporting, measuring, celebrating, and facilitating collective action among local governments, businesses, institutions, and organizations to annually track and measure progress towards achieving targets related to priority Sustainable Development Goals,” stated Karen Jopling (representing Peterborough County) and Michael Papadacos (representing the City of Peterborough), who are co-chairs of the Sustainable Peterborough Coordinating Committee.

For more information and to follow Sustainable Peterborough as we embark on this new and exciting SDG tracking and advancing journey, please visit our website at sustainablepeterborough.ca, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath visited Peterborough early Wednesday afternoon (May 23) to survey some of the damage caused by Saturday’s devastating wind storm.

Mayor Diane Therrien and Peterborough-Kawartha NDP candidate Jen Deck joined Horwath for a walk around a neighbourhood in East City, surrounded by local media.

Horwath called on the province to provide urgent support and relief to Peterborough and other communities that have been hit particularly hard by the storm.

Hours before Horwath’s visit, Therrien announced the City of Peterborough was declaring a state of emergency as a result of the storm. The declaration makes the municipality eligible for any provincial financial assistance with extraordinary costs associated with emergency response and repairs to essential property and infrastructure following a natural disaster.

Before coming to Peterborough, Horwath was in Etobicoke to announce her plan to ensure young people and students get access to the mental health care they need, when they need it.

After her Peterborough visit, she headed to Belleville where she will meet with local volunteers and supporters.

Greg Dempsey has the air of a favourite teacher or coach. In conversation, he leans his head down or to the side as though trying to get closer to whomever he’s speaking with. He’s tall after all. He looks you in the eye, and listens, very carefully.

I’ve watched Greg interact with constituents at his rain-soaked campaign launch, I’ve listened to him debate, and I’ve paid attention to his Tweets.

When I spoke to him via Zoom recently, he was exactly what I’d come to expect — engaged, thoughtful, and bright.

Born and raised in Peterborough, Dempsey left town after graduating high school in 1999 and went on to earn four degrees from three universities. A trained lawyer, Dempsey decided to eschew the glamorous grind of corporate law and instead opted for a career of service with Global Affairs Canada, the arm of the federal government that manages diplomatic relations, promotes international trade, and provides consular support.

Over the course of the next 14 years, Dempsey was sent to work in Afghanistan, New York, and Ottawa. He tells me he came back to his hometown at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic because his life in Ottawa had come to a standstill.

On his own, and with out-of-country assignments on indefinite pause, Dempsey called his mother.

“Canada has seen fit to send me to a lot of really interesting places to do a lot of really important things, and then there I was in my empty apartment by myself,” he says. “So I called up my family and said okay, it’s time to be back in Peterborough. If I can do my job from Peterborough then let’s do that, so that’s why I decided to come back.”

I wanted to get a better understanding of who Greg Dempsey is, what he’s passionate about, who influenced him growing up, and why he decided to run for public office. It was also important for me to be sure to centre the concerns of kawarthaNOW readers in my questions about party policy.

In order to get a sense of what’s on your minds, we published a poll that asked you to rank 11 issues of concern, as well as to tell me 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’re a human rights lawyer who has worked for Global Affairs Canada, serving in Kabul, Afghanistan, the United Nations, and the Privy Council Office. Aside from Human Rights Work, what else are you passionate about?

Greg Dempsey: There was a real turning point in my career when I was in Afghanistan I would say. I’ve always been interested in that country — I was interested in the sacrifice that Canadian forces troops had made there, and I really thought that Canada still needed to have a voice in Afghanistan.

One of the jobs that I got to do there was run the “Canada Fund for Local Initiatives” which is a small program we have in each of our embassies abroad in developing countries to help local organizations with different things.

My very favourite was working with an organization called “Free to Run”, which helped get girls involved with sports and especially in running because in Afghanistan the girls can’t openly participate in sports — it’s too looked down upon. So they would help find locations where they could just go out and play soccer, or just go on a run. It was a tiny little organization, and we got to help them directly.

