Drivers heading southbound on Television Road in Peterborough to get to Highway 7 and Highway 115 will need to use another route for two weeks starting Wednesday (May 3).

Television Road is being repaved between Parkhill Road East in the north and Maniece Avenue in the south from May 3 to 17.

The southbound lane will be closed during the work, and southbound traffic will be redirected to follow posted detour routes during the temporary lane closure. The northbound lane will remain open.

Parkhill Road East traffic looking to go south on Television Road to Lansdowne Street East will be redirected east towards the Parkhill Road East and Armour Road intersection.

Drivers can then head south along Armour Road to Maria Street, east on Maria Street to Ashburnham Drive, south on Ashburnham Drive to Lansdowne Street East, and then east on Lansdowne Street East to Television Road at Highway 7/115.

The road work will include pulverizing existing bituminous pavement, earth excavation and grading, installing new base and surface course hot mix asphalt, adjusting catch basins, and applying pavement markings on Television Road between Parkhill Road East and Maniece Avenue.

The Peterborough Regional Farmers’ Market opens for the outdoor season at its new home at Quaker Foods City Square in downtown Peterborough on Wednesday (May 3).

The market runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Wednesday and Saturday until October 28 and will feature locally grown produce, take-away meals and goodies, artisan wares, and musicians.

Quaker Foods City Square, which officially opened in December, is located on Charlotte Street just east of Aylmer Street. Prior to the construction of the city square, which began in 2017, the site included the Louis Street Municipal Parking Lot, which was the former location of the Wednesday Downtown Farmers’ Market.

“We are genuinely excited for this opportunity the City of Peterborough has given us,” says Peterborough Regional Farmers’ Market chair Jeff Wagner in a media release. “There is an understanding as to the importance a vibrant urban market can bring to the Peterborough downtown core. The site is on the former location of the Wednesday market and many vendors are overjoyed to be returning to a location that had a strong and vibrant place in the city. We look forward to a great summer filled with exciting events, and wonderful seasonal products.”

While construction of the Quaker Foods City Square was underway, the outdoor market was held on Charlotte Street at the Peterborough Square courtyard (moving inside the lower level of Peterborough Square during the winter). Quaker Foods City Square offers access to Peterborough Transit with public parking available at the adjacent King Street Parkade, as well as street parking.

“We’re thrilled to have Peterborough Regional Farmers’ Market operating in Quaker Foods City Square,” say Town Ward councillors Alex Bierk and Joy Lachica. “The market fulfills two important roles for our downtown — it provides local produce, prepared food, and local artisans’ work, and perhaps more importantly it helps build a sense of community. It will be a great experience to stroll through the square, pick up some local goodies at the market, and meet up with friends and neighbours.”

For more information about the Peterborough Regional Farmers’ Market, visit www.ptboregionalfarmersmarket.org.

A man wanted in connection with the carjacking incident in Peterborough was arrested in Windsor on Tuesday (May 2). The 30-year-old man, who is being held in custody, is facing charges in in multiple jurisdictions.

For the Peterborough incident, the man is facing the following charges. robbery with violence, possession of a weapon for dangerous purposes, assault with a weapon, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, flight from a peace officer, motor vehicle theft, and failing to stop when signalled or requested to do so by a police officer.

Original story

Peterborough police are searching for a suspect after a carjacking in a parking lot at Lansdowne Street and The Parkway on Sunday morning (April 30).

At around 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, officers were called to the parking lot after a woman reported her vehicle was stolen from her at knifepoint. The victim did not require medical attention.

Officers spotted the stolen vehicle on The Parkway and pursued it onto Highway 115, where the vehicle exited the highway and continued north on Highway 7.

Officers were unable to safely deploy a spike belt before the vehicle turned onto Lansdowne Street at a high rate of speed and headed back toward the City of Peterborough. Police then called off the pursuit for safety reasons.

Through further investigation, officers identified a pick-up truck the suspect had exited in the parking lot and learned it was reported stolen in Kingston on Saturday evening.

