On a cool and rainy Tuesday evening (May 3) in Lakefield’s Isabel Morris Park, a large crowd of enthusiastic supporters cheered on Ontario Liberal candidate Greg Dempsey as he officially launched his campaign to become the next MPP for Peterborough-Kawartha — with Liberal leader Steven Del Duca making a previously unannounced appearance.

“Tonight is about the choices that we are going to make,” Dempsey said. “We deserve better action on climate. We deserve a health care system that works for us. We deserve an education system that isn’t suffering through $1.3 billion in cuts from this government. We deserve a better, more caring provincial government.”

Dempsey grew up in Peterborough, graduating from the French immersion program at Adam Scott CVI in 1999. He went on to earn two degrees from Bishops University (computer science and economics), a law degree from the University of Victoria and an master’s degree in International Human Rights Law from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

“I pictured myself as a high-powered, high-flying corporate attorney on Bay Street, and in the first year of my law degree my grandmother passed away,” Dempsey said, his voice cracking. “That year, my first year at law school was the hardest year of my life. It made me re-evaluate my own priorities about what I wanted to do with this one life that I have, so I decided I was going to serve.”

After a career working for Global Affairs Canada, with postings at the UN and Canada’s Embassy in Kabul, Dempsey revealed it was the pandemic that brought him home to Peterborough-Kawartha.

“As the pandemic got worse I knew that I needed to be at home, because Peterborough-Kawartha is my home,” he said. “It’s where my heart is, it’s where my family is.”

It was at that point that Dempsey asked his supporters to leave the relative comfort of the park’s pergola to brave the rain and offer “an amazing Peterborough-Kawartha welcome” to Liberal leader Steven Del Duca, who had pulled into the Lakefield community centre parking lot later than expected.

A clearly energized Del Duca began by focusing his remarks on the broad strokes of the Liberal platform — action on climate change, funding for public education and healthcare, and support for “mom and pop” small retailers rather than “big box stores” — framing the election as a choice between a “chaotic”, “flip-flopping” Conservative government that only looks out for the very rich while leaving everyone else behind, and a Liberal government who will “do the right thing” and invest in the public services Ontarians rightly rely on.

Del Duca’s more specific policy announcements included:

• Investing $4.4 billion of “new money” over four years in community-based home care, which will benefit a claimed 400,000 seniors.
• Ending for-profit long-term elder care in Ontario in favour of smaller settings of up to 10 people living together in a supportive “home-like” environment with a personal support worker or a nurse 24/7.
• Promising to “kill highway 413 once and for all.” Del Duca said, if elected, the Liberals will take the $10 billion earmarked for the highway and invest those dollars in school repairs as well as building new schools.
• Moving beyond a minimum wage and developing Ontario’s first-ever “living wage.”
• Cancelling corporate income taxes for Ontario’s worst-hit small businesses for two years after the election.
• Eliminating the HST on prepared foods up to $20.
• Promising “buck-a-ride province wide” with all transit rides across the province only costing $1 From the election until January 2024.

After listing the Liberal’s most eye-catching campaign promises, Del Duca pointed to the energized crowd of more than 200 people who came out to support Greg Dempsey in the pouring rain and said “[they’re here] because [he’s] so passionate and so dedicated to this community.”

“It’s time for positive change,” Del Duca added. “(People are) tired of the chaos, they’re tired of the cuts, they’re tired of being dragged backwards. They want optimism, they want determination, and the new Ontario Liberal team is going to deliver that.”

The 2022 provincial election will be held on Thursday, June 2nd. Along with Dempsey, there are five other candidates for the Peterborough-Kawartha riding: incumbent Dave Smith of the Conservatives, Jen Deck of the NDP, Robert Gibson of the Green Party of Ontario, Tom Marazzo of the Ontario Party, and Dylan Smith of the None Of The Above Party.

A plant nursery, located on Alderville First Nation south of Rice Lake, is helping to restore Ontario’s endangered grassland ecosystems while also growing traditional food and medicines for members of the local Indigenous community.

The Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery is part of the Alderville Black Oak Savanna, the largest intact tract of native grassland within the Rice Lake Plains and in central Ontario. In 1999, local biologist, artist, and Elder Rick Beaver noticed a mix of rare plant species (in what was then old agricultural fields) specific to two endangered grassland ecosystems: tallgrass prairie and black oak savanna.

Alderville First Nation’s Chief and Council declared the area a natural history site and protected it from development. In 2019, with the support of Chief Dave Mowat, Alderville First Nation established the Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery.

Gillian di Petta is the Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery’s coordinator. She first joined the Alderville Black Oak Savanna organization in 2017 and has been instrumental in developing the nursery.

The logo of the Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery shows two Black Oak acorns, reflecting the nursery’s name: an Anishinaabemowin word meaning “seed from an oak”. Both the name and logo represent the symbiotic relationship between Alderville Black Oak Savanna and the Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery.

“The name demonstrates the relationship between the two organizations,” says di Petta. “If the Black Oak Savanna is the oak, the nursery would be the seed. We envision it as the full circle of what restoration looks like, from the time seed is collected to how the nursery production feeds into the ecological restoration on Alderville First Nation Lands.”

“With the ecological restoration work of the Black Oak Savanna focusing on grassland ecosystems — tallgrass prairie and oak savanna — one of the primary things we do is plant native species,” di Petta explains. “Before we had the nursery, we had to contract out our growing operations. The original idea for the nursery came from a long-term need for native plants to continue our restoration projects.”

As grasslands exist in only three per cent of their former range throughout North America, restoring them is an important way to help mitigate climate change. Grasslands are highly effective carbon sinks — meaning they absorb and store large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, a leading contributor to climate change.

While forests are also effective carbon sinks, grassland ecosystems store carbon in their extensive root systems. This means that, when a grassland burns, the carbon remains safely stored below ground. When a forest burns, much of the carbon stored in trees is released back into the atmosphere.

According to di Petta, restoring the native grassland landscape to what it once was is also paramount for drought resistance and increasing habitat for at-risk species.

The Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery has a series of goals under the Alderville Black Oak Savanna; one of these goals is focusing on local plant genetics by collecting seeds from existing local populations. di Petta uses the example of Big bluestem (andropogon gerardi), a perennial native tallgrass species.

“Big bluestem from this region and Big bluestem from southwestern Ontario don’t necessarily have the same genetics” she explains. “So, as much as possible, we want to retore with genetics from this area. Seed sovereignty for Alderville First Nation is a guiding principle for the plant nursery — an important consideration as the nursery grows.”

The Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery will make native plants available for purchase by Black Oak Savanna partners, including native plants such as Little bluestem, Big bluestem, Wild blue lupine, Butterfly weed, and Hairy beardtongue.

The nursery also grows traditional food and medicinal plants for the Alderville First Nation community. Alderville Black Oak Savanna staff work alongside Alderville First Nation Health and Social Services and other community-based organizations.

Another primary goal for the nursery is to provide education and outreach opportunities for the public. Tours of the Alderville Black Oak Savanna will be highlight the work of the Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery, providing a means to demonstrate the full circle of ecological restoration.

The Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery design currently includes a hoop house and interpretive garden, with a passive solar greenhouse on track to be constructed this summer.

“It’s a custom-design structure that’s engineered specifically for our regions climate and will be used to germinate seeds and experiment with alternative growing conditions for native plants” di Petta explains. “The hoop house will be used to grow-on the germinated plants from the greenhouse.”

“Picturing the nursery three years from now, we envision the passive solar greenhouse, the hoop house, and outdoor nursey rows,” she adds. “We will host workshops, as another one of our goals is to use the nursery to share information on how to grow and care for native plants.”

Naturally, there are necessities to make this vision come to fruition. Although the nursery received a substantial grant from the Greenbelt Foundation last October, di Petta notes on-going funding is a challenge for most not-for-profit organizations.

As a not-for-profit organization, the Alderville Black Oak Savanna and Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery relies on funding and donations to continue their ecological restoration, education, and research. You can support them by making a donation or by booking a guided tour or full-day visit this summer.