I actually went up to Bamiyan Province to see one of their projects and that really made a huge impact on me because at the UN we worked on these huge issues that were very important but we were like beyond 10,000 feet on all of the issues, right? But here I was in Afghanistan with this tiny little organization that was really making an impact in girls’ lives and I got to meet some of the girls that were actually impacted by the work of that organization, and I think that was the moment where I recognized that this was some of the work that I wanted to do.

So, when the opportunity came up to run for provincial office, you know the province, I think, has the most direct impact on people’s lives. Municipal government has a similar impact but, if you’re choosing between federal and provincial, the provincial government really is in people’s lives more than the federal government.

JS: You’ve talked a lot about the influence your parents and grandmother have had on you. I’ve even heard you mention a well-known local science educator, Drew Monkman, as an important influence. Who else has had a profound impact on you and why?

GD: People ask me why I decided to run for the Liberal Party of Ontario and the very short answer to that question is Peter Adams. I went to high school during the Mike Harris years, and I remember I was in my grade nine social science class. It was the day after the 1995 provincial election, and we were talking about the election of Mike Harris as premier and whether or not that was going to matter. (It) turns out — spoiler alert — it did matter a lot.

Both of my parents were teachers and then we were out on the picket lines and I walked the picket line with my teachers and my mom, and Peter Adams came out to say hi and to chat with folks and express his support. Later, I got to canvass with Peter Adams, and he was just an incredibly lovely, caring politician. So from that point on, I kind of thought of myself as a Liberal.

JS: Is there an artist/musician/filmmaker/comedian whose work has informed your worldview?

GD: I do enjoy the odd Taylor Swift song. I’m little bit of a Swifty — she writes great songs! The band that I grew up listening to is called Travis and the lead singer of Travis [Fran Healy] is a great advocate for rights and social justice. I also love Metric; I’ve seen them five or six times. That was the last concert I went to in fall 2019. I miss going to concerts; I can’t wait to get to go do that again.

JS: In addition to wanting to know more about who you are, I wanted to centre this interview on the concerns of our readers. So we published a poll that put 11 issues to them and asked them to rank them. We also asked them to tell us if we missed anything. One observation I would make straight away is that our readers had trouble ranking what many said are co-equal, interconnected issues. So accepting upfront that our methodology is flawed, I’d like to take you through the results.

The number one issue of concern to 27 per cent of survey respondents is healthcare. Several respondents link their healthcare concerns to Bill 124, which limits wage increases for nurses, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare professionals. Others suggested mental healthcare should be much more of a priority for the next provincial government.

My observation 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 think that’s a fair characterization of the concern and can you briefly outline the Liberal plan and connect it to your own point of view and skill set?

GD: I agree completely. There have been cracks showing in our healthcare system going back governments. We have the basis for an amazing system but, yes, a lot of cracks are showing. I will say that the very first thing that we will do will be to repeal the wage capping Bill 124. I think it’s a matter of fairness when we see inflation (rising) and we see the incredible work that healthcare workers have done — nurses and PSWs, and administration staff and everybody in our hospitals and our healthcare centres and our long-term care facilities. We need to pay them fairly.

When I talk to people in Peterborough (the issue) they’re most worried about is access to a family doctor. We need and deserve an MPP that is going to be willing and eager to make those tough phone calls and lobby on our behalf.

You’ll notice that when I asked our current MPP why it took so long to get a supervised consumption and treatment site in Peterborough, he blamed Dr. Piggott for that. I do not think that is fair — I mean, you’re the MPP (so) you should be accountable for how long things take. I want to make sure we get a community health centre in as quickly as possible.

JS: Climate change/environment was chosen by 21 per cent of respondents as their second ranked issue of concern. We covered the Liberal plan fairly extensively in our coverage of the environmental debate. Could you talk about this issue from a more personal perspective and outline the ways in which you think you can be helpful in pushing this issue forward.

