With things looking up for tourism in Ontario, Regional Tourism Organization 8 (RTO8) is opening a new seasonal visitor centre in the Town of Hastings in Trent Hills later this spring.

The Kawarthas Northumberland Visitor Centre is located at Lock 18 along the Trent-Severn Waterway. An official opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place in late May.

RTO8 is a not-for-profit organization funded by the Ontario government to market the Kawarthas Northumberland region as a tourism destination to bring visitors to Kawartha Lakes, the city and county of Peterborough, and Northumberland County.

The organization is now hiring two full-time student travel counsellors for the new visitor centre. The minimum-wage contract positions, which are open to those between 15 and 30 years of age, will run from early May to mid-August.

For more information and to apply, visit rto8.com/external-job-posting/. Applications are due by April 22.

RTO8 has also partnered with local tourism hubs to bring digital kiosks into staffed locations across the region. The kiosks will be located in Bobcaygeon, Buckhorn, Campbellford, Fenelon Falls, Hastings, Havelock, Lakefield, Lindsay, and Peterborough

Ashley Doust has circled April 12 on her calendar.

One of 41 new homeowners that will call the Habitat For Humanity Peterborough & Kawartha Region condominium at 33 Leahy’s Lane home, that day will see the single mom — together with her 10-year-old daughter Emma — depart her parents’ house to realize her dream of home ownership.

On Sunday (April 3), following a celebrative dedication ceremony attended by a number of project partners as well as all 41 families, kawarthaNOW trailed behind Doust as she stepped into her finished first-floor two-bedroom unit for the first time.

“I never thought I would be able to own a home,” Doust said. “Without this opportunity, with the (housing) market as it is today, I’d never be able to get in. I didn’t want to throw my money into rent. When this opportunity came about, I was like ‘Oh my gosh, I have to that.'”

“I worked really hard to make it happen. I applied in September 2020 and was approved in January the following year. It was like the best day ever when Sue (Habitat For Humanity Peterborough & Kawartha Region CEO Susan Zambonin) called me.”

Doust’s excitement, and that of each of her new neighbours, was palpable during both the ceremony and subsequent building tour.

“We are serving as many families this year as we’ve served in the last 20 … that is a true legacy,” said an emotional Zambonin during her overview of this journey, from idea and concept to shovels in the ground to completion.

“We are standing here because of the leadership of our trades, suppliers, and consultants who all said ‘We want to be part of what you’re doing.’ They have been working around the clock, through and around sickness and supply chain issues, and coordinating gift-in-kind and build donations. We are here to celebrate on day 412.”

“This journey begins and ends with our homeowners. Where you see a building, we see the homeowners — the people who are going to live in the homes that we have built.”

The building at 33 Leahy’s Lane has six one-bedroom units, 29 two-bedroom units, and six three-bedroom units. All units are energy efficient, accessible, and affordable, intended for families with a mixture of incomes of around $20,000 to $50,000 depending on family size.

To qualify for a condo, applicants need to prove they can repay an interest-free mortgage, with repayments geared to income, and that they do not have the means to get their own conventional mortgage.

Anyone familiar with the Habitat For Humanity story knows this project marks a dramatic departure from a tried-and-true formula that has seen 42 families move into safe and affordable single-family homes since the local agency was formed in 2002. This development marks the first time Habitat For Humanity in Canada has built a multi-unit building from scratch.

The norm also has seen successful applicant families help in the build of their homes, providing “sweat equity” as their contribution to their home’s construction. As the new homeowners at 33 Leahy’s Lane were prohibited from working on the building’s construction, primarily for logistic and safety reasons, they were required to provide volunteer hours and services in other ways.

They did just that, contributing more than 20,000 hours of their time to the benefit of Kawartha Food Share, Peterborough Regional Health Centre, and Fairhaven Long-Term Care, to mention just a few.

For Doust, that manifested itself in the form of painting two large murals that greet visitors to Habitat For Humanity’s ReStore locations in Peterborough and Lindsay, where she also volunteered.

According to Habitat For Humanity board chair Jill Bennett, the organization’s senior management first presented the board with “an innovative project to increase our impact, and provide homes to new demographics including singles, couple and seniors” three years ago.

“We sat in the boardroom with a piece of paper with a lot of numbers — really, really big numbers, mind-boggling numbers,” Bennett said. “They got the board’s support and here we are today.”

Bennett credited a number of partners, including the City of Peterborough through its Home Ownership Assistance Loan Program and Affordable Housing Community Improvement Plan, with support totalling more than $800,000.

The federal government was a major financial partner for the project, investing $4.1 million as part of a $32.4 million financial commitment over the past three years under the National Housing Co-Investment Fund to support Habitat for Humanity Canada and its affiliate organizations across Canada.

Also credited with playing a major role in the development’s realization and the ability of new homeowners to finance their new homes were Habitat Canada, Kawartha Credit Union, Vancity Community Investment Bank, and Enbridge.