“People need to know what we’re doing so they care to protect the land in the future,” di Petta says. “Especially youth because, whenever we get young kids here, they’re so excited about what we’re doing.”

You can learn more about the Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery and Alderville Black Oak Savanna by visiting aldervillesavanna.ca.

You can also follow the Mitigomin Native Plant Nursery on Facebook and Instagram.

The Ontario government will be providing an additional $17,669,000 in funding for Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC).

The amount includes $6.5 million in operating funding for 2022-23, an increase of 2.6 per cent over last year, as well as $11,669,000 in operational funding to support 43 new hospital beds.

Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith made the announcement on Tuesday (May 3), part of a series of announcements for hospital funding made by MPPs across the province this week.

According to a media release, the funding is part of an additional provincial investment of $827 million in hospitals across Ontario, representing a four per cent increase from last year and ensuring all publicly funded hospitals receive a minimum two per cent increase to their operating budgets.

“This funding is another landmark investment in our hospital to end hallway health care and deliver better services for our region,” Smith said. “This funding marks a significant investment at Peterborough Regional Health Centre.”

PRHC executive vice president and chief of staff Dr. Lynn Mikula said the funding is “absolutely critical,” as the hospital has operated with more than 40 surge beds in recent years to accommodate an increased number of patients, and as the hospital faces ongoing staff shortages due to the pandemic.

“As a regional hospital, PRHC is already bursting at the seams, with patient volumes at or above 100 per cent of our capacity at any given time,” Mikula said.

“We know that significant growth and expansion will be needed in the years and decades ahead. As the population in Peterborough and the surrounding region continues to grow and age, our programs and services at PRHC must also grow to meet the needs of the communities we serve, and today’s investment is an excellent step in that direction.”

According to the media release, the funding for new beds is part of a capital plan expansion with more than 50 major projects that will add 3,000 new beds over 10 years and support the continuation of over 3,100 acute and post-acute beds in hospitals and alternate health care facilities, and hundreds of new adult, paediatric, and neonatal critical care beds.

This story has been corrected to indicate the $11,669,000 in funding is operational funding to support 43 new hospital beds.

Long-time councillor Doug Elmslie has announced his intention to run for Mayor of the City of Kawartha Lakes in the October 24, 2022 municipal election.

Currently Ward 3 councillor, Elmslie moved to Kawartha Lakes in 2001 and was first elected to council in 2006 in Ward 6.

In a media release, Elmslie says his campaign will focus on improving public services.

“The key areas of concern are waste management, roads and infrastructure, and the landfill crisis,” he says. “It is also time that we prioritize the completion of our secondary plans, so that our housing targets can be achieved. We will continue the downtown improvements in our urban areas, and while focusing on these issues, we will also strengthen our collaboration with our citizen and volunteer groups to help them achieve their goals.”

“We will keep fiscal responsibility and the continuation of our 10-year financial plan at the forefront. The Trails and Active Transportation Plans will be completed and implemented. Ensuring service levels through employee retention and recruitment will continue to be a primary consideration. In addition, we will look to streamline and improve turnaround times for planning, permitting, and building inspections.”

Elmslie is currently the only Kawartha Lakes mayoral candidate. Last fall, Lindsay lawyer Jason Ward had announced his intention to run for mayor, but withdrew in March after citing personal health and family reasons.

Long-time Monaghan Ward councillor Henry Clarke will be running for Mayor of Peterborough in the October 24, 2022 municipal election.

A media release states Clarke will file his nomination on Thursday morning (May 5).

He will formally launch his campaign that evening at the Peterborough Lions Community Centre at 347 Burnham Street in East City.

Clarke is the second person to declare an intention to run for mayor. In March, Northcrest Ward Stephen Wright also announced he would be seeking the office. Incumbent mayor Diane Therrien announced in November she would not be seeking a second term.

Clarke was first elected as Monaghan Ward councillor in 1998 and was subsequently re-elected five times. He was deputy mayor from 2004 until 2018, and was also chair of the city’s finance committee from 2007 until 2018.