The suspect is described as a white man between 20 and 30 years old, 200 lbs, 5’9″ to 5’11”, unshaven and balding with short light brown hair. He was wearing a large white T-shirt and dark pants.

The stolen vehicle is a black four-door 2010 Toyota Corolla with plate number BNEJ 017.

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

The Rotary Club of Peterborough has raised $25,000 for YES Shelter for Youth and Families’ Rise Youth Housing Program to help teens stay off the streets.

The funds were raised at Rotary’s annual dinner and auction charity fundraiser last Friday night (April 28) at Peterborough Golf & Country Club. It was the club’s first in-person auction in three years.

Almost 90 people attended the event, co-chaired by Rotarians Bruce Gravel and Amy Simpson and emceed by Rotarian Catherine Hanrahan, which featured dinner with wine and appetizers, and live classical music.

The event also include a silent auction and a live auction hosted by local professional auctioneer Rob Rusland, who has led the bidding at the club’s auction every year since 1993 when the event was founded. There were more than 120 items to bid on, including a South African photo safari.

Beyond the money raised for YES Shelter for Youth and Families, auction proceeds will also go to Rotary’s other community projects.

Founded on April 1, 1921, the Rotary Club of Peterborough is Peterborough’s first and oldest service club. In the past, the club has supported many community projects including the Rotary Greenway Trail, Camp Kawartha, Five Counties Children’s Centre, Easter Seals, the education centre at the Riverview Park & Zoo, food programs, and — in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Peterborough Kawartha — the adult outdoor gym at Beavermead Park, Victoria Day and Canada Day fireworks, and Peterborough’s outdoor dog park.

The annual Tim Hortons Smile Cookie campaign is taking place this spring for the first time, again raising funds for local charities and community groups including several in the greater Kawarthas region.

Usually held in the fall, this year’s campaign will run from Monday, May 1st to Sunday, May 7th.

In another change, the price of a smile cookie is increasing for the first time in the program’s history, going from $1 to $1.50 per cookie (or $18 for a dozen cookies). All proceeds (before taxes) will still go to local charities and organizations.

“This increase will allow even more money to be raised for charities and community groups across the country,” Tim Hortons states on its website.

Tim Hortons locations in the communities listed below will be supporting the following charities and community groups:

• City of Peterborough, Lakefield, Bridgenorth, and Curve Lake – Community Care Peterborough
• Bancroft – North Hastings District Hospital Auxiliary
• Haliburton and Minden – Walkabout Farm Therapeutic Riding Association
• Coboconk – Ridgewood Public School Breakfast Program
• Fenelon Falls – Fenelon Falls Secondary School Breakfast Program, Langton Public School Breakfast Program
• Bobcaygeon – Bobcaygeon Public School Breakfast Program, Dunsford Public School Breakfast Program
• Lindsay – Humane Society of Kawartha Lakes, Kawartha Lakes Food Source, The Dragon Flies Breast Cancer Survivor Group
• Port Hope – Million Dollar Smiles
• Cobourg and Colborne – Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Northumberland

The Tim Hortons Smile Cookie campaign began in 1996 as a way to help raise funds for the Hamilton Children’s Hospital in Ontario. It has since grown to become a major fundraising event at Tim Hortons restaurants, raising more than $75 million for local charities and community groups.

Last fall, the campaign raised a record-breaking $15 million for over 600 local charities and community groups, bringing the 27-year fundraising total to over $90 million.

The City of Peterborough is dismantling the Fred Anderson Stage at Del Crary Park and will install a new stage in time for Peterborough Musicfest’s 36th summer season, which opens on Canada Day with a concert by Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy.

Built in the 1980s, the Fred Anderson Stage — named after the late founder of the Peterborough Festival of Lights, which became Peterborough Musicfest — has hosted hundreds of musicians since the festival was Launched on July 1, 1987.

Last June, just days before Peterborough Musicfest was set to return to Del Crary Park after a two-year pandemic absence, the city inspected the Fred Anderson Stage and deemed it structurally unsafe, banning its use. A temporary stage was constructed at Del Crary Park so Musicfest could proceed with its 2022 season.