After the ceremony, Zambonin — clutching flowers presented to her — was still glowing.

“It’s huge to get something this big finished, but it’s also huge to have the confidence to do this again,” she said. “It’s not a one-off thing. We have a new mortgage model that helps to fund this. We can do so much more and faster.”

Zambonin noted other Habitat affiliates have purchased condos in existing buildings or built row houses that are condos, “but nothing like this — a three-storey building that’s all Habitat. That’s new across Canada.”

“Being as small as we are, doing something this big, Habitat Canada is watching and saying ‘OK, what can everyone else do?’,” she added.

Zambonin also pointed out that, while the new approach to multi-residential development has been proven do-able, the traditional Habitat home-building model won’t go by the wayside.

“That’s not going away, but we think the way we’re going to be able to have more of an impact is to build this (kind of development), build a few duplexes, and build a single (family home) all at the same time.”

Volunteers have always played a crucial role in Habitat’s traditional home-building model, but Zambonin noted there’s a limit to what they can do.

“What we’ve always done is try to figure out how to build faster with volunteers — we can’t,” she said. “Finally we’re realizing that if we do all of these things (multi-residential developments as well as single-family homes), we’ll have things at various stages.”

Of note, construction of a smaller 12-unit Habitat For Humanity condominium development has begun on a site that abuts the 33 Leahy’s Lane building.

But, at the end of the day, new homeowner Doust reminded everyone this story is about much more than bricks and mortar.

“They’ve helped 41 families, not just one. That is life changing.”

Just as the sale was about to close, the Ontario government has unexpectedly thrown a wrench in the Municipality of Port Hope’s plan to purchase 1,334 acres of lands from Ontario Power Generation (OPG) in the Wesleyville area in Port Hope.

The lands include around 700 acres of environmentally important land, 600 acres that could potentially be developed, 260 acres of developed industrial land, and over 18 acres located along four kilometres of protected Lake Ontario shoreline.

The $18.6-million sale, which was approved by Port Hope council on February 15, was set to close on Thursday (March 31) when the municipality received a notification from OPG that the province had stopped the sale.

According to a media release from the municipality on Friday (April 1), a letter from the province states that the lands “merit assessment” under the government’s proposed “Centre of Realty Excellence” (CORE), first announced in the 2021 fall economic statement as a way to establish centralized oversight of underused or surplus government property.

As OPG is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, its surplus lands would fall under CORE’s purview.

The decision to halt the sale coincides with the province’s introduction of the proposed More Housing for Everyone Act on Wednesday, intended to increase the supply of housing in Ontario. The government’s plan for the proposed legislation states that CORE “would focus on how we can better use approximately 10,000 acres of underused government-owned real estate to meet our most pressing needs, such as new long-term care beds and community housing.”

The province’s last-minute decision to halt the sale of the OPG lands has raised a “lot of questions,” according to the media release for the municipality.

“To our knowledge, this proposed (CORE) program does not yet have a governance model, framework, or timeline for implementation,” reads the media release. “We have a binding, unconditional purchase and sale agreement with OPG in place, approved by OPG Board of Directors and Port Hope Council. For the past two years, we followed proper process and due diligence to reach the binding agreement. We negotiated a fair deal in good faith.”

The municipality was considering housing as a possible option for the 600 acres of purchased land that could potentially be developed, but had no immediate plans or recommendations. It was going to begin an extensive public consultation process in 2023.

The municipality says it has reached out to the province about the decision to halt the sale and has “extended an invitation to the province to work with them through the CORE process.”

“I was very surprised by the abrupt change of plans for this land purchase, since the agreement was approved by both parties,” says Port Hope mayor Bob Sanderson. “We followed a proper process, signed a binding agreement, and shared the good news story with our community. We are disappointed with this outcome.”

Two employees of Campbellford Memorial Hospital who inappropriately accessed the information of around 500 patients have been fired.

The hospital recently discovered and confirmed the privacy breaches by the two employees, according to a media release issued on Friday (April 1).

“We are very disappointed that these privacy breaches have occurred,” says Eric Hanna, the hospital’s interim president and CEO. “Patients expect us to protect their information and it is very unfortunate that we did not do so in this case. We apologize to everyone whose information was inappropriately accessed.”

The hospital says it is working with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, and that all patients involved in the breaches have been notified by mail. The hospital adds that at no time was the patient information accessed by anyone outside Campbellford Memorial Hospital

According to the hospital, it already has strict rules in place around patient confidentiality, including that physicians and staff are not allowed to access patient information “unless they are currently involved in that patient’s circle of care.”

To help prevent future internal privacy breaches, the hospital says it is will taking actions to “revisit and strengthen” its patient privacy education and training.

Campbellford Memorial Hospital also says a new electronic record system introduced in December gives the hospital “increased auditing capabilities and enhances the ability to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patients.”