A lifelong Peterborough resident, Clarke lived in East City as a child where he attended King George School. After graduating from Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School, he studied history at Trent University and joined the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment of the Canadian Army in 1971, retiring as its commanding officer in 1997.

After briefly working in banking, he joined Quaker Oats in 1976 where he worked until his retirement in 2019.

Peterborough mayor Diane Therrien will be making a special proclamation outside city hall at 11 a.m. on Wednesday (May 4) in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the sport of lacrosse in Nogojiwanong-Peterborough. A new flag celebrating the anniversary will be unveiled.

Lacrosse is the oldest organized sport in North America, with the original version of the game played by Indigenous peoples for hundreds of years before European settlers adopted it and modified it.

The Indigenous game consisted of teams of hundreds of men on fields several kilometres long and often lasted for days. While Indigenous peoples had different names for the game — including baggataway and deyhontsigwa’ehs (“they bump hips”) and tewaarathon (“little brother of war”) — for all of them it served important spiritual, medicinal, social, and political purposes and was considered a gift from the Creator.

In 1637, French Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf described entire villages playing each other in games of what he called “la crosse” (“the stick”). By 1860, lacrosse had become the national game of European settlers in Canada and in 1867 exhibition games were played in England. In 1876, a lacrosse game was played in front of Queen Victoria, who reportedly said “The game is very pretty to watch.”

The first game of lacrosse in Nogojiwanong-Peterborough was played in the spring of 1872 by the Peterborough Red Stockings, using rules published in 1860 by lacrosse advocate and dentist William George Beers. Five years later, Peterborough won its first championship. Since then, Peterborough has won 29 junior and senior national titles and more than 150 provincial titles including minor lacrosse.

A local committee headed by Tim Barrie, former championship goaltender and inductee into the 1998 Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame, revealed the 150th anniversary logo earlier this year and announced a series of events coinciding with the 2022 lacrosse season.

The season has already begun with the recreational league the Boro Boys, youth field lacrosse, and junior teams preparing to take the field before the Century 21 Lakers senior team plays their first game, a home game at the Peterborough Memorial Centre, on Thursday, June 2nd at 8 p.m. against the Cobourg Kodiaks.

The Lakers will be seeking their fourth consecutive national championship after a two-year absence of Major Series Lacrosse play due to the pandemic. The team will celebrate the 150th anniversary with a special ceremony at every home game.

For Lacrosse Day in Peterborough on Saturday, June 18th, all six Major Series Lacrosse teams will play in a triple-header at Peterborough Memorial Centre. The Brooklin Lacrosse Club will take on the Cobourg Nissan Kodiaks at 1 p.m., Oakville Rock will play against Owen Sound Lacrosse at 4 p.m., and the Lakers will challenge the Six Nations Chiefs at 7 p.m.

The Ontario government is providing the Peterborough Police Service with more than $2.9 million over three years, with most of the funding going to support the police service’s special victims unit.

Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith made the announcement at the Peterborough police station on Monday morning (May 2).

“This funding will bring significant support to victims of crime — helping them heal and bring criminals to justice,” Smith said.

Peterborough police will use most of the $2,947,380 grant for its special victims unit, which will focus on investigating crimes related to human trafficking, child exploitation and sexual abuse, elder abuse, domestic violence, and sexual violence and harassment.

The funding will also be used for a new major crime investigator to assist with unit’s investigations and projects, a situation table coordinator to assist the police service’s community development and engagement coordinator, assist with the service’s data analysts, and provide advanced training courses for officers.

“The funding allows the service to work on more proactive projects, provides advanced training courses, allows officers in the major crime unit to work on investigating overdose deaths which may lead to more positive outcomes for for our community and more connections to our victims services unit for victims of crime,” said Inspector John Lyons of the Peterborough Police Service.

The funding is part of the province’s $267 million Community Safety and Policing Grant Program, announced last November.

A total of 90 police service boards across Ontario are receiving funding under the program for 147 public safety initiatives focusing on local and provincial priorities such as gun and gang violence, sexual violence and harassment, human trafficking, mental health and addictions, and hate-motivated crime.

Police services will be required to report twice a year on the financial activities and outcomes of their initiatives.