Peterburgers, a restaurant located at 25 George Street North in Peterborough, has been charged with failing to comply with proof of vaccination checks and two other violations of public health requirements under the Reopening Ontario Act.

The charge for failing to comply with proof of vaccination checks is the first such charge issued by Peterborough Public Health, according to a media release from the health unit on Friday afternoon (October 8).

According to manager of environmental health Julie Ingram, inspectors with Peterborough Public Health used a “progressive enforcement approach” at Peterburgers, beginning with education of the owner two weeks ago, on September 24.

This was followed by issuing a written warning notice the following Tuesday (September 28). Inspectors delivered the warning notice in person and discussed it with the owner.

The warning notice was discussed further via email between Peterborough Public Health and the restaurant’s owner. Last Friday (October 1) during a follow-up inspection, the owner confirmed they would comply with the requirement to check proof of vaccination.

“While we were hopeful that the business would comply, continued investigation this week confirmed ongoing noncompliance by the establishment,” Ingram states, adding that three charges were issued to the owner today.

The charges under the Reopening Ontario Act are for failing to confirm proof of vaccination and identification of indoor diners, failing to ensure the use of masking and face coverings in the indoor area, and failing to collect contact information for patrons remaining at the premises to dine.

The three charges have a fine of $880 each, for a total amount of $2,640.

“Peterborough Public Health is working with enforcement partners to continue to monitor this premises and the situation,” reads the media release. “Additional enforcement action will be taken, if necessary.”

Peterborough County OPP is reminding drivers, especially on Highway 7, that it is both unsafe and illegal to pass a stopped school bus when its red lights are flashing and its stop sign is extended.

Police have recently received multiple complaints from school bus drivers that drivers are passing stopped school buses while children are getting on and off the bus.

“No students have been injured but dangerous situations were created,” reads a police media release. “Drivers cannot start moving until the red lights have stopped flashing, the stop arm has been retracted, and the bus has started to move.”

The requirement to stop applies to all vehicles travelling on all lanes of multi-lane highways that do not have a median between lanes, such as Highway 7.

“Highway 7 continues to be an area of concern in regards to vehicles passing school buses that have its red lights activated and stop sign extended,” the media release states.

Fines are $400 to $2,000, with six demerit points, for the first offence.

For each subsequent offence, fines rise to $1,000 to $4,000 with an additional six demerit points, with possible jail time of up to six months.

On the eve of the Thanksgiving long weekend, Peterborough’s interim medical officer of health is “hopeful” last year’s post-Thanksgiving spike in new COVID-19 cases won’t be seen this time around.

During a Peterborough Public Health media briefing held Thursday (October 7), Dr. Ian Gemmill said with 70 per cent of the region’s total population vaccinated, that alone greatly lessens the chance of new infections arising as a result of Thanksgiving-related socializing. However, he warns, precautions must still be taken.

“Our actions matter more now than ever,” Dr. Gemmill said.

“Look at what’s happening in other parts of Canada like Alberta where, I think, they moved too early (easing restrictions) and like New Brunswick where I think they’ve just been surprised,” Dr. Gemmill added. “We can’t let our guard down until we are sure that it’s okay to do so.”

Dr. Gemmill provided some advice for those planning to hold social gatherings at their homes over the long weekend.

“For Thanksgiving, gather indoors only if you know everybody is immunized. The vaccine provides us that privilege. Gather outdoors if your group has mixed immunization status, but use public health measures like distancing and masking and so on.”

“What I’m really asking people to do is think carefully. If you’re including people who are unimmunized, you are increasing your risk and you need to practice the public health measures. If you can gather outdoors, that’s clearly better. It’s all about making sure you make the right decisions for you and your family.”

With a new outbreak involving three cases declared Thursday morning at St. Paul’s Catholic Elementary School in Lakefield, that brings to three the number of current outbreaks. An outbreak was declared at Havelock-Belmont Public School in Havelock on October 3, and the school was closed to in-person learning on Tuesday when the number of confirmed cases rose to 10. An outbreak in a workplace setting in Peterborough County is expected to be declared over tomorrow.

“Most of the cases are associated with activities outside of the school,” notes Dr. Gemmill, adding “The cases all seem to be relatively mild.”

While the outbreaks are cause for concern, the overall pandemic picture in the region is stable with 31 active cases at present and 252 close contacts of infected individuals being monitored, many of those associated with the school outbreaks.

To date this week since Monday, 11 new cases have been detected.

“We generally receive one new case per day and sometimes five to six,” said Donna Churipuy, Peterborough Public Health’s director of public health programs and COVID response incident commander.