GD: I’ve spoken to a lot of people between the ages of 16 and 25 and climate change is by far their top issue and they are feeling depressed about the progress that we are not making and what the world will become because of our overuse of fossil fuels and the massive amounts of carbon that we continue to pump into the air.

I was incredibly lucky that Drew Monkman was my grade four teacher, and almost every lesson in his class was infused with an environmental lesson and we created a community garden at the back of the school, and we would talk about Earth Day in a way that I did not get previously or subsequently and that just had a really big impact on the way that I looked at the world. It is the singular issue that the Doug Ford conservative government is handling so incredibly poorly.

They are doing a disservice to us, They are doing a disservice to future generations and Ontario can be a leader on these climate issues. I’ve studied international climate change law; I know people look to Ontario and they look to Canada for leadership.

The one thing about the previous Liberal government I’m most proud of is the cancellation of all of the coal-fired power plants. The removal of them from our electricity grid was the single best decision, I think, by a provincial government in the history of Canada to deal with climate and pollution. It was absolutely a game-changer. I do not think there is any way for us to take the emergency too seriously. We need to be leaders on this, and it’s quite frankly one of the reasons why I’m running in the election for the Ontario Liberal Party.

JS: Housing was chosen by 16 per cent of respondents as their third ranked issue of concern. House prices have skyrocketed, rents are tipping over into being flatly unaffordable. I’ve personally seen family’s take to Facebook Marketplace practically begging for someone to offer them an affordable place to live. How will a Liberal government respond to this crisis and effect meaningful change reasonably quickly?

GD: It’s a really, really big challenge. I think we need to be absolutely focusing on affordable places to live and that requires partnering with the municipalities, partnering with developers, but also partnering with housing advocates. There’s been a lot of incredible work in the community, like Peterborough Action for Tiny Homes, and the Mount Community Centre is an absolute beacon of incredible work to help people find rent geared to income housing, but it is an absolute crisis in our community.

I’m really proud of our plan that is going to get the province of Ontario back in the business of building housing. The Conservative plan basically gives all of the power over to developers; it punishes municipalities for actually taking the time to do an environmental review, or by-law review, or a review of the Indigenous rights implications of a development. It’s a plan to build million-dollar homes for people who don’t live in Peterborough and will do absolutely zero to fix the housing crisis for the people who need it.

We will create a new Ontario corporation to deal with housing. The houses it builds will only go to first-time home buyers, not foreign buyers, and not to people who are flipping houses. We also need help with by-law reviews to look at properties in the city and county of Peterborough that could be better used. Our plan looks at strip malls that are not being used, changing by-laws around allowing things like lane-way houses (and) turning a single-family home into a duplex or triplex.

This will be the choice for people in Peterborough-Kawartha. Do we want to build more million-dollar houses that will pave over our farmland or do we want to build denser homes that are small, affordable, safe, and convenient for people who need to get into the housing market who are under-housed or housing insecure who just want a place to live?

JS: Several people linked the housing crisis to the low rate of ODSP and the general rise in poverty in our community. How do you answer those who say the Liberal plan to raise the ODSP rate by 20 per cent doesn’t go far enough? One person told us they spend 89 per cent of their benefit on rent and can barely survive on the 11 per cent leftover. How do you answer their genuine concerns and feelings of hopelessness?

GD: It is just completely unacceptable what we’re giving people on ODSP. Our platform is fully costed. People know we will deliver these rate increases, but what I have been thinking about really is that the ODSP system as a whole is broken. It’s why I’m so excited that we’re going to bring back the basic income pilot because I think that bringing in basic income at a rate that is going to allow everyone to live in dignity, not just those who are on ODSP but indeed everyone. That’s going to be a complete game changer for this province.