In the city’s 2023 capital budget, city council approved $200,000 for the purchase of a new stage.

According to a media release from the city, the new stage “will enhance the live entertainment experience at the park with features to meet modern production needs, including allowing for better lighting and sound systems.”

However, unlike the Fred Anderson Stage, the new stage will not be a fixed structure.

“The new stage will be mobile so that potentially it can also be set up at other locations for events,” the media release states.

A week after Haliburton Highlands Health Services announced the Minden emergency department would permanently close on June 1, members of the Minden community were at Queen’s Park in Toronto to deliver a petition to the Ontario government demanding a moratorium of the decision, while officials from Haliburton Highlands Health Services appeared before both the Township of Minden Hills and Haliburton County councils to explain the rationale behind the decision.

On Thursday (April 27), Minden residents Patrick Porzuczek, Laura Porzuczek, and Richard Bradley led a group that travelled to Queen’s Park with a petition — signed by 3,359 Minden-area residents — asking the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care to place a moratorium on the Haliburton Highlands Health Services decision “for a minimum of one year to allow for consultations with all affected stakeholders to occur.”

NDP health critic France Gélinas (MPP Nickle Belt) brought the petition before the Legislature on Thursday afternoon and asked Ontario’s minister of health and long-term care Sylvia Jones during question period whether she would support the moratorium request.

“I know that the member opposite knows very well that hospitals are responsible for their day-to-day operations and make those decisions independent of the ministry of health and government,” Jones replied. “We have been assured that the Haliburton Highlands Health Science [sic] board and leadership have made this decision carefully, thoughtfully, understanding and appreciating the needs of their community and their staff, and I will let them do that work.”

Much of the criticism from the Minden community about the decision to close the emergency department revolves around a lack of communication and consultation with the community about the closure and the timing of the closure at the beginning of summer.

“Members of Minden’s community are determined to exhaust all possible options to reverse this hasty and poorly considered decision,” reads a media release issued by the Ontario NDP on Thursday. “There were a staggering 13,000 visits to the (Minden) emergency department in 2022, with the number trending upwards. The town’s population triples during summer due to seasonal residents and tourists. It’s incomprehensible that such a significant decision was made without consulting any stakeholders. This community will not rest until their voices are heard.”

VIDEO: Question Period – April 27, 2023 – Minden emergency department closure

Last Thursday (April 20), Haliburton Highlands Health Services announced the Minden emergency department would be closed effective Friday, June 1st, with all staff to be transferred to the emergency department in Haliburton, shocking Minden-area politicians and residents.

Haliburton Highlands Health Services currently operates two emergency departments that are open 24/7, one at 4575 Deep Bay Road in Minden and the other at 7199 Gelert Road in Haliburton, both with on-site heliports. Unlike the Haliburton location, which has 15 in-patient beds, the Minden location does not offer in-patient acute care services.

Most Minden patients requiring hospitalization are transferred to Haliburton or to hospitals in Lindsay or Bracebridge. With the closure of the Minden emergency department, local residents would need to travel 25 kilometres northeast to Haliburton — a 25-minute drive — for emergency medical services.

According to a statement from Haliburton Highlands Health Services president and CEO Carolyn Plummer and board chair David O’Brien, the decision to close the Minden emergency department was made in response to an ongoing shortage of nursing and medical staff.

Both Plummer and O’Brien attended a meeting of the Township of Minden Hills council on Thursday afternoon to give a presentation about the decision and to answer questions from Minden Hills mayor Bob Carter on behalf of members of the community.

“Let me state the reason why this decision was made, and it was made because of the ongoing staffing shortages,” O’Brien said. “It’s taken an extraordinary amount of effort over the last 18 months to keep the team together, to keep it focused, to keep it delivering the services we need. Our staff have made incredible personal and professional sacrifices in order to make that happen.”

“It got to the point that we can’t continue to do that. We’re going to lose people, more than we already lost. We’re going to lose our hospital if we continue to do this — I’m not talking about closing Minden emergency, I’m talking about the broader Haliburton (Haliburton Highlands Health Services) hospital.”