The deVos family of Vosbrae Farms in Manilla received the Farm Family Award at the Kawartha Lakes Spotlight on Agriculture gala and awards event held last Friday (March 25) at the Lindsay Exhibition.

More than 450 guests gathered in the Commonwell Exhibition building for the third annual event, last held virtually in 2020 due to the pandemic, to celebrate food, farming, and agri-business in Kawartha Lakes.

Jack and Erkie deVos began farming north of Manilla in the mid-1950s with their family of six boys. with son John and his wife Fern (under the watchful eye of Jack) now leading the cash crop farm of 1,200 acres of corn, wheat, beans, and forages and 165 Holstein cows.

Vosbrae Farms is truly a family operation, with more than 10 family households within a two-kilometre radius of the farm and around 20 family members participating in the operation of the farm when needed.

The farm also includes a 30-cow beef herd and chickens, and recently expanded to open Vosbrae Dairy, an on-farm cow, goat, and sheep milk cheese processing plant.

Vosbrae Farms is well known in the community, hosting public events at the farm including the Twilight Meeting, forage days, barn open houses, and Kawartha Farmfest.

Simcoe Street Meat Packers, a provincially inspected abattoir located just north of Manilla, was also recognized at the Kawartha Lakes Spotlight on Agriculture gala and awards event with the Excellence in Agriculture Award.

Now led by Wahab Zamani, taking over from his father who purchased the operation in 2003, the business provides custom slaughter and processing of beef, veal, and lamb, and also purchases directly from around 20 local farmers to supply local products to independent butchers as well as their own two retail outlets in North York and Newmarket.

Simcoe Street Meat Packers is also a partner in the ownership of Farmers Butcher Shop in Lindsay with Matt Devries, which they opened to complete the full local supply loop within the community.

VIDEO: Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott recognizes award winners

The Batty family was honoured in the Milestone Recognition Program, which recognizes farming families that have surpassed the milestones of 150, 175, and 200 years of farming in the community.

They were recognized as being an Ontario farm family for 200 years and a county farm family for 150 years.

Allison Brown received the Agriculture Leadership Scholarship to support her participation in the Rural Ontario Institute’s Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program.

It’s something that warms the heart of anyone who has ever lived in or around downtown Peterborough: the wholesome aroma of baking oatmeal from the Quaker Oats plant on Hunter Street.

Now you’ll soon be able to enjoy the fragrance of maple and brown sugar and more from the comfort of your own home, no matter where you live.

Marking 120 years of production at the Hunter Street plant, Quaker Oats has announced a new plug-in air freshener called “The Official Scent of Peterborough”.

“The smell of baking oatmeal from Quaker Oats has long been the unofficial scent of Peterborough,” says Avril Sloof, a brand manager for PepsiCo Canada, the parent company of Quaker Oats. “We’re now making it official and sharing it with the rest of Canada.”

The announcement of the plug-in air freshener follows the release by Quaker Oats of a limited-edition clothing line called QUAKERborough earlier this year, celebrating the Hunter Street plant’s 120th anniversary.

Sloof says the air freshener, which plugs into an electrical outlet, will release a “subtle” scent of baking oatmeal.

“We didn’t want it to be overpowering,” Sloof explains. “We wanted it to be exactly what Peterborough residents experience when they walk out their door and catch a whiff of that wonderful scent on the breeze.”

“The Official Scent of Peterborough” plug-in air freshener will be available at all major grocery store chains across Canada by the summer.

In a technological first, the plug-in air freshener will rely on an internet connection to release its scent only when the Hunter Street plant is actually baking oatmeal. The scent released by the air freshener will match whatever product the plant is making at the time — including kawarthaNOW’s personal favourite, maple and brown sugar.

“Our product engineers worked incredibly hard to make this happen,” she says. “No matter where you live in Canada, you’ll have the same olfactory experience, and at the same time, as Peterborough residents do.”

Sloof says the plug-in air freshener will provide an added benefit for locals when the hot weather arrives.

“When you close your windows and turn on the air conditioner, you miss out on the aroma from the Quaker Oats plant,” she says. “Our plug-in air freshener means you can continue to enjoy the small of baking oatmeal whatever the weather.”

VIDEO: The Quaker Oats plant in downtown Peterborough, Canada

Not only will former Peterborough residents now be able to enjoy the smell of home once again but, according to Sloof, all Canadians will have a chance to share the experience for the very first time — and possibly people around the globe.

“We’re thrilled to introduce The Official Scent of Peterborough to the rest of Canada and maybe to the rest of the world too,” Sloof says, noting she thinks Peterborough belongs on the list of the best-smelling cities on the planet.

“It’s about time Peterborough takes its rightful place on the international scent map,” she adds.

If you haven’t figured it out already, this is an April Fool’s joke that kawarthaNOW created … without the involvement or endorsement of either Quaker Oats or PepsiCo Canada.

However, while the air freshener does not exist, the QUAKERborough clothing line does and all proceeds will be donated to Food Banks Canada.

Find out more at quakerborough.ca.