It’s going to change how we do social assistance completely. I believe it’s going to save the province a whole bunch of money in emergency room visits, in shelter beds, in food back visits … just general health indicators. I think it has the opportunity to an amazing amount of good — much more good than raising the rates of ODSP by a certain amount would ever be able to do.

So in the short term, we will be raising the rate by 20 per cent over two years. I believe that government can do, when done well, such amazing good in people’s lives. We should be looking for big changing policies and that’s why I’ve run my entire campaign on restoring the basic income pilot.

JS: Finally, quite a number of community members told us they’re alarmed and fearful of the rise in political polarization, especially within the context of Jagmeet Singh’s visit to Peterborough on May 10. They want to know what you will do, if elected to represent Peterborough-Kawartha, to help ease seemingly intractable, and increasingly hate-fuelled, polarization.

GD: What happened in Peterborough on May 10 was wholly unacceptable. I believe that we have to confront hate and not let it grow deeper roots in our communities.

I am absolutely committed to working together, alongside all leaders in our community, to come together to speak with one voice and condemn the words, actions, and behaviours on display that day. This hate has no place in our community. That work requires building positive working relationships across the political divides with all elected officials. I reached out to every elected official in Peterborough-Kawartha following my nomination. We hosted dozens of great discussions and have already started the work of bringing people together.

My education and career demonstrate that I have the skills to build that collaboration, something that is currently lacking from our current MPP. I’m looking forward to taking up this important challenge once I’m elected on June 2.

The City of Peterborough has joined other communities in central Ontario by declaring a state of emergency in response to the severe wind storm on the Victoria Day weekend.

On Wednesday morning (May 25), Mayor Diane Therrien announced she and the city’s emergency management team had submitted a declaration of a state of emergency to the Ontario government.

Other communities that have already declared states of emergency include Uxbridge in Durham Region, communities in the Ottawa area, and North Kawartha and Douro-Dummer Townships in Peterborough County.

Municipalities can declare states of emergency under Ontario’s Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, making them eligible for any provincial financial assistance with extraordinary costs associated with emergency response and repairs to essential property and infrastructure following a natural disaster.

As of Wednesday morning, Hydro One reports almost 100,000 customers across Ontario remain without power due to the storm, which resulted in over 1,600 broken poles, 200 damaged transformers, and 1,000 kilometres of downed power lines.

While power was restored to most of Peterborough by Tuesday night, a Hydro One spokesperson told CBC Ontario Morning 28,000 customers in the Peterborough area still have no power as of Wednesday morning. Restoration is expected to be completed by Wednesday night.

Update: yesterday the emergency Management team and I submitted declaration of state of emergency to the province. @HydroOne crews continue to work to restore power. For updates and city services available, check https://t.co/3x2Fd2L53F

— Diane Therrien (@DianeNTherrien) May 25, 2022

Four Peterborough women competed at the 2022 Speedo Canadian Masters Swimming Championships in Quebec City on the Victoria Day long weekend, collectively taking home eight medals and eight ribbons.

Stephanie Dancey, Renee Oake, Amanda Devlin, and Debbie Murphy Quinlan — representing the Trent Torpedoes Masters of the Trent Swim Club — competed in a total of 19 races at Laval University.

This was the first Canadian Masters Swimming Championships held since the pandemic, which also made training difficult for the four women. Despite on and off pool closures over the past three years, the women continued to train at the Peterborough YMCA.

As well as swimming in individual competitions, the women come together for their first time as a relay team, winning a bronze medal in the 50-metre relay.

For Stephanie Dancey, who joined Masters swimming later in life, this was her 13th swim meet in the past seven years and her second time competing nationally.

Amanda Devlin, a former Trent Torpedoes competitive swimmer, competed in her second National Masters race in over 26 years.

Renee Oake, also former Trent Torpedo competitive swimmer, returned to competition after 28 years, winning medals in a number of events.

Debbie Murphy Quinlan, who competed for the first time since the World’s 37 years ago, won a silver medal in the 1,500-metre freestyle race.