“That was the focus of making this decision,” O’Brien said. “The staff that we have are under extreme pressure. They came to us and said ‘Look, you’ve got to do something because we can’t keep going on like this. The system’s going to fail if we let it go on.’ So that’s kind of the crux of why the decision was made. There are a lot of other things that go into it, but that’s the real important part of the decision.”

For her part, Plummer said she has “spoken about our staffing crisis in every public board meeting for the past couple of years and I have spoken about it with the mayors when we’ve met with them,” adding that there were more than “20 official close calls” in 2022 and “many other close calls that were not made official” where either one or both of the Haliburton and Minden emergency departments would have to close temporarily.

Plummer said the decision to consolidate emergency services at the Haliburton location was made because, unlike the Minden location, Haliburton already has in-patient acute care beds.

“We considered feedback received from the paramedic services, who highlighted the fact that the Haliburton site is more centralized in the county for ambulance travel times,” Plummer said. “We also looked at the fact that maintaining hospital services close to the Haliburton family medical centre has many benefits, primarily facilitating easy access to primary care physicians to see patients in both the emergency department and the in-patient unit.”

In their presentation, neither Plummer nor O’Brien addressed the criticisms levelled against Haliburton Highlands Health Services for the lack of communication and community consultation prior to announcing the decision or for the timing of the closure.

After the presentation, Carter raised the concern about a lack of communication, noting that previous discussions with Haliburton Highlands Health Services were only about staffing issues and the possibility of temporary closures of one or both emergency departments.

“At no point was there a discussion that one of these facilities would have to close permanently,” Carter said, adding he confirmed this by speaking with the other three mayors and four deputy mayors in the county. “Now in your mind that was perhaps the inevitability of what you were talking about, but there was no clear communication about that … This came as a complete shock to all of us.”

Carter then asked Plummer and O’Brien a question on behalf of the community about the key issues that led to the decision to permanently close the Minden emergency department.

Plummer reiterated that the primary reason is the lack of staff resources to maintain two emergency departments and the pressures on existing staff.

“I can tell you that, heading into this summer, we would be otherwise facing multiple short-term, short-notice, unexpected closures of one if not both of our emergency departments at various unpredictable times, and it would be impossible to communicate properly to all the stakeholders and community members about those closures in sufficient time for them to know where to go in the event of an emergency,” Plummer said.

“We wanted to make sure that we could maintain emergency services in this county, and so we made the decision to consolidate them at a single site where we can bring our staff together to provide a more effective staffing coverage model to meet all the health care emergency needs of the county as a whole.”

Carter then asked why only six weeks’ notice was given of the closure, especially given the lack of prior communication to stakeholders and the upcoming summer season.

“It really was an operational decision that had to be made,” Plummer replied. “We had grave concerns as I said about the multiple, temporary, unpredictable closures that would have happened otherwise, and the significant risk that would place on the community in unpredictable ways as we would not be able to properly communication sufficiently ahead of those closures — some of those closures could happen with only two hours’ notice.”

“That’s how close we’ve come, and that was going to be a reality for this summer,” Plummer added. “We were able to make it through last summer, but just barely, and it was not going to be feasible for us to do that this summer.”

“This was a very, very difficult decision, and we know it’s been particularly difficult for the Minden community, but it was one we had to make in order to make sure that we still have (emergency) health services across the county as a whole and into the summer time.”

In response to another question from Carter, Plummer and O’Brien said the decision was made by the Haliburton Highlands Health Services board, supported by the hospital’s executive leadership team. The decision was communicated to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, which was already aware of the staffing issues facing Haliburton Highlands Health Services.

After noting the “outpouring of concern from our community,” Carter asked if the June 1st date to close the Minden emergency department could “be pushed back to some reasonable time — November 1st, or later — so we could have a reasonable discussion, including all the stakeholders, and we can properly plan the implementation.”

“This would get us through the busy summer period and allow a transparent public process,” Carter added. “The question is, are you willing to agree, consider, or commit to pushing back this date?”