As of late yesterday afternoon, 84 per cent of area residents aged 12 to 17 have been vaccinated with a first dose while 74 perc ent have received two doses. Those numbers represent a jump of three per cent and five per cent respectively over the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, the percentage of all residents aged 12 and up eligible for immunization has also shown some improvement as well, with 85.5 per cent having received a first dose and 80.8 per cent fully immunized with two doses.

As impressive as the vaccination numbers are, Dr. Gemmill says even higher coverage “is our ticket out” of the pandemic. Noting close to 81 per cent of the total eligible population has received two doses, he points out that the Peterborough region has just 70 per cent coverage when children under age 12 are taken into account along with those in older age groups yet to be immunized.

“Until we can get a vaccine for children, and convince those people who are hesitant, we can’t let our guard down. High coverage is crucial. The vaccine is not the sole weapon but it’s our primary weapon. We’ll be able to manage it someday but we’re not there yet.”

Meanwhile, another pandemic-related issue that has garnered much attention was broached: the outright refusal by some business and restaurant owners to ensure all their customers are fully vaccinated before allowing entry into their premises.

According to Julie Ingram, Peterborough Public Health’s environmental health manager, no charges have been laid to date as efforts have been directed toward voluntary compliance through education. However, she confirmed “a lot of active investigations are underway.”

“If it’s a new premise that we’re hearing about, we’ll start with a phone call or an initial site visit,” Ingram said. “If a repeated complaint comes in for a premise, since we’ve done the education, we will go back. If the complaint is valid and there are still issues of non-compliance, we will issue a formal written warning.”

“We have issued a written warning to two businesses. If there is still non-compliance after that, we will lay a charge. So, generally speaking — I’m a baseball fan — it’s three strikes and you’re out.”

Ingram added that if a warned business continues to be the subject of public complaints, it could be cut some slack if it can show it’s making a genuine effort to comply.

Also in attendance for Thursday’s media briefing was board of health chair and Selwyn mayor Andy Mitchell.

The Ontario government is providing Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay with over $1.7 million in funding to cover operational deficits and for infrastructure upgrades.

Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott announced the funding on Thursday morning (October 7) outside the hospital.

“These crucial investments will help build capacity and ensure our hospitals have the tools they need,” Scott said. “We will continue to support our local hospitals so they can continue to provide the high-quality care residents deserve within their own communities”.

The $1.7 million in funding includes $804,400 to help cover historic working funds deficits at Ross Memorial Hospital, along with $901,731 to support health care infrastructure upgrades, repairs, and maintenance at the hospital.

The funding to address working funds deficits is part of a previously announced $1.2 billion investment to help Ontario hospitals recover from financial pressures created and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic,

“Ross Memorial Hospital is grateful for the support of the Ministry of Health in helping address our infrastructure needs,” said Kelly Isfan, president and CEO of Ross Memorial Hospital.

Isfan said infrastructure funding will allow the hospital to complete the replacement of its underground diesel tanks and installation of a new above-ground tank “to align with current environmental best practices.”

The funding will also support the hospital’s Pharmacy Clean Room project, that provides safe and effective medication delivery for patients by meeting required safety standards.

A pedestrian was struck and killed by a train near Colborne on Wednesday night (October 6).

At around 9:15 p.m., Northumberland OPP and emergency crews responded to a collision on the train tracks near Colton Street, southeast of Colborne in Cramahe Township.

Police say a train collided with a pedestrian who was walking on the train tracks. The person was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police have not released the name of the victim, who has been transported to a hospital for a post-mortem examination.

No other injuries were reported in the collision.

The area was closed to vehicle and train traffic until 2 a.m. while police investigated.

Police say the incident remains under investigation.

This week (October 3 to 9) is Mental Illness Awareness Week and this Sunday (October 10) is World Mental Health Day. This week — and every week — is an opportunity to recognize the urgent need to scale up quality mental health supports and services at all levels.

What does mental health have to do with climate change?

Climate change is creating more frequent and severe weather events that destroy homes and entire communities. Rampant consumerism and unsustainable development are also destroying and polluting ecosystems, causing the largest mass extinction event in the history of the planet: more life is being lost now than ever before.

News coverage tends to focus mostly on this doom and gloom. It makes sense that a never-before-seen degree of loss, trauma, and change would impact mental health.

I want to share just two ‘tricky pairs’ of issues that I keep in mind when I try to balance mental health and climate change: one is anxiety and inaction, and the other is invisibility and inequity.

Tricky pair #1: anxiety and inaction

We know danger is coming because of climate change. In Peterborough and the Kawarthas, we may have been spared from the heat domes and flooding seen elsewhere this year, but local patterns in temperature and precipitation have changed dramatically.

I recommend you read local naturalist Drew Monkman’s columns to learn more.

Anticipating future devastation causes anxiety.

According to a recent article by Harriet Engle and Michael Mikulewicz published in The Lancet, this “eco-anxiety is characterized by severe and debilitating worry about climate and environmental risks and can elicit dramatic reactions, such as loss of appetite, sleeplessness, and panic attacks.”

Eco-anxiety sounds bad, but there’s more to it than that.

“Far from being a contemporary mental illness,” Engle and Mikulewicz explain, “there is evidence to suggest that eco-anxiety and habitual ecological worrying are actually adaptive responses to the changing climate.”

Pain reflexes jerk my hand away when I touch a burning hot surface. Likewise, “anxiety is an evolutionary alarm mechanism that functions to keep us safe.”

The challenge is figuring out how much eco-anxiety is enough to drive effective climate action, and how much is too much before it compromises our mental health.

“Environmentalists don’t do hope very well,” observes Graham Saul, executive director of Nature Canada, in a 2018 interview with CBC. “If we are honest with ourselves, we peddle mainly in fear.”

The same climate change facts that inspire fear can also compel action and hope.

“As a scientist, this is scary,” Katharine Heyhoe shared in a recent interview with Matt Galloway on CBC’s The Current. “But the science also offers this hope that it is not too late to avoid the worst of the impacts.”

“I study the difference that our choices make in the future, and I can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt, that our future is in our hands,” Heyhoe continues. “Every choice matters, every year matters, every bit of warming matters, and every action matters. But if we don’t act, that’s a choice in and of itself, and it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“The world has changed before, and it hasn’t changed because people felt guilty,” Heyhoe affirms. “It’s changed because people recognized that there was something better.”

There’s something better for Peterborough, for Canada, and for the world. A community focused on empowering effective climate action is one of the most effective supports for hope.

Personally, I also find it helpful to learn how to identify and overcome the psychological barriers known as the “Dragons of Inaction” (to learn more, read our column from February 27, 2020).

Tricky pair #2: invisibility and inequity

One of the biggest barriers to climate action is that the problem is basically invisible to our eyes. If greenhouse gas emissions were always coloured with Pantone 448C (“opaque couché” — a.k.a. the ugliest colour the world), we’d be far more inclined toward climate action.

Likewise, mental health disorders are often neglected because they are less visible than physical health disorders. As Ingle and Mikulewicz point out, this is particularly true “in developing countries where mental health sits relatively low on the agendas of governments, aid agencies, and NGOs.”

We need to build awareness for these mental health issues in our fight for equity and climate action.

“This awareness will benefit those most vulnerable to and least responsible for causing the global climate emergency,” suggest Ingle and Mikulewicz.

In Rigolet, Northern Labrador, the average temperature is rising twice as fast as the rest of the world. Ice has already been forming a month later and melting a month sooner, resulting in loss of traditional Inuit hunting practices, loss of food, loss of an entire way of life and cultural identity.

As part of a study by the Memorial University of Newfoundland, residents of Rigolet were asked, “how are the changes in weather and ice making you feel?”

“People would talk about a whole host of emotional responses: fear, anxiety, sadness, anger, frustration, a lot of helplessness and hopelessness,” shares Professor Ashley Cunsolo in a 2017 story on CBC’s The National.

Cunsolo’s team observed the deep ecological grief and collective anxiety that the residents of Rigolet feel because of climate change.

Historically, Inuit, First Nations, and Métis populations across Canada experience severe mental health disparities compared to the non-Indigenous Canadian population. This is an ongoing legacy of colonization. Without effective action, climate change will only exacerbate these disparities.

While we fight those Dragons of Inaction in our personal lives, we also need to keep perspective on inequity. Many residents of the Peterborough area may not know what steps they can take to support both equity and climate action.

VIDEO: “Climate change affecting mental health in northern Labrador”

A good place to start is the recent Sustainable Development Goals project co-ordinated by the Kawartha World Issues Centre and GreenUP. This project provides key community resources, organizations, and tools for addressing these inequalities and disparities locally as we take climate action.

GreenUP’s NeighbourPLAN Visions and Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood Action Plans also include actions you and neighbours may be able to take to create more sustainable and equitable communities.

Those are the tricky pairs I’m wrestling with this World Mental Health Day. By learning more and discussing with friends and family, you can build awareness for the importance of both mental health and climate action.