Plummer did not directly answer the question, but repeated that the decision was an operational one, to avoid “multiple temporary but short-notice closures (of) one or likely both emergency departments, all summer long,” and that it would be extremely difficult to properly notify the community of the closures, resulting in “much confusion, and that would have been unsafe for the community as a whole.”

Carter asked what would happen, with the Minden emergency department closed, if the Haliburton emergency department has to temporarily close.

“This gives us the opportunity to shift all of our resources into one location, to help reduce the risk of that kind of closure happening,” Plummer replied. “The risk is always there, but this reduces that risk.”

Carter pointed out the decision to close the Minden emergency department in six weeks would have an unplanned impact on other emergency services in Minden, including paramedics and volunteer firefighters, who would be responding to medical calls, with an impact on cost — especially at the busiest time of year during the summer.

Deputy mayor Lisa Schell asked Plummer to confirm which location almost closed 20 times due to staffing issues, adding “keep in mind I know the answer. I would just like to hear your honest answer to everybody in this community, because most of us know what it is.”

“Those were all related to physician shortages at our Haliburton site,” Plummer replied. “Our Minden site is also now facing physician shortages. Both sites are facing physician shortages. What isn’t included in that 20-plus official notifications is the countless times that we’ve had nursing sick calls … it could be Haliburton, it could be Minden, it could be both. Depending on the situation, both emergency departments could be closed. We have faced that near possibility many, many times in the last 18 months — far more than 20. It happens probably weekly, maybe more often than that, but it happens regularly with our nursing sick calls and shortages of nursing staff.”

Schell then asked Plummer to name the stakeholders that Haliburton Highlands Health Services consulted with about the decision to close the Minden emergency department.

Plummer replied that the operational decision was made by the board, supported by the executive leadership team, “but informed by conversations with staff.” She added that the board has done “reach-outs with regard to our strategic plan” that involved anonymous surveys, interviews, and focus groups. (On Friday, in an interview on CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning, when host Ramraajh Sharvendiran asked if Haliburton Highlands Health Services consulted about a permanent closure, Plummer said “We did not ask about that specific question.”)

Later on Thursday afternoon, Plummer and O’Brien attended a special meeting of Haliburton County council to explain the rationale for the decision to close the Minden emergency department. While that meeting was closed to the public, council issued a statement the following day.

“Council remains extremely concerned and dissatisfied in their decision and the timing associated with the closure,” the statement reads. “We also continue to be disappointed in the absence of communication between county council, the community and (Haliburton Highlands Health Services) over the last number of months while this step was being considered.”

“We will continue to advocate on behalf of our residents to ensure that (Haliburton Highlands Health Services) responds to questions about reorganization and ongoing service delivery in the county, including identifying and attracting services to work out of the Minden site. To that end council will be requesting that (Haliburton Highlands Health Services) present their implementation plan to combine emergency services at a special meeting in May.”

While Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott has not issued an official statement about the decision to close the Minden emergency department, Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MP Jamie Schmale addressed the issue in Parliament on Thursday evening during a debate on the second reading of Bill C-47, the Budget Implementation Act.

“Let me be clear, the decision made by the Haliburton Highlands Health Services Board of Directors is something I oppose,” Schmale wrote on Facebook. “We have been told that this decision, which I have no doubt was very difficult to make, was not based on financial considerations but was solely due to inadequate staffing levels.”

“As someone who grew up in Bobcaygeon and has used the Minden ER more than once, I join with residents and echo concern for their community hospital. While the decision was a local one, I recognize that the federal government has a role to play in facilitating the immigration of qualified nurses and doctors to address labour shortages not just in Minden but throughout the country.”

A Facebook group called Save Minden Ontario Emergency Room now has over 3,900 members. A online petition called Help Save the Minden Hills Emergency Department has far received more than 5,800 signatures.

Minden resident and former Minden firefighter Patrick Porzuczek, who was at Queen’s Park on Thursday and also established the Facebook group and online petition, has also created a GoFundMe campaign that has raised over $4,600 to help fund community efforts to stop the closure.

Minden residents have also set up a new website called Minden Matters at mindenmatters.com.